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[Slaughterbots]

#1

Politics, Society and News. / Re: Simple Known Dangers with ...

Last post by buster - Yesterday at 12:14:24 PM

And probably my last thoughts.

AI seems to have many meanings. In some cases there is a simple algorithm in place where directions are being followed. Sometimes written or spoken speech does a good impression of human speech patterns, though the information gathered may be from suspect sources. In chess or the game go, the computer has the advantage of being able to process multiple outcomes almost instantly. Those of us who played chess also had to process a move sequence, but usually we could see patterns on the board which enabled us to select only a few lines to analyze. We knew certain positions were winning positions and tried to create these on the board. Humans cannot compete with infinite analysis.

Learning computers and semi sentience will bring who knows what.

And here's the final suggestion:

There was a tiny movie released eight years ago that is fascinating. It was interesting that it was criticized for any number of reasons, one being that countries wouldn't use this technology.

The weapon uses facial recognition, which some people have on their phone, small drones, which are easily made, and small but powerful explosives. No serious problems here.

Do an Internet search for Slaughterbots

(There is also a follow up movie later but I've never watched it.)

[bbc spaghetti growing on trees]

#2

Politics, Society and News. / Re: Simple Known Dangers with ...

Last post by buster - June 14, 2025, 10:30:13 AM

And I'm really interested in what AI would have done with this funny BBC April Fools 'news item'

search    'bbc spaghetti growing on trees'

#3

Politics, Society and News. / Re: Simple Known Dangers with ...

Last post by buster - June 14, 2025, 10:25:28 AM

A funny example of a failed AI response.

Cape Breton Island feels different from the rest of Nova Scotia, but not too much. Marilyn and I have visited a few times. But a spoof appearing in The Beaverton convinced Google and Meta AI that it had a different time zone. Simplest reason? AI apparently doesn't have a sense of humour. This is a short, funny CBC article.

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/cape-breton-time-zone-ai-1.7559597

#4

General Discussion / Re: No internet service for ov...

Last post by buster - June 14, 2025, 10:13:41 AM

I suspect the whole world is going to fall apart someday soon. Sorry about your troubles. And dealing with a company's help lines does not match the pleasure of dealing with small local companies years and years ago.

#5

General Discussion / No internet service for over a...

Last post by ssfc72 - June 14, 2025, 09:06:10 AM

I have been without internet for over a week due to a failed internet provider modem. Just got the internet back yesterday evening.

I believe the modem may have been 5 years old.
There was only 1 LED lighted on the modem and while talking with the Carrytel help person trying different things, the LED lights got very dim and finally no LEDs were lighted.

So the help person arranged for a Cogeco Tech to check out the cable signal.
A few days later, the Tech spent about an hour checking for signal at various points in my cable system and said the signal was good.

Talked with the Carrytel help person again and after some prodding from me, he agreed to send a new modem.

So they sent me a new modem which took a few days to arrive at the post office.
I then had to phone Carrytel again to tell the help person  the Serial number and MAC number of the modem.
He then had to contact Cogeco to make the new connection.

Oh by the way, my home phone is a VOIP phone, so when my internet isn't working, niether is my home phone working. :-(
Luckily I do have a cell phone but I only have a certain number of minutes, per month with my prepaid plan.

So back on the phone again to the Carrytel person to see if the Cogeco connection has been completed.
The connection has been completed so I go through the process with the Help person on getting my modem connected.

After a long time, still using up my cell phone minutes, the modem LEDs have finished their flashing and I end up with one LED that just keeps constantly flashing and there is no internet connection.

The Carrytel help person seems to think there is nothing wrong with the new modem and keeps suggesting that there must be a bad patch cable or something else.
I keep reminding the person that the Cogeco tech has said the cable signal is good.

I am still on my cell phone, burning up my minutes,

Finally the person agrees to send me another new modem and emails me a shipping label to send back the defective, new modem
So now I have to find a way to go somewhere, to get an internet connection, to access my email, securely, and download the shipping label email and print it out on my home printer.

After another few days, the second new modem arrives at the post office and I go through all the same contortions to get the new modem MAC address to Cogeco so they can make a connection to the second new modem.

Back on my cell phone to the Carrytel person to go through the power up of this modem and after quite a few minutes I get all 4 LEDs lighted and solid, no flashing, and I turn on my computer and have internet connection again. :-)

#6

Meetings / Re: PLUG regular meetings?

Last post by ssfc72 - June 14, 2025, 08:28:55 AM

A PLUG meeting would be good if there was a presentation to be done by someone.
Otherwise a PLUG Mug at the coffee shop is fine.

#7

Politics, Society and News. / Re: Simple Known Dangers with ...

Last post by buster - June 10, 2025, 03:07:11 PM

If you search Google using 'danger' and 'AI' you'll get many sites. This is the one I read:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanwai/2024/10/09/the-12-greatest-dangers-of-ai/

Some things are quite dramatic, but this writer has spoken to elected officials about possible problems. (One of his ideas is for code to be checked for possible problems before it can be released. Good luck accomplishing that!) Some of the things that he mentions have already occurred. It's a fairly easy read and I'm sure you will find many other articles that are even more enlightening.

AI has many uses but it's in the same category as TNT, and where it is used is needs care.

The little section about hacking websites and businesses indicates to me the whole web can be brought down. Imagine what that would mean.

My doctor, whom I visited today, says she never uses AI to diagnose, but let's it listen to her interviews and write a report, which she always reads and edits.

Brave New World

#8

Meetings / Re: PLUG regular meetings?

Last post by fox - June 10, 2025, 08:13:13 AM

I would go if I'm here when we have one.

#9

Meetings / PLUG regular meetings?

Last post by Jason - June 09, 2025, 08:03:57 AM

How would everyone feel about in-person PLUG meetings again? Thoughts?

#10

Politics, Society and News. / Re: Simple Known Dangers with ...

Last post by Jason - June 09, 2025, 07:57:36 AM

As for your point about the lovely lady who helped, I agree that she probably would lose her job if the system they use were smarter. And you're right, software needs to be written for people. We shouldn't have to adapt even if most of the time we are. A lot of jobs might be replaced by AI, possibly even some software developers! I've seen calls for a GAI (guaranteed annual income) because there may be huge numbers of unemployed people coming. I think we've worried about this with every new technology, though. People will have to learn new jobs. I hate using self-checkout, but sometimes it is faster, especially when they give checkout cashiers fewer hours. I'm sure that's their goal. But some stores, I believe Costco, at least in the US (never been to one), got rid of the self-checkout machines because they cost a lot, broke down a lot, and customers complained.

But you remember when cashiers used to bag your groceries (or somebody else did)? Or somebody would fill your tank for you? I'm sure some lovely people lost their jobs because customers did it themselves.

Where it takes us, who knows?