Geek Stuff category archive

Security maven Bruce Schneier looks at the hype and hoopla over AI and hears a rhyme. Here’s a bit of his article:

But even as it offers endless potential, AI is a technology that—like the state—gives others new powers to control our lives and experiences.

We’ve seen this out play before. Social media companies made the same sorts of promises 20 years ago: instant communication enabling individual connection at massive scale. Fast-forward to today, and the technology that was supposed to give individuals power and influence ended up controlling us. Today social media dominates our time and attention, assaults our mental health, and—together with its Big Tech parent companies—captures an unfathomable fraction of our economy, even as it poses risks to our democracy.

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*Mark Twain.

A competent confidential counselor? At Psychology Today Blogs, psychology professor Hal Shorey warns us that “(s)ystems like ChatGPT do not adequately guard your privacy and are not accountable if they give you bad advice.”

Follow the link for more warnings.

A willing accomplice? Philadphia’s WPVI reports that scammers are using AI to hype their holiday scams.

A competent therapist? From Albert Wong, writing at Psychology Today Blogs, we learn that “(a) chatbot designed to prevent eating disorders gave a recovering patient detailed advice to develop one.”

. . . but, per Lacey Johnson at Psychology Today Blogs, the algorithm is not your friend.

I would add that not only is it not your friend; it’s their tool for manipulation.

A source of competent medical advice? Via the Houston Chronicle, Dr. Owais Durrani says beware of online AI quacks

. . . and, as Timothy Cook points out at Psychology Today Blogs, the algorithm does not care about the well-being of children–or of anyone else, for that matter.

Bad for developing brains? Pediatrician Ran D. Anbar argues that, in its current state, it likely is. He makes three main points in his article:

• LLMs do not “understand” anything in the ways humans do, but rather identify statistical patterns.
• Platforms that display “likes” and view counts tap into adolescent desires for social acceptance and status.
• Children who spend too much time on AI-driven apps may fail to adequately develop critical brain pathways.

Follow the link for a detailed exploration of each.

Suitable stocking stuffers? Per El Reg

As we head into the holiday season, consumer watchdogs at the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) tested four AI toys and found that, while some are worse than others at veering off their limited guardrails, none of them are particularly safe for impressionable young minds.

Stealing intellectual property? A German court says, “Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!“

Secure? Why it’s just like leaving your car keys (remember when cars had keys?) in the ignition.

Taking us down a rabbit hole? Paula Fontenelle, writing at Psychology Today Blogs, tells the story of one man’s descent. Here’s a tiny bit (emphasis added):

The conversation (with ChatGPT–ed.) lasted for weeks—thousands of prompts, day and night. “We wrote the equivalent of The Lord of the Rings trilogy,” Allan said. “Three thousand five hundred pages. GPT produced a billion words, and I typed ninety thousand,” he shared.

Eventually, he realized that he’d lost touch with reality. You might be asking: How? Well, here’s the strange twist. He pasted part of the conversation into Gemini, Google’s chatbot, and Gemini said it was all a fabricated fiction. Nothing they had produced would ever work in the real world. So, one chatbot debunked another.