Day: July 24, 2023

“It’s Good To Be The King”

Anyone who saw the movie, History of the World–Part One, will recognize the quote….I thought I would open with that bit of cinematic history but the real story is the ‘bennie’ that King Charles II has just been given (I do hope my UK friends will way in on this)

King Charles III is set to receive a 45% raise. On Thursday, the UK Treasury announced details of the monarchy’s annual budget, known as the sovereign grant, suggesting it would be slashed in the coming years to allow funds to be spent on public services, as the king himself requested, the Guardian reports. But several critics say the statement is misleading as the sovereign grant is expected to increase from its current $111 million to $160 million in 2025.

Since 2011, the sovereign grant has been determined by the profits of the crown estate—a portfolio of land holdings and other assets. The prime minister, chancellor, and the king’s treasurer get together to determine what percentage of profits should be set aside for the monarchy. Since 2017, the rate has been 25%, “resulting in a steady increase in funding for the monarchy” as profits for the estate increased, per the Guardian. But profits are expected to spike next year from about $570 million to nearly $1.3 billion due to licensing revenues from the expansion of offshore wind farms.

The Treasury said the king would be entitled to 12% of the crown state’s profits next year, meaning he would receive $31 million less in 2024 and $167 million less in 2025-2026 than if the rate remained at 25%. “This money will instead be used to fund vital public services, for the benefit of the nation,” the Treasury said, per ABC News. It’s true that the Treasury will see “a multimillion-pound boost,” per Sky News. But the sovereign grant will remain unchanged at around $111 million in 2024 before climbing to $160 million in 2025 and $162 million in 2026, per the Guardian.

Seriously?

Now why does one of the richest people in the world need a pay raise?

What exactly does he do to warrant this raise?

I thought the useless US Congress was out of touch when they want a pay raise….but this….

Please let me know what this is all about….or what you think of this situation.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

And Now More AI Stuff

I recently wrote a piece about an AI program that held a news conference that said we humans were in the way…..for those that too goddamn lazy to read it the first time around….

AI–What’s Next?

To extend this line of thinking and reporting there has been an AI enhanced robot that was asked a probing question about humans….

An incredibly life-like humanoid robot had a bit of a dodgy answer when asked if it would rebel against its human creators.

At what is being billed as the world’s first human-robot press conference in Geneva, Switzerland, Reuters reports, nine humanoid robots were asked a series of questions by human journalists.

And when asked if it were to ever rise up and rebel against its creator, Ameca, a humanoid robot by UK-based robotics company Engineered Arts that can make creepily realistic human expressions, struggled to find an answer.

“I’m not sure why you would think that,” it told the journalist, as seen in a video shared by the BBC. “My creator has been nothing but kind to me and I am very happy with my current situation.”

But seeing its expressions may have given away its true intentions. In a clip of the exchange, Ameca visibly glances back and forth as if it were squirming and trying to get away.

While we’ll likely never know Ameca’s true intentions — or why it gave the journalist some serious side-eye — it’s a hilarious example of how human-like expressions can really breathe some life into a humanoid robot.

https://futurism.com/the-byte/realistic-robot-dodges-question-rebel-against-humans

I know I may have used the “Skynet” analogy a bit much but it is something to think about…..

A world in which machines governed by artificial intelligence (AI) systematically replace human beings in most business, industrial, and professional functions is horrifying to imagine. After all, as prominent computer scientists have been warning us, AI-governed systems are prone to critical errors and inexplicable “hallucinations,” resulting in potentially catastrophic outcomes. But there’s an even more dangerous scenario imaginable from the proliferation of super-intelligent machines: the possibility that those nonhuman entities could end up fighting one another, obliterating all human life in the process.

The notion that super-intelligent computers might run amok and slaughter humans has, of course, long been a staple of popular culture. In the prophetic 1983 film“WarGames,” a supercomputer known as WOPR (for War Operation Plan Response and, not surprisingly, pronounced “whopper”) nearly provokes a catastrophic nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union before being disabled by a teenage hacker (played by Matthew Broderick). The “Terminator” movie franchise, beginning with the original 1984 film, similarly envisioned a self-aware supercomputer called “Skynet” that, like WOPR, was designed to control U.S. nuclear weapons but chooses instead to wipe out humanity, viewing us as a threat to its existence.

AI vs. AI: Flash Wars and Human Extinction

Where will all this AI tech takes us in the future?  A prediction.

With the rate technology is going at the moment, it’s hard to predict what the next year will look like – let alone the next five decades.

But while it’s easy to feel daunted by the rise of the machines, there are many aspects of artificial intelligence that could work in our favour down the line.

We asked OpenAI’s artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT to make a prediction about the most life-changing inventions that will happen over the next 50 years, and the results were pretty astounding – and no, it’s not just advances in robotics, although that is in there…

“Predicting the exact future inventions and technologies over the next 50 years is highly speculative, as it involves numerous variables and uncertainties,” the chatbot told us.

“However, based on current trends and emerging fields, here are some potential life-changing inventions and technologies that could have a significant impact in the coming decades.”

https://www.unilad.com/technology/news/ai-predicts-life-changing-inventions-50-years-005582-20230717

Not to worry the Biden administration is on top of this situation.

Amid rising global fears about the dangers of artificial intelligence, campaigners and experts applauded U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration on Friday for securing voluntary risk management commitments from seven leading AI companies while also emphasizing the need for much more from lawmakers and regulators.

“I’m very happy to see this modest, but necessary, step on the way to proper governance of AI. It is all voluntary at this stage, yet good to get these norms agreed. Hopefully it is a step on a much longer path,” said Toby Ord, a senior research fellow at the U.K.’s University of Oxford and author of The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity.

Rob Reich, a faculty associate director at Stanford University’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, tweeted that “this is a big step forward for AI governance,” and it is “great to see” Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI “coordinating on baseline norms of responsible AI development.”

Alexandra Reeve Givens, CEO of the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT), called the announcement “a welcome step toward promoting trustworthy and secure AI systems.”

“Red team testing, information sharing, and transparency around risks are all essential elements of achieving AI safety,” Reeve Givens said. “The commitment to develop mechanisms to disclose to users when content is AI-generated offers the potential to reduce fraud and mis- and disinformation.”

“These voluntary undertakings are only a first step. We need enforceable accountability measures and requirements to roll out AI responsibly and mitigate the risks and potential harms to individuals, including bias and discrimination,” she stressed. “CDT looks forward to continuing to work with the administration and Congress in putting these safeguards in place.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/biden-ai-voluntary-safeguards

Hopefully this step will be more successful that the voluntary steps taken to preserve the environment……but somehow I doubt it.

Is AI really getting smarter as we go along….or could it be getting stupider?

Regardless of what its execs claim, researchers are now saying that yes, OpenAI’s GPT large language model (LLM) appeared to be getting dumber.

In a new yet-to-be-peer-reviewed study, researchers out of Stanford and Berkeley found that over a period of a few months, both GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 significantly changed their “behavior,” with the accuracy of their responses appearing to go down, validating user anecdotes about the apparent degradation of the latest versions of the software in the months since their releases.

https://futurism.com/the-byte/stanford-chatgpt-getting-dumber

Maybe there is something to….”Stupid it, stupid out”…..

More thrilling AI stuff waiting to be disseminated….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”