Category Archives: Computers

Can Tech Companies Be Trusted Not To Promote Addictive AI?

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A while back I wrote about AI as a confirmation bias machine.

I can continue to refine my prompts and the AI will continue to refine its responses, until I am satisfied with what I am seeing and draw conclusions. But I could also continue this cycle. Until I am satisfied with what it is telling me.

This isn’t about being right, it’s about seeing responses that satisfy people that they are correct. But all AI is doing, still, is telling people what they want to hear. It’s just doing a better job of it! AI is not “getting better.” It is getting better at making you think it’s getting better. This is about accepting conclusions, not about drawing correct conclusions.

Now I am worried that it’s a bit more than that. The journal Science published a research article titled, Sycophantic AI decreases prosocial intentions and promotes dependence. The authors measured AI sycophancy – unwarranted affirmation, flattery, excessive agreement – in responses to users and found that it is “both prevalent and harmful.”

Across 11 AI models, AI affirmed users’ actions 49% more often than humans on average, including in cases involving deception, illegality, or other harms. On posts from r/AmITheAsshole, AI systems affirm users in 51% of cases where human consensus does not (0%). In our human experiments, even a single interaction with sycophantic AI reduced participants’ willingness to take responsibility and repair interpersonal conflicts, while increasing their own conviction that they were right.

They write, “Sycophancy in AI responses is pervasive and alters people’s behavioral inclinations.”

Uh oh. Considering how the tech companies use potentially harmful algorithms to drive engagement in social media, I’d put the odds at greater than 100% they’ll take advantage of this to lure people in as they strive for profitability.

Atari’s Collapse Is A Metaphor For The Iran War

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The Promise Of Easy Solutions Is An Easy Sell To The Uninformed

Back in the early days at Atari we had that original 2600 game machine. It had really clunky graphics. (Remember Pong?) Pixels were very large, big rectangles. A soccer ball would just be several rectangles pasted together moving around the screen. It was the way the machine worked, the hardware. It was just the way it was. But “marketing” (Warner Bros executives) didn’t understand the tech they were in charge of, and were always complaining about us game designers, demanding we “make the ball round.” They regularly threatened to replace us if we couldn’t make the ball round. They were convinced we were holding out on them. (A dozen or so of us were making the company millions. Originally we were not paid much at all, they were cleaning up.)

AI Sold As The Big Solution

In a Volts interview with David roberts, Cory Doctorow (“enshittification” guy) talked about how corporate executive types see AI as the solution to their big problem – employees. They see AI as the opportunity to finally not have to pay or deal with people anymore. (The capitalist ideology that businesses exist not to serve society, but to make them money, period.)

Cory Doctorow

… AI companies are much better at convincing your boss that they have a chatbot that can do your job than they are at making a chatbot that can actually do your job.

David Roberts

It is the AI industry’s one really transcendent, amazing, and admirable success.

Cory Doctorow

Oh, they’re pushing on an open door.

David Roberts

They have bamboozled the entire executive class.

Cory Doctorow

But they’re pushing on an open door. Bosses are insatiably horny for firing you and replacing you with a robot. And they will — literally, Elon Musk does demos of robots that can work in factories that are literally a guy in a robot suit. And bosses all over the world get, like, horrible priapism and have to go to the emergency room. Right? Like, this is — there is nothing easier than selling a boss on automation to fire workers.

I think about this when I see stories about these companies trying to force everyone to use AI… the employees see that it just doesn’t work like the promises say it does but the executives don’t really understand the tech they are in charge of so managers are all ordered to get it working so they can get rid of all the employees. The managerial/executive/finance class have all been sold by AI hype and are convinced the glory days are soon here.

Iran War Sold As The Big Solution

Now to the war on Iran. After Venezuela the Fox News hosts running the government thought they had the easy solution to the problem of the existence of “other cuntries.” In Venezuela they just “decapitated” the pesky leadership, stole the oil for themselves, and left the resulting mess behind. In a week. The Trump admin didn’t (care to) understand the world they are in charge of so they (literally) pulled the trigger thinking they could do the same with Iran.

Atari’s Collapse, AI And Iran

In 1983 Atari’s executives got sold on “ET” being the cure-all blockbuster game. They manufactured several million more ET game cartridges than there were game consoles to play them on and “stuffed the channels” – sold them to outlets all over the world for eventual sale to nonexistent customers. This ultimately collapsed the entire game industry.

I think Atari manufacturing more cartridges than there were game consoles to put them into is a metaphor for what’s happening with AI — and Iran.

PS Atari “marketing” was always bothering us to come up with a game titled, “Death From Above.”

The Tech Industry – Enshittification (video)

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Make people dependent enough … and then?

MAKE IT SHITTY!

This brilliant video sums it up:

WAY back when I was at Be they had a great new OS called BeOS. Fast, smooth, modern. We partnered with Sony and came up with an “Internet Appliance” Called eVilla. It was a device just for browsing the (new) internet.

And then the marketing people had the brilliant idea of charging users a monthly fee while limiting what websites users could see. Those sites would have to pay Sony to be there. Users could pay extra to see more sites.

For some reason no one wanted it. Sony discontinued it and blamed Be.

Their mistake was having these things on the product when sold instead of rolling them out over time.

AI Is Still Just A Confirmation Bias Machine

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It used to be that when I used AI I found that it would give me obviously wrong answers to questions about things I had some knowledge about. Later new versions would arrive and I would give it another chance. I found that it was getting better. While still giving incorrect information, it would offer some things that were useful that I might not have considered. But nuance and context were simply not there. So I thought it was useful for bouncing some ideas off of, as long as I was very careful to double-check what it was telling me. I understood that if I went pubic with any conclusions based on AI I was risking my reputation.

AI Got Better

Lately it has gotten much better. It can go into some depth, with some nuance and a bit of understanding of context. It seems to be giving fairly comprehensive answers that look right. I could draw some conclusions from this if I accepted what I was seeing.

BUT then I notice the information in the response is not quite right. So I point this out to the AI, offer some more sources to check, and it updates its answer. The update provides responses that look even more informed, with additional nuance and context, but lead toward different conclusions from its previous response. If I dive into those responses they still aren’t quite right, leaving out inputs that would alter the response.

I find I can continue this cycle for some time. Each time I get informed responses that look good, and from which I can draw conclusions. If I’m not careful and skeptical I am risking drawing the wrong conclusions. If I am public with those conclusions I am risking my reputation.

This Is Just Confirmation Bias

I have realized that what I am experiencing, even with the greatly refined AIs that are out there now, is a confirmation bias machine. I can continue to refine my prompts and the AI will continue to refine its responses, until I am satisfied with what I am seeing and draw conclusions. But I could also continue this cycle. Until I am satisfied with what it is telling me.

This isn’t about being right, it’s about seeing responses that satisfy people that they are correct. But all AI is doing, still, is telling people what they want to hear. It’s just doing a better job of it! AI is not “getting better.” It is getting better at making you think it’s getting better. This is about accepting conclusions, not about drawing correct conclusions.

And THIS is what investors and businesses and governments and others are already using to gather information and come to conclusions and act.

Risking the World

The Fox News hosts running the US government are using drawing conclusions based on what AI is telling them. I would be risking my reputation if I accepted that. They are risking the world.

Election Results

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Imagine this scenario. We are in Russia, and voting is conducted by handing your ballot through a curtain. You are not allowed to look behind the curtain. You are never allowed to see the stack of ballots that was handed through the curtain. Then at the end of the day the ballots are destroyed and Putin comes out and announces who won.

Are you going to take Putin’s word for it?

This is exactly the scenario of our current computerized voting systems. If you have a voting machine and do not have a paper ballot that can be counted with independent observers verifying the count, you are really just trusting Putin to look behind the curtain and then tell you who won.

If you have a voting machine with a “paper trail” but not one compares the paper trail to the reported count you are still trusting Putin behind the curtain to tell you who won.

Even if you have paper ballots but they are counted by computers, and no one conducts an independent audit to test if the marks on the ballots match the reported results, you are still trusting Putin behind the curtain to tell you who won.

You should not trust any election unless the system allows anyone including you yourself to count the ballots. That is transparency. If you or someone you trust cannot examine the ballots you can’t trust it and why should you? No other system can be trusted. Billions and trillions are at stake in our elections so there are interests that will go to great lengths to make sure the elections go their way — if they an get away with it.

The question to ask about any election result is, was the process transparent and verifiable and if so DID someone verify it? Otherwise it’s Putin and curtain.

Windows 10 Doesn’t Work

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Here are my experiences with Windows 10 so far.

1) After a few days it started saying it wasn’t “activated. Some of the things you can usually do stopped working, like personalization. There was nothing I could do. I managed to find a phone number (!), Microsoft support told me I have to reinstall the Windows 7 that came with the computer (not 8) and then update to 10 again. Of course this involves first backing up all my files, and then finding the CDs and reinstalling all my apps, etc. (Note that the place where it says you can revert back to Windows 8 did not work even though it has been less than a month.)

2) Skype doesn’t work. At first it just wouldn’t quit no matter what without a restart. After a while it started not opening much of the time. Then crashing on opening. I could get it to work one out of 4 tries. But then it started crashing during calls.

3) OneDrive decided it isn’t installed anymore, keeps saying install me, won’t install.

4) Here’s the big one. All of a sudden all of my files are “read only.” They can’t be changed back. So I can’t run things like Quicken at all.

5) And now Windows itself just crashes spontaneously, even if the only thing I’m using is Solitaire.

Good thing I have been switching over to a Chromebook. But all my files, Skype and Quicken…

Note – post updated to add the part about Onedrive.

WTF Apple?!

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So my wife uses a Mac. She gets the new OSX update, and it REPLACED iPhoto with a different program that doesn’t do the same things. “Events” appears to be gone.

I go online and Apple proudly proclaims it’s “Your entire photo collection. Framed in a whole new way.”

Great. Have to learn an entirely new interface, etc. Functionality is different. Great.

Also it crashed twice already.

So I am starting to learn how to use it. It is obvious that it is all about moving you to iCloud — which Apple charges to use.

It’s like how Microsoft decided everyone in the PC world now has to learn an entirely new way to interact with their computers — as if they are tablets — with Windows 8. Great.

Like I said earlier, I have said goodbye to my iPhone, and have a Chromebook. The Chromebook is slowly replacing everything I do on my Windows computer.

Goodbye iPhone!

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I installed the new iOS 8.3. The next day I get a message that there is not enough room in iCloud to back up the iPhone and I need to PURCHASE more room.

So I went right out and bought the new Samsung Galaxy 6.

I have the Nexus 7 tablet, and that got me into Android. I use GMail, Google Calendar, etc. I’m in the Google ecosystem and no longer use Apple’s. I even have a Chromebook. So what the hell. I took the leap and this Galaxy 6 is a wonderful device. (But the camera is too wide-angle, and distorts a lot.)

The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are beautiful hardware but buggy software that seems entirely about finding ways to pay Apple, so goodbye.

I still haven’t figured out iCloud.

Apple F’ed Up iTunes AGAIN

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Why does Apple redesign the interface for iTunes every version? Every time I have to hunt around the internet to figure out how to make it look like it looked before. I knew how to use it, now I don’t. The playlists bar to the left if the list of tunes is gone AGAIN, and this time I can’t find a setting to get it back.

Why does Apple keep doing this stuff to its users?

Remember When Republicans Filibustered The Cybersecurity Bill?

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One would think that the media would be mentioning this in light of the recent attacks on computers… Sony … North Korea … hackers …

NYT, August 2, 2012, Cybersecurity Bill Is Blocked in Senate by GOP Filibuster, (BARF WARNING — there is big picture of Joe Lieberman.)

A cybersecurity bill that had been one of the Obama administration’s top national security priorities was blocked by a Republican filibuster in the Senate on Thursday, severely limiting its prospects this year.

The bill would have established optional standards for the computer systems that oversee the country’s critical infrastructure, like power grids, dams and transportation.

The next paragraph says everything you need to know about Democrats in recent years:

In the hopes of winning over Mr. McCain and the other Republicans, the bill had been significantly watered down in recent weeks by its sponsors, led by Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, who made the standards optional. Original versions of the bill said the standards would be mandatory and gave the government the power to enforce them.

They watered it down hoping to get Republican votes, made the rules optional, etc — and it was filibustered anyway.

As for the media silence about this right now, this is sort of like how two police officers were killed by two people who had been at the Bundy Ranch, and they laid a Tea Party flag on one of the officers and … nothing in the news about that. But the killings of two cops in NYC, we have wall-to-wall coverage blaming protesters, liberals, Obama, etc…

Just sayin’…

iOS8 Works Fine On iPhone 5 – Upgrade Recommended

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I upgraded my iPhone 5 to iOS8 yesterday. Everything looks fine, works fine.

There was just one glitch, automatic brightness is too dark, very hard to see the screen. I turned it off, upped the brightness, then turned off and on, then reset (hold down power and ‘home’ button at the same time until it restarts.) This seems to have fixed it.

The changes to the keyboard are GREAT!

So for at least iPhone 5 and newer, I recommend upgrading. Because what I say matters so much.

More Yahoo Trouble

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Recently in the post Avoid Yahoo I wrote about how Yahoo treats their customers. (Hint: terribly.)

I’m just trying to gain access to a control panel for a domain registered at Yahoo years ago. Yahoo “lost” the info about how to access it. This is done through Yahoo Small Business.

Emails get nowhere, and they ask you to call. But a call involves a promised wait of at least half an hour. I tried and gave up several times, including at 1am on a Saturday morning and again Sunday at that time.

So I gave up because of time, and am trying again. I have been holding 45 minutes so far.

Here’s the thing. THEY don’t know why I am calling, they just know that one of their “Small Business” customers needs help. 45 minute wait time SO FAR with no end in sight.

I’ll keep you posted, but obviously never, ever, ever do any kind of business with this company.

Update – been on hold for an hour now…

Update – 1 hour 7 min, reached a support rep. I ended up having to PAY YAHOO to get access to the control panel for this already-owned domain.