Tag: technology

Artificial Intelligence, Yogi Nelson

WHAT IS THE STATE OF AFFAIRS IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SYSTEMS?

Yogi Nelson

Namaste Yogis. Welcome to the Blockchain & AI Forum, where your technology questions are answered, mostly correct! Here no question is too mundane. As a bonus, a proverb is also included. Today’s question, comes from Richard, in Los Angeles, and he wants to know what is the state of affairs in artificial intelligence systems?

Richard, you came to the right place. There has been an explosion in recent months of companies announcing large language model (LLMs) AI projects. For this article I’ll refer to LLMs as AI systems. Let’s examine the situation by asking various AI systems to introduce themselves by answering this question:

   Can you please describe yourself and your capabilities in 50 words or less?

Below I cut and paste their respective responses, where available, verbatim.

ChatGPT by Open AI. OpenAI is the California based software company behind ChatGPT.

“I am ChatGPT, a sophisticated AI language model created by OpenAI. With extensive training on diverse topics, I excel in generating human-like text, answering queries, and providing information. My abilities encompass a wide range of subjects, making me a versatile tool for communication and knowledge sharing.”

Bard by Google. Bard is a product of Google, a California company that needs no introduction.

“I’m Bard, a brainy AI from Google. I can chat, write, translate, and more, using knowledge from the real world to fuel your words. Ask me anything! (49 words)”

Notice Bard used 27 words but claims it used 49! Apparently, Bard cannot count! Lol.

Co-Pilot by Microsoft. Microsoft calls its AI system Co-Pilot or Bing which is the name of Microsoft’s search engine.

“Certainly! I am Bing, an AI language model. My capabilities include generating creative content, answering questions, providing summaries, and more. I can write poems, stories, code, and engage in interesting conversations. Feel free to ask, and I’ll do my best to assist!”

Mistral: Mistral is an AI company from Paris. Their website says the project is under construction. I tried to log on, and instead received an email indicating access was by invitation only! Ouch! How rude! Or as they say in France, Impoli! Lol! I don’t want to be a member of a club that would have me as a member! Lol!

Olympus by Amazon. According to Reuters, Amazon is investing millions in training an ambitious large language model, expecting to surpass ChatGPT and Bard. As with Mistral, Amazon is late. Perhaps Jeff needs to unretire and get back to work! Lol!

Gauss by Samsung. Samsung is tardy. When ready, Samsung says its LLM will have the capabilities to generate text, computer code, and images based on machine learning technology. It is not just one model, but a family of models, Samsung Chairman Lee explained to Business Korea on December 18, 2023.

Grok by X. Grok is in beta testing. Why? Maybe Elon is busy on his rocket ship or pumping garbage crypto meme coins. Lol! On November 2, Musk tweeted “Grok is intended to answer almost anything and suggest what questions to ask.” Musk claims Grok will possess a sense of humor, hopefully not his. Lol! What makes Grok superior according to Musk is “… Grok has real-time knowledge of the world via the X platform and will answer ‘spicy questions’ that are rejected by most other AI systems.” Knowledge on X? I guess that’s the humor! Lol!

I will close with a proverb from Togo: A man that does not lie shall never marry. Brother, you got that right for sure! Lol, lol, lol!
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Until next time,

Yogi Nelson

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WHAT DID VITALIK BUTERIN RECENTLY SAY ABOUT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Yogi Nelson

Namaste Yogis. Welcome to the Blockchain & AI Forum, where questions are answered, mostly correct! Here no question is too mundane. As a bonus, a proverb is also included. Today’s question comes from Art in San Francisco, CA. Art asks what does Vitalik Buterin think of artificial intelligence?

Art, you came to the right place. Before I explain Vitalik’s thoughts, let’s know Buterin first. Vitalik is a 29-year-old Russian Canadian computer programmer and a co-founder of Ethereum. Ethereum is a decentralized blockchain network, known for pioneering smart contracts, among other advancements in computation. From an early age Vitalik demonstrated an amazing ability to grasp mathematics and computer science. That’s not a surprise given his father was a computer scientist. Holy, like father, like son, Batman! Given his genius with computers, it makes sense you would ask what Vitalik makes of AI.

On November 23, Vitalik published his “My Techno Optimism” paper.
https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2023/11/27/techno_optimism.html?ref=bankless.ghost.io Vitalik’s summary perspective is below followed by highlights from across the major points of his paper.

“I believe in a future that is vastly brighter than the present thanks to radically transformative technology, and I believe in humans and humanity. I reject the mentality that the best we should try to do is to keep the world roughly the same as today but with less greed and more public healthcare. However, I think that not just magnitude but also direction matters. There are certain types of technology that much more reliably make the world better than other types of technology. There are certain types of technology that could, if developed, mitigate the negative impacts of other types of technology. The world over-indexes on some directions of tech development, and under-indexes on others. We need active human intention to choose the directions that we want, as the formula of “maximize profit” will not arrive at them automatically.”

Vitalik Buterin, My Techno-Optisium

Buterin argues there are very high costs to delaying technological progress. He cites life expectancy improvements and the internet, as evidence for not holding back technological advancements. Vitalik makes the case for using advancements in AI to solve environmental challenges, including climate change.

Vitalik believes AI is fundamentally different from previous advancements in technology and therefore requires significantly more consideration. Vitalik says AI is the creation of a new and powerful brain whereas previous inventions were contraptions. “AI is a new type of mind that is rapidly gaining in intelligence, and it stands a serious chance of overtaking humans’ mental faculties and becoming the new apex species on the planet”, says Buterin. Vitalik cites scientists that are worried AI could wipe out humanity! Holy doomsday, Batman!

Buterin, is equally concerned with “digital authoritarianism”. Vitalik points out Open AI, with a mere 500 employees, services 100,000,000 customers with immensely powerful machines! Power could be centralized by just a handful of people one day, is Vitalik’s worry.

Vitalik pens a lengthy narrative regarding the e/acc movement. According to Vitalik, e/acc is “… fundamentally about an appreciation of the truly massive benefits of technological progress, and a desire to accelerate this trend to bring those benefits sooner.” Jeff Bezos is the most prominent advocate. In a point-by-point fashion, Buterin shares what he believes are the implications of e/acc across a range of topics, including: military technology, decentralized governance, cyber security, multi-planetary living, world government, to name a few topics.

We conclude today with this proverb from the Dominican Republic: With patience and calm, a donkey can climb a palm tree. Well said my Caribbean brethren!

Until next time,

Yogi Nelson

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STRONG ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, WEAK ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, WHATS THE DIFFERENCE?

Yogi Nelson

Namaste Yogis.   Welcome to the Blockchain & AI Forum, where your blockchain and artificial intelligence technology questions are answered, mostly correct!   Here no question is too mundane.  As a bonus, a proverb is also included.  Today’s question, was sent by Sahir, from the Caribbean, and he wants to know what’s the difference between weak and strong artificial intelligence?

Sahir, you came to the right place.  At your age that’s a brilliant question!  Let’s start by explaining weak artificial intelligence (Weak AI).   Weak AI is also known as narrow AI.  Weak AI refers to AI systems that are designed and trained for a specific task or narrow sets of tasks. Weak AI systems excel in performing predefined tasks but are not remotely capable of true understanding or consciousness.  Weak AI is highly specialized and does not possess “human-like” cognitive abilities or general problem-solving capabilities beyond its narrow vision.  Think of Weak AI as a horse with blinders capable of only seeing what is directly nearby and in front and nothing else.  I’ll offer you examples. Weak AI includes virtual assistants, e.g., Siri or Alexa, recommendation algorithms used by streaming services such as Spotify or YouTube, and chatbots designed for specific customer service tasks, e.g., your financial institution customer help line.  Chatbots are mostly annoying and useless, do you agree? Time for Strong AI.

Strong AI, sometimes called Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), refers to AI systems with “human-level” intelligence and understanding.  Which human, I don’t know and afraid to ask!  Lol.  Strong AI systems can perform several intellectual tasks.  Strong AI systems can adapt to different domains and possess a “primitive” form of “consciousness or self-awareness” based on computations. Strong AI is a long-term goal of AI research and would require the development of AI systems that can reason, learn, understand, and adapt across a wide range of tasks and contexts.  Strong AI is currently a theoretical concept, and no AI system comes close to general intelligence.  Meaning you can relax–for now!  Lol. The best example of Strong AI, or perhaps somewhat Strong AI, is ChatGPT4 by Open AI. 

Let’s discuss a central feature of both Weak and Strong AI–prompts.  What is a prompt?  The term prompt is derived from Latin “promptus”, meaning ready for use.  In AI lexicon, a prompt is an instruction to the AI system.  A prompt could be simple, ‘Siri play disco music’, for instance, or complex, such as asking ChatGPT4 to explain Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Holy prompt, Batman!  Sahir, can you identify which is the Weak AI and the Strong AI in these examples? 

Prompts are critical for two reasons.  First, prompts are how we communicate with AI systems.  AI systems can’t read our minds!  Only through, and thanks to, prompts, can humans interact with Weak and/or Strong AI systems.  In other words, prompts are portals into AI systems.  Second, the quality of AI interactions depends on precise prompts.  Unlike many human interactions, AI systems cannot “know what you mean”.  Therefore, AI systems depend on precise prompts.  My own experience with ChatGPT4 cements this understanding of AI systems.  Try it and give me your conclusion.

We stop here but not before acknowledging two sources for today’s post:  Microsoft’s Introduction to AI course and AI: The Future is Now by Nicholas Marty.  Today’s proverb is from Haiti, where they wisely say, “A leaking roof fools the sun but cannot fool the rain. 

Until Next Time,

Yogi Nelson