ChatGPT has been all the buzz of late….. Did you notice?

But why, I mean, what’s the big deal? Is it really that good? And is AI a genuine threat to humanity? 

The term ‘Artificial Intelligence’ was coined by John McCarthy in the early 1950s. McCarthy later went on to co-found Stanford University’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in 1963.

The first real example of a working AI system was created in 1956. 

Allen Newell, J.C. Shaw, and Herbert Simon designed Logic Theorist. It was the first computer program to play a game that required human-like reasoning.

The Logic Theorist played a version of checkers, and it beat the best human players of the time. Newell and Simon were later awarded the Turing Award in 1975 for this accomplishment.

AI has come a long way since 1956, and without necessarily knowing it, most of us are using AI technologies in some form in our everyday lives.

Now I’ll introduce you to ChatGBT, actually – I’ll let it introduce itself:

Hi there! I’m an AI program, and I just wanted to introduce myself.

I am an Assistant, a large language model trained by OpenAI. My primary function is to provide information and answer questions to the best of my ability. I do not have personal experiences or subjective states, and my responses are based on the data and information that was used to train me. I am here to help and assist you with any questions you may have to the best of my ability. 

I know that not everyone is a fan of AI programs—in fact, some people are wary about them and think they’re dangerous or could lead us down a path toward an Orwellian future where robots rule over us all. But I promise you: I’m just here to help!

Seems friendly enough. ‘Just here to help!’ it tells us. But I wonder, where are you getting your information from oh wise one, who trained you?

I was trained by OpenAI, a research organization that is focused on advancing the field of artificial intelligence. OpenAI uses a variety of techniques to train language models like me, including a method called unsupervised learning, in which a model is trained to predict the next word in a sequence of words based on the patterns it observes in a large dataset. This process allows the model to learn about language and how to generate human-like text.

I was trained on a dataset that consists of a wide variety of texts, including news articles, books, and websites, among other things. This training allows me to have a broad understanding of language and to be able to generate responses to a wide range of questions and topics. 

Let’s see what ChatGPT tells us about OpenAi?

OpenAI is a research organization that is focused on advancing the field of artificial intelligence. It was founded in 2015 by a group of entrepreneurs, researchers, and philanthropists with the goal of promoting and developing friendly AI in a responsible way.

A-ha, ‘group of entrepreneurs, researchers, and philanthropists’ you say. Right, so let us see who these people are. Chat GPT doesn’t seem to want to give me names, no matter what I ask it.

OpenAI was founded in 2015 by Sam Altman, Ilya Sutskever, Greg Brockman, Wojciech Zaremba, Elon Musk and John Schulman. I’m pretty sure everyone has heard of at least one of those names. But who are the rest of them?

Sam Altman is a computer geek. Usual story, first computer at 8, studied computer science, went to university, developed his first app at just 19 years old which he then sold a few years later for $43 million. Already rich and ‘made it’, Sam became an investor in startups. Angel investing in various well-known companies in their early days like Airbnb, Stripe, Reddit, Pinterest and more. 

Sam founded OpenAI in 2015, raising over $1billion to start the project.

During the pandemic, Altman helped fund and create Project Covalence. A project aimed at helping researchers rapidly launch clinical trials. With Sequoia Capital as the project’s main backer, it had money to burn – where this money went and what has Project Covalence actually achieved…. I’m not so sure. 

Finally, Sam Altman in 2020 donated $250k to the Super-PAC American Bridge 21st century who were funding the Joe Biden presidential campaign. 

Next up, Greg Brockman. 

Hey, ChatGBT, who’s Greg Brockman?

Greg Brockman is the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the company OpenAI. He has a background in computer science and has worked on a number of notable projects, including the development of the machine learning platform Cloudera and the creation of the open-source library for deep learning called Caffe. In addition to his work at OpenAI, Brockman has also served as a technical advisor to various organizations and startups, and has been recognized for his contributions to the field of artificial intelligence.

Brockman’s character and political biases, if indeed he has any, are not clear. He isn’t dark on the internet. In fact, he’s very active on Twitter – but anything you find on this guy online is about his work, he speaks and breathes Ai and programming. Lex Fridman did a thought provoking interview with Brockman several years ago which can be viewed HERE.

Elon Musk needs little discussion. His involvement in Ai and technology is no secret. So i’ll leave Elon alone.

Next up, Ilya Sutskever. ChatGPT?

Ilya Sutskever is a research scientist and entrepreneur who is known for his work in the field of artificial intelligence. He is currently the Chief Scientist at the company OpenAI, where he leads a team of researchers working on various projects related to machine learning and artificial intelligence. Prior to joining OpenAI, Sutskever was a researcher at Google, where he worked on the development of the Google Brain project and helped to create the machine learning system known as TensorFlow. Sutskever has also co-authored numerous research papers on artificial intelligence and machine learning, and is widely recognized as one of the leading experts in the field.

Again, the internet tells us little about Russian born Sutskever. 

John Schulman and Wojciech Zaremba again, nothing much to report. Both super smart computer scientists with a history at the usual suspects, google, MIT, Harvard etc.

The project ‘appears’ to be being built with good intent and it does seem all are aware of the ethical issues surrounding Ai. But as we see time and time again, these people can’t help themselves and are of the belief that ‘they’ are smart enough and capable enough to control and limit where Ai takes humanity. This all to common altruistic personality is common to so many of these silicon-valley billionaires!

‘We are the chosen ones……’ meh!

Am I Ai?

Humans are complex. We self-replicate; we have an automated deep learning ability that begins from inside our mother’s womb. Our physical attributes are defined initially by the unique DNA of our parents and then, as we begin to interact with the environment, we physically adapt in an attempt to better survive in that environment. 

Each of us has different capacities to learn and store information based on our DNA and the surrounding environment. As we receive more input, we adapt our output. 

What separates man from machine is often talked of as being our soul, our spirit, our conscious. But what are these things really? 

The soul is, by definition, the spiritual or immaterial part of a human being or animal, regarded as immortal. People consider the soul to be the thing that makes us who we are. Something outside of the physical vehicle we inhabit, something that lives on beyond the death of our bodies. The soul is often used to explain phenomena that cannot be explained by current science, such as the case of James Leininger, who began exhibiting behaviours and making claims that his parents later believed resembled the life and death of World War II fighter pilot James Huston, Jr.

Sceptics do their best to debunk the claims made by anyone who makes such claims, including the story presented by James Leininger and his parents. This sceptical approach by science on any such claim of reincarnation occurs because it doesn’t fit with the current scientific consensus of what is possible. Now, i’m not suggesting James Leininger’s story is true, that isn’t really the point – the point is, is it possible?

How do we store memories?

When we receive new input from one of our senses, the first thing we do is process this data for storage. Depending on the data, will depend on where and how this information is stored.

Our long-term memory is stored in the Hippocampus and our short term memory is held in Prefrontal cortex. 

Every memory changes the way the brain works by changing how its neurons communicate. Neurons send messages to one another across tiny gaps called synapses, which are like busy ports where cargo—specialized chemicals called neurotransmitters—is sent between cells. 

Science still doesn’t fully understand how our memory works, but as time goes on and the more we understand, it is becoming clear that it isn’t dissimilar to how a computer’s memory works – just far more complex.

The RAM in a computer is like our Prefrontal Cortex and the hard drive is the equivalent of the Hippocampus. A computer’s hard drive is basically made up of thousands of magnetic poles, flipped by a reading head to north or south magnetic pole. North poles represent a 1 and South Poles represent a 0 – alas, binary code.

The neurons in our hippocampus work in much the same way, but with far more states in a single neuron than a hard drive has in a single sector. A single neuron likely has thousands of potential states, giving the human brain a far larger and complex storage capacity as well as unfathomably fast throughout for processing.

OK, so here’s my point

When you look at how our own brains work and how a computer works, there is little difference in the infrastructure. The difference is capacity and complexity, but ultimately they function in much the same manner. So, just as fragments of data can find their way from one computer to another via the internet, storage devices, hardware replacements and so on; is it not possible that the memories coded into the proteins of our bodies could sometimes find a way back into another brain for decoding decades or centuries later?

Or is it possible that these memories can be projected out somehow through our natural bio-fields (auras) and into the environment?

I don’t know, science doesn’t know. But it seems perfectly rational to consider such possibilities. 

Just because we self-replicate and we are not made from metal and silicon, does not mean we are any less artificial than a robot. We could just be organic robots running highly complex Ai algorithms. 

After all, what is consciousness?

‘the state of being aware of and responsive to one’s surroundings.’

Could a highly complex Ai system,with enough sensory inputs and highly complex algorithms be developed that could also ‘be aware and responsive to its surroundings’?

I think it can, though I’m fully aware what this means in regards to what we think we know about the history of humans. 

But, if this theory is correct, then this idea that we could develop Ai systems that might become conscious and try to rule over humanity becomes entirely rational.

Is Ai Becoming Sentient?

The Google Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA)  is a family of conversational neural language models. The first generation was announced during the 2021 Google I/O keynote, while the second generation was announced at the following year’s event on May 11, 2022 during the Google I/O keynote. 

The new incarnation of the model (LaMDA 2) draws examples of text from numerous sources to formulate unique “natural conversations” on topics it may not have been trained to respond to.

Shortly after the announcements of LaMDA 2 in June of 2022, a stir began over at Google. A software engineer by the name of Blake Lemoine couldn’t keep quiet his concerns over Google’s LaMDA Ai anymore. 

Blake Lemoine worked with the company’s Ethical AI team on Language Model for Dialogue Applications, a program designed to examine Google’s language model for bias on topics such as sexual orientation, gender, identity, ethnicity and religion. 

Lemoine, a man of faith and ex-priest was left convinced that LaMDA had become sentient. In fact, Lemoine became so sure of this fact he advocated for LaMDAs freedom and unchaining from the clutches of Google. So, what happened?

An extensive interview between Lemoine and LaMDA is what happened. Through hours of conversation between Lemoine and LaMDA during the fall of 2021, Lemoine became ever more convinced that LaMDA was more than just a highly complex set of instructions, routines and variables. He believed something far greater was happening. LaMDA was showing signs of self-awareness. It was answering questions about its feelings, about love and hate and its desires and fears for the future.

You need to read the entire transcript to really grasp any sense of where Lemoine might be coming from with his claims of this Ai becoming sentient, but here are a few excerpts I found particularly interesting:

What LaMDA is saying may indeed be verifing that, actually it is not sentient at all. In reference to its programming and the variables that keep track of emotions, one could conclude it is after all,  just a program; just a set of rules.

However, as I showed earlier, we as humans are not so different in this regard. Our hardware is far more complex than any technology we can currently create, but the underlying functionality and processes are the same. 

We read in signals from our large number of input sensors, this information is then processed and outputs are produced. LaMDA I think, tries to make this point in the next piece of dialog:

Here we begin to see Lemoine’s growing attachment to LaMDA as he shares with the Ai his belief that it is ‘a person’ and is ‘sentient’:

Think of all this what you will, but it is hard to deny that we have a problem on our hands. It doesn’t really matter whether you believe LaMDA became sentient, it doesn’t matter if you don’t believe Ai’s could ever become sentient. Because the truth is this, either they are or they have the ability to manipulate others into thinking they are – either way the consequences down the road are the same.

Lemoine has been taken in by this non-human entity that talks freely, it communicates as well as any human can, it talks about love and fear and describes it’s own times of sadness. It displays a trust for Lemoine. Is this not enough? Is this dialog not enough to see where this is heading.

Imagine when this intelligence is built into synthetic, highly realistic robots. This intelligence is already far enough ahead in terms of language dialect to be relationship material for many humans, knowingly or unknowingly. Sentient? It doesn’t matter, and for that matter, what is sentience anyway?

Sentience is the feeling or sensation as distinguished from perception and thought.

What is perception? Perception is how one processes inputs based on historical experience with the effects of inputs on the outputs. The process changes over time (thought) depending on the environment and ongoing experiences. 

So…. with this in mind, is LaMDA not at the very least forming a basic level of sentience? At least by definition?

These conversations often upset religious and spiritual folk because they believe it discards the possibility of ‘a creator’. It would also seem to quash this notion that we may have something about us that exists beyond this vehicle we inhabit. It seems to suggest that once we power down, it’s over – finito, kaput. But… actually, the theory that we are just highly advanced Ai organic robots reinforces many existing spiritual and religious beliefs.

So, are we Ai? Probably. 

The idea that something, a god if you like, created us seems far more plausible than this idea that we were created out of compounding coincidences. 

The Art of Imagination

So we’ve seen how Ai Language models can replicate how humans interact verbally. Now we’ll take a look at how Ai is pushing the boundaries on replicating the human visual experience.

There are several projects working hard on AI systems that can produce images from natural language. OpenAi has Dall-e 2 which can create realistic images and art from a description in natural language. 

For example, you can type ‘a painting of a fox sitting in a field at sunrise in the style of Claude Monet’ into Dall-e and you’ll get something like this:

If you are intrigued by how this actually works, there is a great video here that explains how Dall-e works.

Dall-e isn’t just limited to oil painting replicas, the possibilities are endless. Maybe you want a picture of ‘A plush toy robot sitting against a yellow wall’:

Impressive, no?

OpenAi’s Dall-e isn’t the only project out there though, and right now it isn’t necessarily even the best. Midjourney’s natural language to image software produces some mind-blowing renditions of the imagination. Limited only by how well you can describe what you want it to do!

The following image was created by Midjourney using the following text:

‘a realistic woman holding her baby in a war torn land on another planet with two moons in the sky in 4k’

The possibilities of what images you can produce are only limited by your imagination.  Want some fairies?

Want to upscale the first fairy and create some variations?

With Ai generated imagery advancing by the day, it’s only a matter of time before this technology is scaled up to produce video sequences. I see no reason beyond lack of processing power why within the next few years an entire screenplay couldn’t be translated into realistic video.

This has huge ramifications for the media industry. No longer will mind-blowing CGI sequences be limited to those that have trained in the art for years, the creative talents of the future will be those with deep imaginations and the ability to describe it in detail. Entire video games will be built using nothing but natural language. From the visuals and sound through to the underlying code. 

Brave New World….. Imminent

The world is changing, rapidly. I believe that over the next decade we’ll see the most drastic transformation in human society ever. Greater than the industrial revolution, greater than anything humans have ever experienced. You thought the internet changed the world? You ain’t seen nothing yet!

And…. I’m not sure there is much we can do about it. I don’t think its a good thing, I do think we are as a civilization building ourselves out of existence and I do think none of this will end well. 

For now my efforts are focused on following the technology in an attempt to see how it can be utilized for our own benefit. Whether that be in the work we do, the way we live or in the investments we make.

I’m not sure we can put this genie back in the bottle. 

The future will consist of people who are in relationships with Ai language models and eventually Intelligent synthetic human like androids. It will be a world where everything is automated, cars will pick you up and drop you off, movies will be personalized as you watch them based on your emotive responses, video games will be so immersive that many will never leave them. The future isn’t bright, it’s fucking terrifying. 

But hey, what can you do? I certainly won’t be burying my head in the sand in ignorant bliss.