{"id":10082,"date":"2023-05-08T12:56:31","date_gmt":"2023-05-08T12:56:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/?p=10082"},"modified":"2023-05-08T12:56:31","modified_gmt":"2023-05-08T12:56:31","slug":"the-hallucinations-of-ai-creators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2023\/05\/08\/the-hallucinations-of-ai-creators\/","title":{"rendered":"The hallucinations of AI creators"},"content":{"rendered":"
Naomi Klein, writing in The Guardian<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n The former Google CEO Eric Schmidt summed up the case when he told the Atlantic that AI\u2019s risks were worth taking, because \u201cIf you think about the biggest problems in the world, they are all really hard \u2013 climate change, human organizations, and so forth. And so, I always want people to be smarter.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to this logic, the failure to \u201csolve\u201d big problems like climate change is due to a deficit of smarts. Never mind that smart people, heavy with PhDs and Nobel prizes, have been telling our governments for decades what needs to happen to get out of this mess: slash our emissions, leave carbon in the ground, tackle the overconsumption of the rich and the underconsumption of the poor because no energy source is free of ecological costs.<\/p>\n

The reason this very smart counsel has been ignored is not due to a reading comprehension problem, or because we somehow need machines to do our thinking for us. It\u2019s because doing what the climate crisis demands of us would strand trillions of dollars of fossil fuel assets, while challenging the consumption-based growth model at the heart of our interconnected economies. The climate crisis is not, in fact, a mystery or a riddle we haven\u2019t yet solved due to insufficiently robust data sets. We know what it would take, but it\u2019s not a quick fix \u2013 it\u2019s a paradigm shift. Waiting for machines to spit out a more palatable and\/or profitable answer is not a cure for this crisis, it\u2019s one more symptom of it.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The whole article is an excellent read. I\u2019d love us to move to a Star Trek<\/em>-like future where everyone has what they need and the planet isn\u2019t burning. But \u2014 being generous to the motives of AI developers and those with a financial interest in their work \u2014 there\u2019s an avalanche of wishful thinking that the market will somehow get us there from here.<\/div>\n

Naomi Klein, writing in The Guardian: The former Google CEO Eric Schmidt summed up the case when he told the Atlantic that AI\u2019s risks were worth taking, because \u201cIf you think about the biggest problems in the world, they are all really hard \u2013 climate change, human organizations, and so forth. And so, I always […]<\/div>\n<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[42,6,37,16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10082","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-business","7":"category-environment","8":"category-science","9":"category-technology","10":"h-entry","12":"hentry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10388,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2023\/09\/04\/when-good-is-the-enemy-of-the-perfect\/","url_meta":{"origin":10082,"position":0},"title":"When good is the enemy of the perfect","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"4 September 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019ve been working with Microsoft Teams Premium for a couple of weeks and it has got me worried. Part of the Teams Premium bundle is the ability to summarise a meeting recording, giving you an AI-generated set of collapsible bullet points of the key things that were discussed. It\u2019s neat,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technology"","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/89F41B30-ABF3-447A-BFEB-A849C65DB02F.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/89F41B30-ABF3-447A-BFEB-A849C65DB02F.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/89F41B30-ABF3-447A-BFEB-A849C65DB02F.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/89F41B30-ABF3-447A-BFEB-A849C65DB02F.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/89F41B30-ABF3-447A-BFEB-A849C65DB02F.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/89F41B30-ABF3-447A-BFEB-A849C65DB02F.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10377,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2023\/09\/02\/the-intelligence-illusion\/","url_meta":{"origin":10082,"position":1},"title":"\ud83d\udcda The Intelligence Illusion","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"2 September 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Finished reading The Intelligence Illusion by Baldur Bjarnason, as recommended to me by Chris Verbree on micro.blog. This short book has a specific focus on the use of Generative AI in business and the myriad of problems and risks that may result. It took no more than a couple of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/DFF12090-55B8-4371-A449-41F95C5D0170.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/DFF12090-55B8-4371-A449-41F95C5D0170.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/DFF12090-55B8-4371-A449-41F95C5D0170.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/DFF12090-55B8-4371-A449-41F95C5D0170.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10198,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2023\/06\/20\/new-dark-age-technology-and-the-end-of-the-future\/","url_meta":{"origin":10082,"position":2},"title":"\ud83d\udcda New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"20 June 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"For some reason my rate of reading has been very slow this year. This may explain the feeling I had when I finished New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future by James Bridle \u2014 that it hadn\u2019t made a big impression on me. Looking back over the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/DraggedImage-1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/DraggedImage-1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/DraggedImage-1.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/DraggedImage-1.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4813,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2018\/10\/10\/energy-use-externalities-and-climate-change\/","url_meta":{"origin":10082,"position":3},"title":"Energy use, externalities and climate change","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"10 October 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019ve been thinking about the WB40 podcast discussion on energy use and the difficulty of changing behaviour, as well as the recent news about avoiding climate change. I am sure there is something in the fact that energy is so cheap relative to income that isn\u2019t helping right now. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Environment"","block_context":{"text":"Environment","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/environment\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3749,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2017\/10\/05\/postlights-birthday\/","url_meta":{"origin":10082,"position":4},"title":"Postlight\u2019s birthday","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"5 October 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Great to read about Postlight turning two years old. Starting up a small business as an independent contractor is scary enough, I can\u2019t imagine what it feels like to have responsibility for over two dozen people from the get-go: Tip: Don\u2019t start a company with a 25 person payroll, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7099,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2021\/03\/26\/7099\/","url_meta":{"origin":10082,"position":5},"title":"Getting electricity and gas smart\u2026","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"26 March 2021","format":"status","excerpt":"Getting electricity and gas smart meters installed today. No more having to remember to read the meters! \ud83d\ude4c","rel":"","context":"In "Snippets"","block_context":{"text":"Snippets","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/snippets\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10082"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10083,"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10082\/revisions\/10083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}