Navigating Incrementally in a Turbulant Era (Quote of the Week)

   "Quote of the Week" is leisure reading in the assignment reminder email to my students.

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“There’s very little market for, ‘Well, AI has a lot of important pros and cons, and we have to incrementally navigate’,” he says. “But that’s probably where the wisdom is.”

AI is making Washington smarter

The Economist, Jun 29th 2023

https://www.economist.com/united-states/2023/06/29/ai-is-making-washington-smarter

In the digital age, social networking platforms have increased the volume of the emotional pitch of debates. Standpoints often split into vehement advocates and adamant naysayers. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no exception to such polarizing debates. It frequently hosts utopian dreamers and dystopian pessimists, often isolated within their respective echo chambers.

Presumably, the whispers of the AI doomsayers have reached the corridors of European policymaking. The European Union has proposed a sweeping array of AI regulations, potentially blocking the technology's widespread adoption in the region. In comparison, political initiatives aimed at reining AI companies in the United States seem more reactive than proactive, evolving only too slowly.

However, given the inherent unpredictability of technological advancements, an attentive and continuous regulatory strategy could be the most effective means of supervising the industry. Embracing pros and cons at the same time may be a sign of wisdom rather than a lack of understanding.

[Written with ChatGPT]

LLMs will Compound the Interplay of the Three Complex Systems: The Market System, Bureaucracy, and Electoral Democracy. (Quote of the Week)

  "Quote of the Week" is leisure reading in the assignment reminder email to my students.

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“We eke out freedom by setting one against another, deploying bureaucracy to limit market excesses, democracy to hold bureaucrats accountable, and markets and bureaucracies to limit democracy’s monstrous tendencies. How will the newest shoggoth change the balance, and which politics might best direct it to the good? We need to start finding out. “

Artificial intelligence is a familiar-looking monster, say Henry Farrell and Cosma Shalizi

June 21st, 2023. The Economist

https://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2023/06/21/artificial-intelligence-is-a-familiar-looking-monster-say-henry-farrell-and-cosma-shalizi

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Many computer scientists in Silicon Valley perceive Large Language Models (LLMs) as such an enigma that they liken them to the shoggoth, a fictional eerie octopus-like monster [1][2]. This comparison is shared by the authors of the featured article, Farrell and Shalizi, a professor of international affairs and democracy and a professor of statistics and machine learning, respectively. Yet, they posit that LLMs are not the first 'shoggoth' modern societies have faced: humans have been co-existing with similar incomprehensible entities for centuries: the market system, bureaucracy, and electoral democracy.

The market system, as Friedrich Hayek [3] explains, is too complex for any individual intellect or governmental body to predict its outcomes accurately. In the same vein, James Scott [4] argues that while bureaucracy is a massive information processor, making vast amounts of data visible to politicians and citizens, the mechanisms of its complex, multi-layered system remain elusive to any observer. Likewise, electoral democracy generates policies that no individual can entirely foresee. A myriad of representations and abstractions ensures that no single individual's plan fully materializes. Hence, these commonplace institutions for modern societies, the market system, bureaucracy, and electoral democracy, resemble 'shoggoths' in their complexity and their defying of any single person's comprehension.

Significantly, the present-day world is shaped by the interplay of these three gigantic and intricate systems. The introduction of LLMs will compound the current complexity of the world. The ensuing interactions promise to be more elaborate, widespread, and unpredictable than ever before. What is required from humans is not the unfeasible pursuit of knowledge to predict and control these monsters, but rather a depth of wisdom to navigate their complexities.

[Written with ChatGPT]

[1] The Wisdom of Humanities in the Age of Technology (Quote of the Week) http://yosukeyanase.blogspot.com/2023/06/the-wisdom-of-humanities-in-age-of.html

[2] Google image search, "Shoggoth": https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1PWSB_jaJP967JP968&q=shoggoth&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjujq6CgNj_AhVOxWEKHUo3AakQ0pQJegQICBAB&biw=2327&bih=1179&dpr=1.1

[3] Wikipedia, "Friedrich Hayek": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Hayek

[4] Wikipedia, "James Scott": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_C._Scott

India in the Multipolar World (Quote of the Week)

 "Quote of the Week" is leisure reading in the assignment reminder email to my students.

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"The relationship is therefore a test case for the messy alliance of democracies emerging in a multipolar world."

Joe Biden and Narendra Modi are drawing their countries closer

Leaders: The Economist. Jun 15th 2023

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2023/06/15/joe-biden-and-narendra-modi-are-drawing-their-countries-closer

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India is set to play a critical role in shaping the world's multipolar future. Its large population, high-standard higher education system, and abundance of English speakers mean it will significantly impact the global economy. However, India's values do not perfectly align with Western ones. While it is a democratic nation, some describe it as an "illiberal" democracy, as the article above does.

India's relationship with the United States will probably have far-reaching effects on global politics, as the article indicates, for it may establish stronger connections with Russia or China, if it fails.

Simultaneously, Indian English is becoming more prominent in English language teaching. We're moving past the times when it was okay to make fun of its accent. Meet an intelligent Indian English speaker below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU-zhajzad4

The Wisdom of Humanities in the Age of Technology (Quote of the Week)

 

"Quote of the Week" is leisure reading in the assignment reminder email to my students.

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"There is no time in our history in which the humanities, philosophy, ethics and art are more urgently necessary than in this time of technology's triumph," said Leon Wieseltier, the editor of Liberties, a humanistic journal. "Because we need to be able to think in nontechnological terms if we're going to figure out the good and the evil in all the technological innovations. Given society's craven worship of technology, are we going to trust the engineers and the capitalists to tell us what is right and wrong?"

Don't Kill 'Frankenstein' With Real Frankensteins at Large

May 27, 2023

By Maureen Dowd

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/27/opinion/english-humanities-ai.html

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Many computer scientists utilize the Shoggoth, a fictitious octopus-like creature, to illustrate the bizarre traits of generative AI. [1]  I draw a parallel to the Monkey King [2] in an upcoming short essay for the special issue of English Language Education. [3]

My analogy also emphasizes that while generative AI can imitate human-like behavior extraordinarily well, it is, in essence, non-human. The understanding of its cognitive patterns remains unknown to even its creators. In the Japanese televised adaptations of the Monkey King tales, the monk Tang Sanzang squeezes a restraining band around the head the Monkey King when it abuses its supernatural abilities. Additionally, the Monkey King found it impossible to escape from Buddha's hand no matter how hard it tried. These two episodes suggest that the extraordinary powers produced by non-human entities need to be governed by profound wisdom, symbolized here by the monk and Buddha.

Recently, many experts and public figures have endorsed the Statement on AI Risk: "Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war." [4] This concern underscores the significance of the quote above.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/30/technology/shoggoth-meme-ai.html

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_King

[3] https://www.taishukan.co.jp/book/b202193.html

[4] https://www.safe.ai/statement-on-ai-risk

[Written with ChatGPT]