NPT Issue #4: My Initial Opinion on Artificial Intelligence

Hello to My Readers 👋🏽

Thank you all for being so patient with me. Rest assured I have some interesting things to share with you in this issue. I appreciate your attentiveness and engagement with my writing.

Recap of Previous Issue ⬅️📰

In the previous issue of NPT, I shared a YouTube video I came across while I was on X and another which linked from it while I watched the former on YouTube. I can see it didn't hit home as much as my other newsletter issues but I felt it was important to share nonetheless. The world requires more empathy and I can see significant progress being made on that front. The difficult discussions are being had and decisions are being made which are bringing the current ways of doing things into question, as they should. This is a time for flexibility, versatility, open-mindedness and possibility. It's only through humility and being willing to hear each other out that we can explore these fruitful opportunities we present each other and possibilities for richer and more prosperous realities. This is not a utopia, but a visual overview of the world at large, offline and online, from where I'm standing. Humanity is confronting itself and AI is partly to thank for that as it has given us tremendous capacity to reflect on and verify our behaviour patterns. Transformation, metamorphosis and evolution are difficult. They require much effort and energy but we have the capacity to meet the mark, achieve our goals (2030, 2050 and beyond) and know and love each other better. I believe in us and the world and new society we will have at large. Humans, robots, animals, microbes, etc. all in the mix. We can coexist and flourish together.

This brings us nicely into the topic of this issue of NPT. My initial opinion on artificial intelligence.

Foreword 🗞️

In this issue of NPT, I share what my initial opinions of artificial intelligence were and why I feel some of those opinions still hold but not in the same way they once did. Other opinions need more getting up to speed with the state-of-the-art (SOTA) in what I'm referring to before my opinion can be nuanced and informed enough to be stated with conviction. Finally, I reveal a silver lining and segway into how AI can be a net positive for society.

My Initial Opinion on AI

When I started learning about AI, I thought it was overcomplicated, misunderstood, misguided and unintuitive. I was the last person I expected to specialize in AI. I formed these opinions based on my initial impression of what I'd learned in the beginning and the little I knew or heard about intelligence, AI, neuroscience and the brain.

My opinions were backed by some instinct and common sense though AI always just seemed to be counter-intuitive. I had many questions which just so happened to be the areas of AI that were still under debate, like the name of the field itself. Nevertheless, I can explain my reasons for having this initial opinion on AI and how I've evolved since then.

Overcomplicated: The techniques that were used to solve problems that AI was apparently good for would consume so much compute and were very complex. 

Misunderstood: I felt like the connection between the mathematical foundations of AI and its technical implementation were not in sync as AI is not mathematically elegant in a way that outputs programs that are easy to understand. 

Unintuitive: If I wanted to find out if there was going to be a wildfire in a forest on a particular date in the future, a computer would be the last thing I would think to use to solve the problem but apparently AI is quite powerful and well suited to solve such a problem.

Misguided: I wondered why there wasn't a closer working relationship between those working on AI and those working on neuroscience? How come more inspiration from the brain wasn't taken?

These opinions of mine have evolved with the advances we've seen in AI with mainstream commercial applications for the most part. However, there is something to be said for niche applications of AI which don't receive as much media attention. For example, Natural Language Processing for Under-resourced Languages which has been used to translate ancient text into modern language. There have also been major advancements in the Health industry with AI being the driver as image classification and object identification technologies are able to correctly diagnose patients within confidence intervals that are clinically viable. This doesn't signify removing the human from the loop but rather shows the maturation of AI technologies from being heavily doubted and highly scrutinized under stringent criticism to proving its worth across an array of industries and fields. 

One of the main things we must categorize is what AI is good at. A step back from that would be understanding what AI actually is. A step back from that would be understanding what I is. What intelligence is. This is what prompted me to release the previous issue of my newsletter that talked about just that from reliable sources. I feel we need to rephrase the question and that will lead us to better answers, insights and understanding. Our focus ought to be on what intelligence is and how it manifests itself in different organisms. We can learn from the revelations that arise from this change of perspective and educate ourselves better on the better way forward for us all. There is always better.

AI can accelerate progress in many fields and industries. This is our most pressing need as we work toward our goals for 2030 and 2050 which are coming into closer focus given they need to be achieved sooner than expected. I feel a mindset of embracing AI instead of shying from it will help us tackle the global challenges we face. By embracing it, I literally mean what I say in the title of this newsletter. Net Positive Tech. Realizing that AI has pros and cons just like any other technology. A double-edged sword whose efficacy depends on how we use it. We want to maximize the pros and minimize the cons. Optimizing for better. Working towards prosperity and eliminating AIs shortcomings in the long run. This is our North Star. Claiming AI can be a net positive for society acknowledges its double-edged nature just like other technologies humans have invented, e.g., money, transport, etc. However, it also inspires us to aspire for better and keep searching for better solutions while assessing, mitigating and rectifying risks, dangers, errors and shortcomings that come with each subsequent version of AI. That is what intelligence is all about. Learning from mistakes. AI is about learning and not repeating the past when it leads to a failed state. Searching for optimality either absolutely or through local optima that guide us to the best solution.

I hope you enjoyed this issue and have learned a thing or two about artificial intelligence, intelligence and why we ought to embrace these new technologies which aid us in accomplishing our goals.

Afterword 🗞️

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Thank you for reading as always and I will greet you again next time 😁🙌🏽.

Yours truly 🫵,

William