The Algorithmic Bridge will turn one on June 13th! I will publish a longer post on my experience but today I want to do something light. Something different.
These open threads are usually AMAs where I answer your questions. That’s useful for you to know me but today I want to know YOU. There are almost 13,000 of us in TAB and only I get to talk. That’s hogging!
TAB is an amazing community of AI enthusiasts and deep thinkers but we don’t know each other. I thought we could introduce ourselves, you know, just anything you’re comfortable sharing: what you do, what you’re interested in (besides AI), which unexpected path led you here…!
I’d personally like to know what you value from TAB and what you expect from me. Don’t hesitate to be honest—we can only grow together!
I will be online for the rest of the evening and will continue to check your comments in the coming days. You can, of course, ask me questions if you have them (like an AMA).
“In the impersonality of the internet, it’s easy to forget that we’re all people at the other end of the screen.” - someone at any point during the 21st century, probably.
Thanks for being a vital part of this tiny corner of the web that is The Algorithmic Bridge!
I cannot praise your content enough. Your writing is invaluable for keeping up to date on developments in the tech scene. Particularly handy for the underground commute where I can't access the internet.
I've recently moved to London to pursue a career in tech/automation ethics and policy. I completed my bachelor's in politics at the end of last year. I've spent the last few years (and currently) bartending while studying, so I've been looking for a more office admin type job to transition to the more corporate space. I'll have to wait three years before I can take a master's degree at local rates, so I'm desperate to gain some practical, career aligned experience in the meantime; hopefully more than just a generic office job.
Do you (or anyone in the forum) have any advice for those of us trying to break into this industry?
Jun 20, 2023·edited Jun 20, 2023Liked by Alberto Romero
Hi Alberto, Alexandra here, a native Dutch gal living in Germany. The Algorithmic Bridge is my absolute go-to source and resource for information in AI development. Thank you so much!
Hello Alberto. I am Kamal from Australia. I am an architect and currently working as a PM. I am very interested how AI can assist to do better architecture to everyone and not only for the rich. I love your articles as it provides me with lots of knowledge in to the world of AI. Thank you
Thanks for commenting Kamal! I'm not sure generative AI can do much about that, actually. It's inherently not reliable and we don't want that in our architecture! Maybe it could help with the non-high-stake aspects of it?
I am not as knowledgeable but the research paper I read so far are showing prospects using GANs. It is still a way to go but I am hopeful for a change in thinking of Architects and their societal responsibilities.
So grateful for your work on TAB! I really enjoy the thought-provoking conversations that happen here. My background is in art history and museums, but I’ve always been interested in technology, values, and more broadly in the shared human experience. I now work with an interdisciplinary team of researchers focused on foregrounding ethics in AI.
Jun 15, 2023·edited Jun 15, 2023Liked by Alberto Romero
¡Hola! Alberto. Mucho gusto, mi nombre es Javier, soy de Colombia, vengo de una educación muy mediocre que lamentablemente es así en mi país, soy negro, y esto ya es una desventaja social.
Soy una persona que es pobre, y que busca acercarse a la clase media para vivir dignamente como ser humano, no es fácil, pero todos los días sigo intentándolo.
¡No hablo inglés y espero que el traductor haga bien su trabajo! ¡Para los que no saben español!
Por mis condiciones económicas, es difícil para mí pagar tu suscripción, la única es consumir tu versión gratuita que de por sí es genial y me ayuda mucho a entender el mundo de la IA, pues conozco muy poco y me preocupa hacia donde se dirige la utilización de los diferentes modelos de IA, teniendo en cuenta que las mejores versiones son de pago, por lo que personas como yo y muchas personas del común en todo el mundo no podemos aprovechar de manera adecuada estas herramientas para seguir intentando salir de la pobreza. Parte de lo que soy y lo que me toco no lo cuento para generar lástima, pesar u otro incómodo sentimiento, solo lo comparto y estoy concentrado en seguir adelante. Gracias por tu gran aporte.
Hola Javier, soy de España! Gracias por compartir tu historia. Tú situación, como bien dices, es común a mucha gente. Si la gente pobre no puede acceder a los mejores sistemas, no va eso a agrandar la brecha social? Escribí sobre esto hace algún tiempo aquí: https://thealgorithmicbridge.substack.com/p/ai-cant-benefit-all-of-humanity
Jun 14, 2023·edited Jun 14, 2023Liked by Alberto Romero
Hello Alberto. A fairly new subscriber but I left my senior position at a big tech company to do my 5th startup, yes in AI (though we decided that space before the ChatGPT moment). I've been trying to get up to speed in the space and your Substack is the first and only one I've subscribed to. Keep up the quality, thoughtful discussion. Not click bait. Pragmatic and grounded - that's why your writing has resonated with me. Thanks!
I'm working in the innovation department of a consultant company at Madrid, helping other companies to use AI properly and meaningfully, solving real problems (or at least trying) . It's hard to keep updated on AI these days, but your posts help me a lot with that. Thaaaaaanks!!
My company is NovaQuality Consulting, nothing fancy, but quite pleasant to work with. We were working on data quality and data governance, so the jump to AI was easy to get. We are connected via LinkedIn if you need anything else. I'll be glad to help and share experiences.
One of the benefits I expect to see from this technology is a significant advance in our ability to define intelligence at all and in the first place, which very much needs to be done. That is by far the weirdest thing I see going on with the "superintelligence" and "existential risk" flap. And the biggest problem with the nuclear analogy. In the case of nuclear war we understood exactly what we were faced with. There is no definition of intelligence known to me. Just to begin, it is a lot more than problem-solving. Calculators solve problems.
Intelligence, in my experience, is a word we use for describing the astonishing capacity of (mostly human) actors to come up with useful solutions to problems that are not totally obvious or well defined. It is something we deduce from the results we see, not from understanding the underlying "mechanisms" in our brains. It is a name for something we notice but do not understand.
Naming is the end of questioning. We assume that what we can name, we have understood. Watch little children observing a bug. When they are very little, they experience awe over the sheer magnificence of the little legs and antlers and wings and the shimmering coat and what have you. After a while they learn more efficiently ways of looking at bugs. They ask us: "What is this?" We say: "A Ladybug." (proud to show off how much we know). And the children see our pride and try to remember. The next time they see a ladybug, they no longer experience awe. They experience pride of being able to name it. Naming is not seeing and certainly not understanding.
The worst part of this problem is that we often equate intelligence with being human. Yes, we call dolphins, primates and even dogs intelligent, but with a condescending smile that understands that we, by far, outsmart all the other animals. If we are the most intelligent species, then our intelligence must be the defining capacity of humans, must it not?
Now we come back to the initial thought: Intelligence is a name for intellectual utility. If we believe that intelligence is the core of being human, then we are human by being useful. In this capacity, AI and robotics will outdo us without breaking a sweat.
But we also feel that there is more to us than utility. AI reminds us to explore these capacities.
I agree with you. I think we're assuming too many things in the conversations we're having. Yet, people get bored when you mention that "intelligence is an undefined concept!" It's a big problem and I don't really know how to go about solving it...
Yes but concepts like intelligence or consciousness, while ill-defined, are useful to think about the world even if in the boundaries they break apart, don't you think?
Consciousness, maybe, but I am hard put to think of a case where the term "intelligence" is ever particularly useful. It is a very vague term. "You really ought to ask her out, she is very intelligent!" Huh. What is being said here? More to the point, what is not being said? Your informant could have said great sense of rhythm! Or very well-read! Or very witty!. But he or she didn't. Hm. Wonder why not.
Suppose someone tells you that so-and-so is "intelligent". What are you supposed to infer from that?
Hi Alberto, I am a school teacher in a small 7-12 school. I believe that our students should be experimenting with AI as much as possible and as a wonderful creative thinking coach. As our schools have slowly filled up with digitally native students, those of us who remember a time before the internet and smart phones, are finding it necessary to design new ways of designing our pedagogy. It won’t be long before we are working with AI native students who have never known their absence. Now is the time to embrace this technology and partner with today’s students in learning how to use it wisely for positive outcomes.
I have only found your work recently and signed up for this newsletter for help staying current, and perhaps a little ahead of the curve, for my benefit and my students. Thank you for your work, it feels important.
"It won’t be long before we are working with AI native students who have never known their absence." Interesting thought. It's going to happen for sure!
Hi Alberto, Thank you for the work that you do here. I am industrial design student and all your articles were greatly helpful while I was researching about AI. For my project about exploring the applications of artificial intelligence in the Indian handicraft sector. Looking forward to reading more!
Thank you Dev for reading TAB! "Applications of artificial intelligence in the Indian handicraft sector," that's interesting. How are you approaching this?
Well, the project started five months ago as part of my internship at a design studio. It began as an investigation to see the potential of AI-enabled future to address challenges in the craft process and the sector without replacing or threatening the role of the craftsperson. Exploring the integration of AI into the handicraft ecosystem.
Initially, the project was tricky and challenging due to the broad nature of both AI and handicrafts. I tried to bring clarity by defining it in quantifiable terms. Handicrafts as a production by a craftsperson with resources, knowledge, materials, tools, skills, techniques, people, place, environment in an ecosystem. Then looking at AI interventions at different stages from pre-production, production and post-production in the craft process. And developed five conceptual applications at different levels of craft production.
We are now seeking investors and AI and other domain experts to further develop the project. And if you happen to know anyone who might be interested in this, I would greatly appreciate it if you could kindly let me know.
Hi, Alberto - congrats on your posting anniversary! My background is in information security and risk management, so I'm inclined to approach new AI developments with a combination of curiosity, interest, and respectful caution. I enjoy your perspective since it's balanced and nuanced - aspects in short supply in conversations on this topic! I'm always happy to see your posts arrive and look forward to many more.
My job is tutoring neurodiverse university students. I also make music and art in my spare time. Obviously, AI is having an impact in all those areas so I’m keen to keep on top of developments.
That's awesome David! I'd love to know more about how neurodiverse people are using AI or what they think about it, and how it's helping them. I think it's a super interesting topic to write about!
This is a great initiative, appreciate it, yes human intelligence is all about gathering diverse perspectives per topic/context and then helping others who explore that context during their lifetime with most relevant responses quickly and clearly. Keep up the good work Alberto. My topic of interest would be how we could help AI make humans do a lot more than just asking machines to do it for them. How about AI as a great coach to start with. In our culture S/he would be a Guru
I agree with you. That's also how I'd like to see us using AI tools. Not as assistants that would do everything for us but as copilots, as Microsoft likes to call them.
I think education is one space where this will become the norm going forward once the systems confabulate less and mitigate some important flaws. The idea of customized individual tutoring is appealing to many given the limitations of our current education system and how it fails to satisfy the diverse needs of students. Prof. Ethan Mollick focuses on this aspect in his Substack (https://www.oneusefulthing.org/)
I always make time for your newsletters and I very much appreciate your balanced perspective.
Your piece on the letters about the existential risks of AI that was a fresh perspective on the theme. I am most worried about the socio-economic risks that will come to pass. Not if something goes terribly wrong but if things run smoothly for the next decade or so. Our society uses money for allocating scarce resources and money is the price for people selling their time. A very large percentage of people with mediocre skills may not find buyers for their time in the future. How will they live? This is too large a problem for current transfer mechanisms.
Thank you Matthias!! I fully agree. "Not if something goes terribly wrong but if things run smoothly for the next decade or so." Right!! This is possibly the best way to put it. 100% with you. Will we manage to adapt? Sure. Will the transition be hard for many people? I think so.
Hi, can you please explain your logo? It doesn't look so much like a bridge as maybe a motocross daredevil's up-ramp to fly off into the void. Is that the metaphor you intend? Maybe a sigmoid would work better both gravitationally and as an AI-pertinent image?
This is the first time anyone asks me about the logo! It's a play with perspective, the bridge goes to the horizon vanishing point and at the same time, it's an A and a B (Algorithmic Bridge).
I've been thinking about redesigning it to make it simpler, I'll think about your idea :)
Thanks for the opportunity Alberto. I’m Paul, an experienced pilot (formerly naval aviator/ corporate/ freight/ airline) who has lost his medical certification prior to “retirement”. I’m striving to reinvent myself and hopefully leverage AI as a useful toolset in a serendipitously fortunate era that has gained significant traction in this capability. I’m curious to see how it will help both individuals and civilisation in the aggregate. It’s all so fascinating!
My interests are the creative yet unforeseen applications of AI; and also Seasteading; and the electrification of transport (boats, aircraft, cars), and the general arc of civilisation, whether the players are based on substrates of carbon, silicon or a blend of those. I’m also interested in the Differential Human as a species: the pronounced bifurcation between those who embrace opportunities born of new technologies (Techno-Sapiens), being those who adopt new visions so as to thrive and advance Protopian approaches to prosperity. As opposed to those humans who decide to retreat because the new technologies and opportunities are all too intimidating or scary, and have decide to either embrace retrograde behaviours, or resist or shrink from all challenges and become inconsequentialists, becoming only willing to take up space until they die, having chosen comfort and ease until oblivion finds them. I’m fascinated by this bifurcation, which is often, I sense, a personal mindset or choice. Transposed into an earlier era, it would be like the devision between people who became fascinated with the vast potential of the aeroplane (life being far more dull before its presence), as opposed to those who rather despised the aeroplane and all it represents. Well I know what camp I’d fall into.
Thank you Paul! I always feel the enthusiasm in your comments!
It will be very interesting to see how things unfold in the social dimension, as you say. How people position as time passes. What companies do, what governments do, etc. Exciting!
Given the corporate clout behind imposing some new technologies on the general population, why assume that the people who resist the imposition are shrinking from a challenge? There is more comfort and ease in going along than in adopting a critical attitude.
Remember when you signed up to @home projects, but finally found the one which seemed the best, so you stuck with that one even when the main gpu system died. But you continued it on the business laptop at a much slower rate. And you really thought others would sign up too because it was so interesting and useful and helpful. Well, that's me except no one else signed up or gave computing time to finding pulars and gravitational waves, the next big telescope tech. Well I'm from a place where signing up to that is a very lonely place, much like AI is here right now too. Not one person I know is interested. Why? Can an entire population of friends not check out the new, the free! So I go it alone, first with chatGPT then Dall-E 2 but using the bing version. I'm just looking for interesting new prompts. Things I won't think of. Things chatGPT doesn't tell you, no matter how complex or multifaceted! So I'm just going to say one word. Hello.
Very interesting Tim, can I ask you where are you from? I realize my friends and family weren't super aware of AI progress but most of them also heard of ChatGPT from sources other than myself. I'm curious to know in which places people dismiss all that's happening in AI as unworthy of attention!
Also, I want to dive deeper into prompt engineering. I keep an eye on every new technique and framework that comes along and will write something on that soon.
I'm in New Zealand, and I discovered chatGPT earlier this year. I quickly proceeded to ask it about the history of New Zealand art ceramics. It told me the names of some of the well known artists, but as I probed deeper into the history it proceeded to hallucinate which I found very amusing. Pushing it further I managed to make it tell more and more outlandish historical claims. I posted the entire conversation on a group I run which has around 6000 members. I don't think anyone read it. They see the word AI and turn off. I moved to bing AI image generator just over a month ago. I'm learning something new everyday. The ban issue is a problem as it doesn't indicate where the problem lies. I've had my second ban now. 1 h then 24 hours. I don't want to banned again. But I'm pushing the boundaries to see where it can take me. Results have been great. I told my friends on Instagram about my new AI account, they don't want to know about it. Fear it. They younger ones not so much. I know a high school teacher who is very suspicious of it all. But I asked her if her teenage students ever mentioned AI. They don't. So perhaps it is a NZ thing? Or perhaps I just don't know the right people. The amusing thing is my two Instagram accounts are almost equal in followers, one is a month old, one is years old. It will arrive but it will take time.
I'm not sure I can be of much help with that! ChatGPT is definitely not the *best* tool for data analysis (given it's not creativity-based and requires high precision).
But as long as he's aware of the limitations, it's worth exploring. ChatGPT still has great uncharted potential. And the people who are mastering it are getting great results.
Congrats on 13,000 subs and major props on the persistence and consistency of publishing TAB for an entire year!
Thanks for your writing and perspectives, Alberto -- late last year it kept me up to date on happenings, and I liked the OpenAI fooled us and FLI letter not working pieces this year. I'm not in AI per se, but as a product/growth leader, ex founder and someone who has spent a decade plus trying to figure out how to better educate and empower people from cradle to career, I'm following the developments with keen interest and trying to develop my own point of view, especially on the 2nd and 3rd order impacts of AI/the next generation being chatgpt-native.
2nd and 3rd order impacts of AI is actually a very interesting topic to research and explore. Some time from now we'll be talking about AI much more from that perspective. It's still a bit early but worth an article or two!
I am a computer scientist/mathematician/storyteller and was inspired by TAB to set up a substack combining science and storytelling (theshadowlands). Prior to TAB I had no idea substack existed. My main interest is automating programming. So of course the recent AI applications held my interest, limited as they still are on that front. I like TAB's balanced representation.
Love good storytelling! that's one aspect I should work on more. I'll probably dedicate some time to learn with courses or something—it'd help color my articles a bit.
Well, once you mention you love good storytelling, I can't resist of course: I have the first audio recording of the King who loved Riddles up since today: https://theshadowlands.substack.com/p/the-king-who-loved-riddles I have a story coming up on the Computer Science Halting Problem, symmetry through infinite reflection, a proof that desert ants count to over 100 and so on (true story). The one I have up today illustrates that cracking problems (in science too) is all about asking the right question. I learned most by performing as a semi-pro in Ireland, the UK and France on the back of storytelling workshops. I think you're a natural teller so you may need little help on that front. Somehow you walk a fine balance in your articles, stating an opinion yet still leaving the reader wonder about matters. I'm never entirely sure which foot you land on in some of your articles (I don't mean it's unclear, I mean I'm left wondering more about your thoughts which is fun). Nice one!
Will check those out! Btw The Shadow Lands is a great name! Love it.
"I'm never entirely sure which foot you land on in some of your articles." Yeah, sometimes I feel like being always super opinionated degrades the quality of the information-sharing nature of the newsletter, so I like to show both sides (other times my opinion is way too obvious ;) I'd say it's a mix between analysis, journalism and blogging! Good combo.
One of the only emails I never delete. Thanks for all your work.
I'm a social worker - clinical and I work off the side of my desk in affordable housing development. BA in Phil at UBC got me on the AI road in 1980s. Love your thoughtful commentary and analysis. I get the tech news all day long elsewhere. Good to have the big picture.
It's been a long road for AI since the 80s, I wasn't even born yet! You surely have a nice historical perspective to make sense of today's developments, right?
Hi Alberto,
I cannot praise your content enough. Your writing is invaluable for keeping up to date on developments in the tech scene. Particularly handy for the underground commute where I can't access the internet.
I've recently moved to London to pursue a career in tech/automation ethics and policy. I completed my bachelor's in politics at the end of last year. I've spent the last few years (and currently) bartending while studying, so I've been looking for a more office admin type job to transition to the more corporate space. I'll have to wait three years before I can take a master's degree at local rates, so I'm desperate to gain some practical, career aligned experience in the meantime; hopefully more than just a generic office job.
Do you (or anyone in the forum) have any advice for those of us trying to break into this industry?
Hi Alberto, Alexandra here, a native Dutch gal living in Germany. The Algorithmic Bridge is my absolute go-to source and resource for information in AI development. Thank you so much!
Thank you Alexandra for reading! :)
Hello Alberto. I am Kamal from Australia. I am an architect and currently working as a PM. I am very interested how AI can assist to do better architecture to everyone and not only for the rich. I love your articles as it provides me with lots of knowledge in to the world of AI. Thank you
Thanks for commenting Kamal! I'm not sure generative AI can do much about that, actually. It's inherently not reliable and we don't want that in our architecture! Maybe it could help with the non-high-stake aspects of it?
I am not as knowledgeable but the research paper I read so far are showing prospects using GANs. It is still a way to go but I am hopeful for a change in thinking of Architects and their societal responsibilities.
So grateful for your work on TAB! I really enjoy the thought-provoking conversations that happen here. My background is in art history and museums, but I’ve always been interested in technology, values, and more broadly in the shared human experience. I now work with an interdisciplinary team of researchers focused on foregrounding ethics in AI.
¡Hola! Alberto. Mucho gusto, mi nombre es Javier, soy de Colombia, vengo de una educación muy mediocre que lamentablemente es así en mi país, soy negro, y esto ya es una desventaja social.
Soy una persona que es pobre, y que busca acercarse a la clase media para vivir dignamente como ser humano, no es fácil, pero todos los días sigo intentándolo.
¡No hablo inglés y espero que el traductor haga bien su trabajo! ¡Para los que no saben español!
Por mis condiciones económicas, es difícil para mí pagar tu suscripción, la única es consumir tu versión gratuita que de por sí es genial y me ayuda mucho a entender el mundo de la IA, pues conozco muy poco y me preocupa hacia donde se dirige la utilización de los diferentes modelos de IA, teniendo en cuenta que las mejores versiones son de pago, por lo que personas como yo y muchas personas del común en todo el mundo no podemos aprovechar de manera adecuada estas herramientas para seguir intentando salir de la pobreza. Parte de lo que soy y lo que me toco no lo cuento para generar lástima, pesar u otro incómodo sentimiento, solo lo comparto y estoy concentrado en seguir adelante. Gracias por tu gran aporte.
¿Alberto, de que país eres?
Hola Javier, soy de España! Gracias por compartir tu historia. Tú situación, como bien dices, es común a mucha gente. Si la gente pobre no puede acceder a los mejores sistemas, no va eso a agrandar la brecha social? Escribí sobre esto hace algún tiempo aquí: https://thealgorithmicbridge.substack.com/p/ai-cant-benefit-all-of-humanity
Muchas gracias.
AI Can’t Benefit All of Humanity
Y si, hablando directamente de OpenAI, las brechas comenzaron con GPT-4.
Hello Alberto. A fairly new subscriber but I left my senior position at a big tech company to do my 5th startup, yes in AI (though we decided that space before the ChatGPT moment). I've been trying to get up to speed in the space and your Substack is the first and only one I've subscribed to. Keep up the quality, thoughtful discussion. Not click bait. Pragmatic and grounded - that's why your writing has resonated with me. Thanks!
5th startup, awesome (can I ask the name?) Best of luck! And thanks for the kind words! :)
I'm working in the innovation department of a consultant company at Madrid, helping other companies to use AI properly and meaningfully, solving real problems (or at least trying) . It's hard to keep updated on AI these days, but your posts help me a lot with that. Thaaaaaanks!!
Awesome Miguel, I'm based in Madrid, too. Where do you work, if I can ask?
My company is NovaQuality Consulting, nothing fancy, but quite pleasant to work with. We were working on data quality and data governance, so the jump to AI was easy to get. We are connected via LinkedIn if you need anything else. I'll be glad to help and share experiences.
One of the benefits I expect to see from this technology is a significant advance in our ability to define intelligence at all and in the first place, which very much needs to be done. That is by far the weirdest thing I see going on with the "superintelligence" and "existential risk" flap. And the biggest problem with the nuclear analogy. In the case of nuclear war we understood exactly what we were faced with. There is no definition of intelligence known to me. Just to begin, it is a lot more than problem-solving. Calculators solve problems.
Intelligence, in my experience, is a word we use for describing the astonishing capacity of (mostly human) actors to come up with useful solutions to problems that are not totally obvious or well defined. It is something we deduce from the results we see, not from understanding the underlying "mechanisms" in our brains. It is a name for something we notice but do not understand.
Naming is the end of questioning. We assume that what we can name, we have understood. Watch little children observing a bug. When they are very little, they experience awe over the sheer magnificence of the little legs and antlers and wings and the shimmering coat and what have you. After a while they learn more efficiently ways of looking at bugs. They ask us: "What is this?" We say: "A Ladybug." (proud to show off how much we know). And the children see our pride and try to remember. The next time they see a ladybug, they no longer experience awe. They experience pride of being able to name it. Naming is not seeing and certainly not understanding.
The worst part of this problem is that we often equate intelligence with being human. Yes, we call dolphins, primates and even dogs intelligent, but with a condescending smile that understands that we, by far, outsmart all the other animals. If we are the most intelligent species, then our intelligence must be the defining capacity of humans, must it not?
Now we come back to the initial thought: Intelligence is a name for intellectual utility. If we believe that intelligence is the core of being human, then we are human by being useful. In this capacity, AI and robotics will outdo us without breaking a sweat.
But we also feel that there is more to us than utility. AI reminds us to explore these capacities.
I like that.
Hey Fred, happy to see you here!
I agree with you. I think we're assuming too many things in the conversations we're having. Yet, people get bored when you mention that "intelligence is an undefined concept!" It's a big problem and I don't really know how to go about solving it...
My own personal solution is that I use the term in as few contexts as possible.
You can't go wrong! But if we applied that to everything that can't be defined...
... we would in some cases treat nonsense exactly as it should be treated.
Yes but concepts like intelligence or consciousness, while ill-defined, are useful to think about the world even if in the boundaries they break apart, don't you think?
Consciousness, maybe, but I am hard put to think of a case where the term "intelligence" is ever particularly useful. It is a very vague term. "You really ought to ask her out, she is very intelligent!" Huh. What is being said here? More to the point, what is not being said? Your informant could have said great sense of rhythm! Or very well-read! Or very witty!. But he or she didn't. Hm. Wonder why not.
Suppose someone tells you that so-and-so is "intelligent". What are you supposed to infer from that?
Hi Alberto, I am a school teacher in a small 7-12 school. I believe that our students should be experimenting with AI as much as possible and as a wonderful creative thinking coach. As our schools have slowly filled up with digitally native students, those of us who remember a time before the internet and smart phones, are finding it necessary to design new ways of designing our pedagogy. It won’t be long before we are working with AI native students who have never known their absence. Now is the time to embrace this technology and partner with today’s students in learning how to use it wisely for positive outcomes.
I have only found your work recently and signed up for this newsletter for help staying current, and perhaps a little ahead of the curve, for my benefit and my students. Thank you for your work, it feels important.
Appreciate it Robert :)
"It won’t be long before we are working with AI native students who have never known their absence." Interesting thought. It's going to happen for sure!
Hi Alberto, Thank you for the work that you do here. I am industrial design student and all your articles were greatly helpful while I was researching about AI. For my project about exploring the applications of artificial intelligence in the Indian handicraft sector. Looking forward to reading more!
Thank you Dev for reading TAB! "Applications of artificial intelligence in the Indian handicraft sector," that's interesting. How are you approaching this?
Well, the project started five months ago as part of my internship at a design studio. It began as an investigation to see the potential of AI-enabled future to address challenges in the craft process and the sector without replacing or threatening the role of the craftsperson. Exploring the integration of AI into the handicraft ecosystem.
Initially, the project was tricky and challenging due to the broad nature of both AI and handicrafts. I tried to bring clarity by defining it in quantifiable terms. Handicrafts as a production by a craftsperson with resources, knowledge, materials, tools, skills, techniques, people, place, environment in an ecosystem. Then looking at AI interventions at different stages from pre-production, production and post-production in the craft process. And developed five conceptual applications at different levels of craft production.
We are now seeking investors and AI and other domain experts to further develop the project. And if you happen to know anyone who might be interested in this, I would greatly appreciate it if you could kindly let me know.
Hi, Alberto - congrats on your posting anniversary! My background is in information security and risk management, so I'm inclined to approach new AI developments with a combination of curiosity, interest, and respectful caution. I enjoy your perspective since it's balanced and nuanced - aspects in short supply in conversations on this topic! I'm always happy to see your posts arrive and look forward to many more.
"a combination of curiosity, interest, and respectful caution." That's definitely me too, Stephanie :)
My job is tutoring neurodiverse university students. I also make music and art in my spare time. Obviously, AI is having an impact in all those areas so I’m keen to keep on top of developments.
Enjoy your work so thanks!
That's awesome David! I'd love to know more about how neurodiverse people are using AI or what they think about it, and how it's helping them. I think it's a super interesting topic to write about!
This is a great initiative, appreciate it, yes human intelligence is all about gathering diverse perspectives per topic/context and then helping others who explore that context during their lifetime with most relevant responses quickly and clearly. Keep up the good work Alberto. My topic of interest would be how we could help AI make humans do a lot more than just asking machines to do it for them. How about AI as a great coach to start with. In our culture S/he would be a Guru
Thank you, Shridhar :)
I agree with you. That's also how I'd like to see us using AI tools. Not as assistants that would do everything for us but as copilots, as Microsoft likes to call them.
I think education is one space where this will become the norm going forward once the systems confabulate less and mitigate some important flaws. The idea of customized individual tutoring is appealing to many given the limitations of our current education system and how it fails to satisfy the diverse needs of students. Prof. Ethan Mollick focuses on this aspect in his Substack (https://www.oneusefulthing.org/)
Hello Alberto
I always make time for your newsletters and I very much appreciate your balanced perspective.
Your piece on the letters about the existential risks of AI that was a fresh perspective on the theme. I am most worried about the socio-economic risks that will come to pass. Not if something goes terribly wrong but if things run smoothly for the next decade or so. Our society uses money for allocating scarce resources and money is the price for people selling their time. A very large percentage of people with mediocre skills may not find buyers for their time in the future. How will they live? This is too large a problem for current transfer mechanisms.
Thank you Matthias!! I fully agree. "Not if something goes terribly wrong but if things run smoothly for the next decade or so." Right!! This is possibly the best way to put it. 100% with you. Will we manage to adapt? Sure. Will the transition be hard for many people? I think so.
Hi, can you please explain your logo? It doesn't look so much like a bridge as maybe a motocross daredevil's up-ramp to fly off into the void. Is that the metaphor you intend? Maybe a sigmoid would work better both gravitationally and as an AI-pertinent image?
This is the first time anyone asks me about the logo! It's a play with perspective, the bridge goes to the horizon vanishing point and at the same time, it's an A and a B (Algorithmic Bridge).
I've been thinking about redesigning it to make it simpler, I'll think about your idea :)
Thanks for the opportunity Alberto. I’m Paul, an experienced pilot (formerly naval aviator/ corporate/ freight/ airline) who has lost his medical certification prior to “retirement”. I’m striving to reinvent myself and hopefully leverage AI as a useful toolset in a serendipitously fortunate era that has gained significant traction in this capability. I’m curious to see how it will help both individuals and civilisation in the aggregate. It’s all so fascinating!
My interests are the creative yet unforeseen applications of AI; and also Seasteading; and the electrification of transport (boats, aircraft, cars), and the general arc of civilisation, whether the players are based on substrates of carbon, silicon or a blend of those. I’m also interested in the Differential Human as a species: the pronounced bifurcation between those who embrace opportunities born of new technologies (Techno-Sapiens), being those who adopt new visions so as to thrive and advance Protopian approaches to prosperity. As opposed to those humans who decide to retreat because the new technologies and opportunities are all too intimidating or scary, and have decide to either embrace retrograde behaviours, or resist or shrink from all challenges and become inconsequentialists, becoming only willing to take up space until they die, having chosen comfort and ease until oblivion finds them. I’m fascinated by this bifurcation, which is often, I sense, a personal mindset or choice. Transposed into an earlier era, it would be like the devision between people who became fascinated with the vast potential of the aeroplane (life being far more dull before its presence), as opposed to those who rather despised the aeroplane and all it represents. Well I know what camp I’d fall into.
Thank you Paul! I always feel the enthusiasm in your comments!
It will be very interesting to see how things unfold in the social dimension, as you say. How people position as time passes. What companies do, what governments do, etc. Exciting!
Given the corporate clout behind imposing some new technologies on the general population, why assume that the people who resist the imposition are shrinking from a challenge? There is more comfort and ease in going along than in adopting a critical attitude.
That’s a reasonable point. There are many reactions.
Remember when you signed up to @home projects, but finally found the one which seemed the best, so you stuck with that one even when the main gpu system died. But you continued it on the business laptop at a much slower rate. And you really thought others would sign up too because it was so interesting and useful and helpful. Well, that's me except no one else signed up or gave computing time to finding pulars and gravitational waves, the next big telescope tech. Well I'm from a place where signing up to that is a very lonely place, much like AI is here right now too. Not one person I know is interested. Why? Can an entire population of friends not check out the new, the free! So I go it alone, first with chatGPT then Dall-E 2 but using the bing version. I'm just looking for interesting new prompts. Things I won't think of. Things chatGPT doesn't tell you, no matter how complex or multifaceted! So I'm just going to say one word. Hello.
Very interesting Tim, can I ask you where are you from? I realize my friends and family weren't super aware of AI progress but most of them also heard of ChatGPT from sources other than myself. I'm curious to know in which places people dismiss all that's happening in AI as unworthy of attention!
Also, I want to dive deeper into prompt engineering. I keep an eye on every new technique and framework that comes along and will write something on that soon.
I'm in New Zealand, and I discovered chatGPT earlier this year. I quickly proceeded to ask it about the history of New Zealand art ceramics. It told me the names of some of the well known artists, but as I probed deeper into the history it proceeded to hallucinate which I found very amusing. Pushing it further I managed to make it tell more and more outlandish historical claims. I posted the entire conversation on a group I run which has around 6000 members. I don't think anyone read it. They see the word AI and turn off. I moved to bing AI image generator just over a month ago. I'm learning something new everyday. The ban issue is a problem as it doesn't indicate where the problem lies. I've had my second ban now. 1 h then 24 hours. I don't want to banned again. But I'm pushing the boundaries to see where it can take me. Results have been great. I told my friends on Instagram about my new AI account, they don't want to know about it. Fear it. They younger ones not so much. I know a high school teacher who is very suspicious of it all. But I asked her if her teenage students ever mentioned AI. They don't. So perhaps it is a NZ thing? Or perhaps I just don't know the right people. The amusing thing is my two Instagram accounts are almost equal in followers, one is a month old, one is years old. It will arrive but it will take time.
Appreciate your efforts here!
I've friend coming over this eve for a BBQ that is a data scientist for a large university.
I've been poking him about AI is going to do to his job/profession.
Any suggestions on tools for data analysis for him to start exploring with?
I've seen what gpt can do with data but not sure this is the best for him.
Thanks
Thanks Jim!
I'm not sure I can be of much help with that! ChatGPT is definitely not the *best* tool for data analysis (given it's not creativity-based and requires high precision).
But as long as he's aware of the limitations, it's worth exploring. ChatGPT still has great uncharted potential. And the people who are mastering it are getting great results.
Congrats on 13,000 subs and major props on the persistence and consistency of publishing TAB for an entire year!
Thanks for your writing and perspectives, Alberto -- late last year it kept me up to date on happenings, and I liked the OpenAI fooled us and FLI letter not working pieces this year. I'm not in AI per se, but as a product/growth leader, ex founder and someone who has spent a decade plus trying to figure out how to better educate and empower people from cradle to career, I'm following the developments with keen interest and trying to develop my own point of view, especially on the 2nd and 3rd order impacts of AI/the next generation being chatgpt-native.
Appreciate it David!!
2nd and 3rd order impacts of AI is actually a very interesting topic to research and explore. Some time from now we'll be talking about AI much more from that perspective. It's still a bit early but worth an article or two!
I am a computer scientist/mathematician/storyteller and was inspired by TAB to set up a substack combining science and storytelling (theshadowlands). Prior to TAB I had no idea substack existed. My main interest is automating programming. So of course the recent AI applications held my interest, limited as they still are on that front. I like TAB's balanced representation.
Love good storytelling! that's one aspect I should work on more. I'll probably dedicate some time to learn with courses or something—it'd help color my articles a bit.
Glad you like TAB Michel :)
Well, once you mention you love good storytelling, I can't resist of course: I have the first audio recording of the King who loved Riddles up since today: https://theshadowlands.substack.com/p/the-king-who-loved-riddles I have a story coming up on the Computer Science Halting Problem, symmetry through infinite reflection, a proof that desert ants count to over 100 and so on (true story). The one I have up today illustrates that cracking problems (in science too) is all about asking the right question. I learned most by performing as a semi-pro in Ireland, the UK and France on the back of storytelling workshops. I think you're a natural teller so you may need little help on that front. Somehow you walk a fine balance in your articles, stating an opinion yet still leaving the reader wonder about matters. I'm never entirely sure which foot you land on in some of your articles (I don't mean it's unclear, I mean I'm left wondering more about your thoughts which is fun). Nice one!
Will check those out! Btw The Shadow Lands is a great name! Love it.
"I'm never entirely sure which foot you land on in some of your articles." Yeah, sometimes I feel like being always super opinionated degrades the quality of the information-sharing nature of the newsletter, so I like to show both sides (other times my opinion is way too obvious ;) I'd say it's a mix between analysis, journalism and blogging! Good combo.
One of the only emails I never delete. Thanks for all your work.
I'm a social worker - clinical and I work off the side of my desk in affordable housing development. BA in Phil at UBC got me on the AI road in 1980s. Love your thoughtful commentary and analysis. I get the tech news all day long elsewhere. Good to have the big picture.
Appreciate it John, thank you!!
It's been a long road for AI since the 80s, I wasn't even born yet! You surely have a nice historical perspective to make sense of today's developments, right?
Congrats Alberto, best wishes for the future and keep the good work!
Thank you Rafe!! I see you're thriving on Medium, too :)
Keep the Great Work!
Thanks Bill!