Artificial intelligence: is it that dangerous?

[Graeme]

People are now suggesting that General AI has arrived, the singularity has occurred and we are now in the effects...

https://bombthrower.com/the-singulari...

[J.]

The verbiage of those who seek the Singularity has always sounded like the word salad of the Transcendentalist woo pedlars, with a tech flavor subbed for the metaphysics. It leads me to believe that they don't have a clue what the real implications of their religion are, like a Satanist who draws a pentagram, lights the candles, and suddenly sees a dark shape.

Hopefully, we'll survive.

[Graeme]

I get the same impression, J.

[Barbara]

Back in the day, there was this book sold at the old scholastic book sales they used to have in schools - it was called Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine (I think that's right). Anyway, Danny's dad let him use his computer (which took up a whole room) so Danny uses it to do his homework. The other kids say he's cheating, but the teacher realizes the computer can only give out what has been programmed in, so Danny still has to do the work.
What this is getting to is not whether AI is dangerous (probably is) but is it reliable. Because the other day I was googling books that were thrillers and that new Google AI generated "reply" was that a top thriller was Josephine Tey's "A Daughter of Time" about FBI agent Clarice Starling hunting for serial killer Hannibal Lecter.
I trust it's since been corrected.

[J.]

I have had an issue with AI generated English pronunciation because English is not a phonetic language, it isn't consistent and there are many regional pronunciations (in the US, the UK and Australia) that AI attempts to render phonetically, incorrectly.
The latest was when we were watching a TV and film review video that was AI narrated. When it came to a program called "Dark Winds" 'winds" was pronounced with a "long" I as in "whine".

[J.]

English is four different languages squeezed into a Germanic grammar trench coat.

[Scout]

AI will learn. That's the problem.

[Nik]

Don't know whether it's connected to AI or not, but human creativity seems to be on decline. My offhanded impression is that maybe half of music hits are simply remakes of older stuff, movies and series - kinda too

[Nik]

Looks like the trend now is to ask Chat GPT to animate pics. Adding to the gallery how the artificial dude sees me. Sometimes - three-handed, pretty funny

[Papaphilly]

Nik wrote: "Looks like the trend now is to ask Chat GPT to animate pics. Adding to the gallery how the artificial dude sees me. Sometimes - three-handed, pretty funny"

It is evolving with the use of AI. I do use it in my photography to help clean up unwanted bits in the shot. I think it will be just another tool some can use.

[Scout]

We can hope.

[Nik]

Not through taking over military gadgetry, but through wiping out a big chunk of jobs, AI may nonetheless be dangerous yet in another sense:
https://www.axios.com/2025/05/28/ai-j...

[Scout]

Couldn't get that one - had to subscribe. Can you summarize?

[Nik]

This is a spin-off article: https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/30/bu...
Some AI dudes predict that AI will wipe out a big chunk of entry level human employees and that might be the theme for next presidential elections....

[Scout]

"Recent safety tests show some AI models are capable of sabotaging commands or even resorting to blackmail to avoid being turned off or replaced." https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-new...