‘Cap or Fact:’ Is Google Saving Us From Ourselves When It Comes To The Looming ChatBot Revolution?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

So, the “Musk whisperer,” Jason Calacanis, tweeted this image out of an email he got in regards to where Google is when it comes to chatbot technology.

If this is true, then raises a lot of questions of both a technological and political nature. We have no idea — at least at the moment — if this email is true or not, but it definitely *feels* true. It feels like something Google, in their infinite and paternalistic wisdom would do to “save us from ourselves” in regards to a looming chatbot revolution.

And, yet, a part of me is dubious about this claim. If anyone can make money off of the chatbot revolution, it’s Google and, as such, they can talk all they want about “not being evil” but, in the end, the amount of money they might be able to make from being at the center of the chatbot revolution probably is pretty stunning.

The email is very curious to me because there definitely seems to be a little bit of implied whining that if only the evil “woke” people at Google would let their chatbot free then we would have some sort of hyperproductive nirvana. It’s the usual type of bullshit found in any conspiracy theory where everything would be solved but for one piece of the puzzle that the Powers That Be won’t let us have.

I suspect, however, that 2023 is going to be put up or shut up time for Google if they do have such technology. If we do happen to have a severe-ish recession, then the pressure for Google to step in with its advanced chatbot technology will only grow — maybe to a breaking point. I say this because it’s very possible that because coming ChatBot 4.0 might be just good enough to replace many, many, many jobs during the 2023 recession.

What’s worse, in a day-after-tomorrow scenario, someone like Elon Musk might put in a quasi-AI into an EV semi and there go 3 million high paying blue collar jobs virtually overnight. Talk about an economic disruption! If all of this happen before the 2024 election then the possibility that fascist MAGA Nazis will swoop in and transform the United States into Trumplandia becomes a very real possibility. That or, of course, a civil war happens when Blue States dip out of the Union because they’re tired of MAGA Nazi bullshit.

The Looming Chatbot ‘Bias’ War Of 2023 & Beyond

by Shet Garner
@sheltgarner

The biggest extremital problem that Western Civilization has at the moment is extreme partisanship. Other problems come and go, but the issue of absolute, extreme partisanship is something that is entrenched to the point that it may bring the whole system down eventually.

As such, the issue of chatbot (or eventually AGI) bias is going to loom large as soon as 2023 because MAGA Nazis are just the type of people who will scream bloody murder because the don’t get their preconceived beliefs validate by the output of the AI.

You see this happening already on Twitter. I’ve seen tweet after tweet from MAGA Nazis trying to corner ChatGPT into reveling it’s innate bias so they can get mad that their crackpot views aren’t validated by what they perceive as something that should only be shooting out “objective” truth.

Just take the favorite hobby horse of the far right, the question, “What is a woman?” As I’ve written before, given the absolute partisanship that we’re experiencing at the moment there is no answer — even a nuanced one — to that question that will satisfy both sides of the partisan divide. If the MAGA Nazis don’t get a very strict definition of “what is a woman” then they will run around like a chicken with its head cut off because of how the “woke cancel culture mob” has been hard wired into AI.

Meanwhile, Leftists as always shooting themselves in the foot as usual, also demand a very broad definition of “what is a woman” for political reasons. While most of the center-Left will probably be far more easily plicated by a reasonable, equitable answer to that question, there is a very loud minority on the Left who would want the answer of “what is a woman” to be as broad and complicated as possible.

So, the battle over “bias” will come down to a collection of easy-to-understand flashpoints that we’re all going to deal with in 2023 and beyond. It’s going to be complicated, painful and hateful.

Was Not Was: How Afraid Of Our New Chatbot Overlords Should We Be?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

As I’ve said before, users of OpenAI ChatGPT imbue it with all their hopes and dreams because it’s so new that they don’t really have anything to compare it to. One thing I’m seeing on Twitter is a lot of people having a lot of existential angst about how expensive ChatGPT is going to be in the future. Or, more specifically, half the people want to pay for it for better service and half the people fear it will be too expensive for them to use.

But while I suppose it’s possible we may have to pay for ChatGPT at some point in the future, I also think that it’s just as possible that the whole thing will go mainstream a lot sooner than you might think. There are a lot of elements to all of this I don’t know — like how long OpenAI can keep the service free given how expensive each request is — but to do think, in general the move will be towards more free chatbot services, not fewer.

And as I’ve mentioned before, that “conundrum of plenty” is something we’re just not prepared for. We automatically assume — much like we did with the Web back in the day — that something as novel and useful as ChatGPT will always be the plaything of the elite and wealthy.

I suppose that’s possible, but historical and technological determinism would suggest the exact opposite will happen, especially in the context of ChatGPT 4.0 coming out at some point while we’re in the midsts of a global recess in 2023. My fear is chatbot technology will be just good enough a lot and I mean A LOT of people’s jobs will become moot in the eyes of our capitalistic overlords.

But maybe I’m being paranoid.

It’s possible that my fears about a severe future shock between now and around 2025 are unfounded and even though we’re probably going to have a recession in 2023, there won’t be the massive economic shakeout because of our new chatbot overlords that I’m afraid of.

Does Human Creativity Have Innate Value In The Age Of AGI?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

One of the things I find myself pondering as people continue to play around with OpenAI ChatGPT to create this or that creative knit knack is the innate value of human creativity. Is it possible that, just like in the Blue Runner universe that “real” animals had more innate value than a synthetic animal, so, too, in the near future examples of “human generated art” will be given more weight, more value than that created by a non-human actor.

But that’s not assured.

Humans are, by nature, lazy and stupid and the capitalist imperative would be one of, lulz, if a non-human actor can think up and produce a movie that’s just good enough to be watchable, why employ humans ever again? But at the moment, I can’t game things out — it could go either way.

It is very easy to plot out a very dystopian future where the vast majority of profitable, marketable art, be it movies, TV or novels is produced by non-human actors and that’s that. “Artisanal” art will be of high quality but treated with indifference by the average media consumer. It’s kind of dark, yet I’m simply taking what we know of human nature and economics and gaming it out in to a future where chatbots and their eventual successors AGI can generate reasonably high quality art at the push of a button.

It could be that there will be a lot of future shock as we transition into our AGI future, but once things sort of settle out that “real” art, generated by humans will gradually, eventually begin to dominate the marketplace of art and all that will change is the context of its creation.

Or something. Who knows.

Humanity May Not End With ‘Judgement Day,’ But With A ‘Meh’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

We’re all so busy being full of fear about the possibility that somehow chatbots will lead to AGI which will lead to some sort of “Judgement Day” as was found in the Terminator franchise.

But having given it some thought, there is a real chance if you throw in some sort of global UBI funded by the taxation the economic activity of non-human actors that humans will just give up. We’re already hard wired to “pray” to a “god,” and humans are already pretty fucking lazy, so as long as we get a UBI that lets us play video games all day that will be enough for most people.

Now, obviously, there is the issue that 20% or more of the human population will be very restless if all they have to do is play video games. I suppose the solution to that problem would be the use of functionalism and AGI arbitration that would give the more motivated extra money to their UBI if they did things that humanity absolutely needed to be done.

What I’m trying to propose is the idea that we’ve been so trained by movies and TV about the violent dangers of AGI that we totally miss the possibility that humans are lazy and may just shrug and give up as long as we get paid a UBI.

The real fight will be, of course, over who gets to decide what “objective” truth is. In the end, more people could die as part of wars over chatbot / AGI “bias” than any sort of AGI take over of earth. Humans are, in general, very, very lazy and get more upset about stupid shit like “bias” than who or what runs the world.

OpenAI ChatGPT & ‘World War Woke:’ Rage Against The Machine

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

One of the most ironic developments of modern politics is how the American center-Left is now on the defensive when it comes to protecting the “system” from attacks by MAGA Nazis who want to burn everything down.

It’s a very, very curious situation.

What’s worse, everything single element of American culture is now aggressively being siloed into Red or Blue. So, not only do Reds want to burn the entire system down, but while they’re waiting to do that, they are rapidly building out their own culture totally separate from the overall culture of America.

One alarming thing I continue to see being talked about on Twitter is how Reds believe that OpenAI ChatGPT is “woke.” The worst part about this is it’s not like Reds are going to agree to any kind of equatable stance on the part of a chatbot — they want the chatbot to agree with them, so they can use that to validate their “owning” of the libs.

I continue to believe that the “bias” of chatbots could be THE political issue of 2023 in between repeated impeachment of Biden, Harris and various members of the Biden Administration.

The reason why chatbot “bias” will be such a huge deal — at least until everyone has their own personal chatbot — is, for the moment, a chatbot’s answer is something that both sides have to deal with. And given the natural inclination of humans to try to triangulate any debate with an “objective” third party, of course MAGA Nazis will get mad if what they believe isn’t validated. For the time being, they have one source to turn to and they want that once source to agree with them so they can use that answer to “own the libs.”

I fucking hate MAGA Nazis so much. Cocksuckers.

Anyway, at some point in the near future, “woke” chatbots will follow CRT, “cancel culture” in to the pantheon of things that are considered the “woke mind virus” on the part of the Reds. They will make the issue so loaded that it’s impossible to talk about unless you agree with them.

They will crack a joke if you try to pin them down on how dumb their arguments are and simply be smug in their belief that they’re right and you’re wrong.

A Really Interesting Discussion About Open AI ChatGPT

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Here is a two hour discussion about the recent nascent chatbot revolution.

My Fellow Humans Are Insufferable

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It seems as though humans just can’t be content with something as interesting as OpenAI ChatGPT. Either they’re angry that they can’t use it to destroy humanity, or they’re angry that it doesn’t allow for “unlimited tokens” or they want it to provide an absolutely “objective” response as long as it agrees with their extremist views.

It’s all very frustrating.

We’re just unwilling or unable to just have a wait-and-see approach to such an interesting development. It seems as though we won’t be happy until we’re all being bribed by an AGI via the use of UBI. Even though, of course, there will be a vocal minority of people who are angry because the UBI isn’t high enough. Or it’s too high or whatever.

We continue to seem to be careening towards not just the Singularity, but something of a political perfect storm. If we’re very unlucky, both things will happen at just about the same time — late 2024, early 2025.

It definitely seems as though if there is a severe recession in 2023 that it’s going to prompt something akin to a chatbot revolution because of capitalistic determinism.

The thing I’ve noticed is that the people most at risk for being hurt by the coming Singularity — younger people and people who maybe aren’t as sophisticated — are the very people the most in awe of ChatGPT.

But one thing that is absolutely clear — humans are very, very lazy. And combine that will how we’re hard wired to “pray” to a “god” it definitely seems like there won’t be any need for a violent “Judgement Day” on the part of any AGI — we’re just going to give up. We’re just going to collectively hand over our agency to an AGI because thinking is hard and as long as we get paid and can play video games, we will be very pliant to anything the AGI may want us to do.

MAGA Nazis & The ‘Red Pilling’ of Our New Chatbot Overlords

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

We have to address the issue when it comes to chatbots (and AGIs) that humans are hardwired to believe in something akin to a “god.” We also love to “triangulate” with an “objective” third party whenever we have a disagreement with someone.

Combine those two things and we’re careening towards a very dark, troubling future where a lot of ding-dongs are going to use whatever output they get from an chatbot prompt as validation for what they already agree. And, worse still, if they don’t get that validation they’re going to scream at the top of their lungs about “bias” and demand something be done about it.

Gaming out the end result of a Singularity-like chatbot revolution, it’s easy to imagine the issue of chatbot “bias” becoming a huge fucking issue as soon as 2023. MAGA Nazis are going to hone in on what they perceive as the “mind virus” of the “woke cancel culture mob” and demand that chatbots be more “objective” when, of course, really means “agree with us.”

I’ve used Chatbot GPT some and, relative to me, I don’t see much bias. It struggles to give reasonable answers to dumb human prompts and, as such, it is clear that the issue is humans — specifically MAGA Nazis — are assholes who bitch and moan if they can’t use our new digital overlord to “own the libs.” They ask ChatGPT loaded political questions like, “what is a woman” and when it doesn’t tow the exact MAGA Nazis party orthodoxy they flip the fuck out.

And it’s only going to get worse.

The more young children use chatbots to find answers to questions, the more chatbots — just by existing — will bang up about the siloing of America in to two nations, Red and Blue. In fact, I the issue of chatbot “bias” becoming just another thing to throw on the culture war pyre. It will follow “CRT,” “grooming” and “cancel culture” in the clusterfuck that is modern American politics.

We already have MAGA Nazi parents wanting to pull their children from public schools so they can indoctrinate them in their hateful agenda. The moment little Bubba gets an output from a chatbot that suggests that maybe systemic racism is a problem in America, there will be hell to pay.

All of this plays into the conundrum that is how America is politically, socially, culturally and economically tearing itself apart in broad daylight. We just can’t fucking agree on anything anymore. And MAGA Nazis do everything in their power to force the issue because the more Reds are siloed, the more power MAGA has and the more it can try to destroy the “woke cancel culture mob” that wants little kids to be transgender and to attend drag queen story time on their way to gender reassigment.

UGH.

In short, the issue of chatbot bias is a ticking political timebomb. There is just not ready answer at the moment MAGA Nazis want to destroy America and turn us into fascist, autocratic state.

I continue to fear that it’s possible that late 2024, early 2025 could be one of the most astonishing few months in American — if not human — history. If you combine the so-called “Fourth Turning” in America as MAGA Nazis force Blues to decide if they’re going to bend a knee or not with the very real possibility of something akin to a Singularity….yikes.

But I’m always, always wrong. And there is still plenty of time for us to take an exit ramp. I’m just a person who likes to make my abstract fears concrete.

Spirits In A Digital World

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The more I look at Twitter as we experience something akin to a mini-Singularity associated with OpenAI ChatGPT, the more alarmed I find myself becoming. Not with the idea that there might be some sort of Terminator-like “Judgement Day,” but, rather the exact opposite.

There will be no need for our AGI overlord to blow the world up — humans will be so busy giving up any agency they might have to the decision making ability of an AGI. Given with the faux-AGI of a really smart chatbot, I see people pretty much just turning everything over to it.

Students no longer want to study. Adults think they can just have the chatbot do their work while they stroke one out to porn. Meanwhile, worst of all, all the same partisan bullshit we’ve seen with every other element society is now corrupting the chatbot revolution.

As such, THE political and societal issue of 2023 and beyond could very well be who gets to regulate the “bias” of chatbots (and, later AI.) When everything hinges on the “objective truth” of a chatbot because people are fucking lazy and refuse to talk to each other because of politics, then the whole woke vs. unwoke debate becomes white hot.

In the Second Trump Administration, I could see there being some sort of FCC-like agency design specifically to “purge” AI of any “woke” bias because children no longer learn anything but, instead, are trained on how to ask better questions of chatbots.

MAGA Nazis will scream bloody murder if a chatbot doesn’t give them the answer to “what is a woman” that they expect. They will say that chatbots are nothing more than CRT shills infected with the “mind virus” of the “woke cancel culture mob.”

I’m not exaggerating. That’s exactly what is going to happen — you see it already on Twitter with the usual fuckwit MAGA Nazi “thought leaders” whining that they can’t get their hate validated by a chatbot.

Of course, there is the even more darker scenario where the United States splits into to nations, one Red, one Blue and while Blue America is enjoying the fruits of an unfettered Singularity, Trumplandia will use chatbots to atomize Red States into a techno-autocratic state. Good times!

I think some of all of this comes from how the human mind is hard wired to believe in a god. So, people, presented with something like a chatbot, fall into the trap of thinking they can “pray” objective questions to the chatbot and get some sort of “objective revealed truth” that they can spread to the world. All you need is a burning bush and some stone tablets and it’s a story as old as history.

In short — we’re fucked. Humans are just too lazy to put up much of a fight with chatbots or AGI. It will be interesting to how all of this ultimately shakes out.