<nettime> The AI and Poetry

[Sherry via nettime-l <nettime-l@lists.nettime.org>]

I was picking up some beets and late tomatoes from the garden last night
before the second “first frost” warning in our northern region wondering if
noticeable incapability of accurate weather forecasts is caused by using or
overusing AI…


On a more serious note I was thinking about general suspiciousness towards
AI from different groups of intellectuals all over the world. My question
is: WHY on earth are we so scared of AI? The intuitive answer is: as soon
as AI is created and “taught” by humans, we may be afraid of creating
absolutely “immoral” monsters, gargoyles, similar to ourselves only without
“boundaries”.


At some point AI is portrayed “by many” as very similar to a popular figure
which is “known by a thousand names and who is unnameable one”: selectively
forgiving (usually for 10% donated to His/Her representative), severely
anti-human ready to throw everyone into a burning stove/hell for minor or
major sin(s), bloodthirsty… Unless everything that had been done on behalf
of Him/Her was delivered by certain “programmed by Them” individuals; and
when we as humanity reached the point when we are becoming capable of
creating our own AI descendants, we are getting terrified by a thought
“what we are capable of”.


So far AI is very helpful in pure scientific tasks when calculating
trajectories, physical and geochemical conditions of rock formation,
decoding ancient texts written in forgotten languages… One of the dangers
of using AI I came across recently is “deepfake photography of real people,
both celebrities and non-celebrities alike, which can cause emotional harm
to the person who’s being impersonated.”** Oops, is it a threat to compete
with our “owned” human trait to gossip, make up false accusations, demolish
someone’s reputation based upon fabricated evidence? And THAT never
happened before in pre-AI history of humanity!


At least and so far I have not seen a concern about AI developing a sense
of humor comparable to human one.


Here is what I found recently:


“AI is about to take over...


Claude AI just released "computer use."


Basically, AI agents that take over your desktop and can perform most
tasks. They can do anything from browse websites and access online
information, take screenshots, move and click the mouse, type text for you,
run local commands and scripts, and interact with your files and
applications.

The opportunities are endless, as this will evolve you can create your own
single person company with hundreds of AI agents handling most of your
tasks.


But the potentials for something to go wrong are just as real.


It is not the technology that is the threat, it is the foundation the
technology is built on.

As a species, we aren't ready for this. We are creating technology with
unknown outcome at an exponential rate. Our foundation for such
technologies is not stable or balanced in any way. We still hate, have
wars, are divided, manipulate others, and are driven by the bottom
line/proprietary gains/centralized agendas. As long as these conditions
exist within society, we are a threat to our own survival.


The stakes will continue to get higher if we do not address the underlying
cause of the problem.

But there is hope and there is a way... as these are all things I address
and answer in my book Nature's Algorithm.” - by Brian Assam, author of
recently released book “Nature's Algorithm: The Secret to Social Unity,
Super-Intelligence & Benevolent AI”


I read the book and found it inspiring, and, I believe, it is available on
kindle.


Whoever was predicting the frost - failed, it is 37 instead of 32 = 2.7C
via 0/


P.S. Recently I talked to an American poet who used to closely work on
translations of poetry written by “one of the most important poets of the
Kraków Avant-Garde”. Casually he mentioned his struggle with the word “
gargoyle” in one of the famous poems which he did not want to use in the
English version. The Poet, without any knowledge of Polish language, worked
in near cooperation with a student recommended by a respected professor,
and the student did all preliminary or raw translations. I happened to be
familiar both with the original text of the poem and Slavic languages, so I
looked up the original text and did not see any gargoyles in it, there is
word “poczwar” which can be translated as “skank” or “monster”, when
“gargoyle” in Polish is seen and heard as “rzygacz”, “wodorzyg, and even
“gargulec” ***.  No AI was involved, but time passed by while intuitively
one Poet was avoiding the word which another Poet did not use… Can we teach
AI to be intuitive? Then there is nothing to worry about… Thank you/


** Examining the potential benefits and dangers of AI | University of
Cincinnati
<https://www.uc.edu/news/articles/2024/02/examining-the-potential-benefits-and-dangers-of-ai.html>


*** I used just several online dictionaries including google translation,
Reverso, and TRANSLATE in English, Spanish, French and more with Cambridge
<https://dictionary.cambridge.org/translate/>
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