Tech Tuesday: A.I., Robots and Future Impacts of the Tech Revolution

Over the past decade, I've been fascinated by the rapid rise of artificial intelligence and its profound impact on work, creativity, journalism, marketing, and society at large. From early conversations with futurist Calum Chace about The Economic Singularity and Surviving AI, to exploring how ChatGPT is reshaping storytelling and white-collar jobs, I've been tracking AI’s journey from speculative fiction to everyday reality.

In this collection, you’ll find reflections on jobs that AI may soon transform or eliminate, ethical questions surrounding AI-generated art in advertising, the poetic warnings of Richard Brautigan, optimistic predictions from Mark Cuban, and even the possibility of chatbots falling in love. Whether you're concerned about the future of your career, curious about AI’s creative potential, or simply trying to make sense of this technological revolution, I offer these posts as a thoughtful, wide-ranging look at one of the most important stories of our time.

AI Artificial Intelligence

A Visit with Futurist Calum Chace on his new book The Economic Singularity

https://pioneerproductions.blogspot.com/2016/06/a-visit-with-futurist-calum-chace-on.html

Surviving AI by Calum Chace Is a Must Read for Those Who Plan to Be Here in the Future

https://pioneerproductions.blogspot.com/2016/06/surviving-ai-by-calum-chace-is-must.html

Will Computers Put Journalists Out Of Business? Check Out These 7 Stories

https://pioneerproductions.blogspot.com/2016/04/will-computers-put-journalists-out-of.html

The AI Revolution and Marketing (Part One)

https://pioneerproductions.blogspot.com/2024/10/the-ai-revolution-and-marketing-part-one.html

What Kinds of Jobs Will Be Lost Due to AI?

https://pioneerproductions.blogspot.com/2023/07/what-kinds-of-jobs-will-be-lost-due-to.html

Four ChatGPT Stories with Implications for All

https://pioneerproductions.blogspot.com/2023/04/four-chatgpt-stories-with-implications.html

Can ChatBots Fall In Love?

https://pioneerproductions.blogspot.com/2023/03/can-chatbots-fall-in-love.html

Tech Tuesday: A.I. Is Already Taking White Collar Writing Jobs. Who's Next?

https://pioneerproductions.blogspot.com/2016/08/tech-tuesday-ai-is-already-taking-white.html

Interview with David Asch Offers Insights On A.I.

https://pioneerproductions.blogspot.com/2021/10/interview-with-david-asch-offers.html

The Importance of Klara and the Sun For Data Science Workers (by David Asch)

https://medium.com/management-matters/the-importance-of-klara-and-the-sun-for-data-science-workers-2b9768c2d50f

Tech Tuesday: The Future of Jobs (Part One)

https://pioneerproductions.blogspot.com/2020/06/tech-tuesday-future-of-jobs-part-one.html

Richard Brautigan's "All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace"

https://pioneerproductions.blogspot.com/2018/02/richard-brautigans-all-watched-over-by.html

Tech Tuesday: Two AI Specialists Place Wagers on the Economic Impact of AI

https://pioneerproductions.blogspot.com/2017/12/tech-tuesday-two-ai-specialists-place.html

Tech Tuesday: Mark Cuban Predicts AI Entrepreneur Trillionaires

https://pioneerproductions.blogspot.com/2017/03/tech-tuesday-mark-cuban-predicts-ai.html

A.I. Art in Advertising: Unethical or Much Ado about Nothing?

https://pioneerproductions.blogspot.com/2023/04/ai-art-in-advertising-unethical-or-much.html

Flashback Friday: Will A.I. Finally Solve the JFK Assassination?

https://pioneerproductions.blogspot.com/2024/11/flashback-friday-will-ai-finally-solve.html

What Was It Like to Work on the ENIAC?

In the tech realm, everyone knows about the ENIAC. My mother's brothers were each more than acquainted with it. They worked with it.

Vacuum tube. I remember when
television sets had them.

The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was the world's first programmable, electronic, general-purpose digital computer. It was developed during World War II (1943–1945) at the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of Electrical Engineering by John Mauchly, J. Presper Eckert, and their team, under U.S. Army contract for the Ballistics Research Laboratory.

The ENIAC was built to calculate artillery firing tables quickly—complex ballistic trajectories that took humans days but ENIAC handled in seconds (e.g., 5,000 additions per second, vastly faster than mechanical predecessors). 
Here are some key specs to wrap your head around:

• Used approximately 17,468 vacuum tubes, 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors.
• Weighed 30 tons, occupied a 50x30-foot room (a little larger than my wife's 40x30-foot garage) and consumed 150 kW of power.
• Programmed by rewiring plugboards and switches, not stored programs. It took days to change tasks.
• Unveiled publicly in February 1946 (post-war), it influenced later computers like EDVAC and UNIVAC.

It would be fair to say that the ENIAC marked the dawn of modern electronic computing.  
According to The Evolution of Computers Wordpress site:
The first generation of computers occurred from 1946 to 1958, it was called The Vacuum Tube Years. The vacuum tube was an essential step in the progress of early computers. A vacuum tube was a sealed glass or metal-ceramic enclosure used in electronic circuit which controlled the flow of electrons inside. The air inside the sealed tubes was removed by a vacuum The purpose of the vacuum tubes in the first generation of computers was to be an amplifier and a switch at the same time. The vacuum tubes had no moving parts which enabled it to take weak signals and make them stronger. In other words, the vacuum tube could amplify weak signals. The second purpose for the vacuum tubes was for the easy management of stopping and starting the flow of electricity instantly. This was referred to as the switch. It was these two components, amplifier and switch, that made the ENIAC computer likely. 
Reading about the ENIAC brought to mind a comment my uncle Ferrell Sandy made around 15 years ago before he passed. When my mother and I would visit, we'd often go to an Italian restaurant at the bottom of the hill where he always ordered Chicken Marsala.* When I was growing up my dad would ask--at family reunions--what he was working on. He always replied, "I can't tell you." He was a physicist who worked in a consulting firm that had two clients, the CIA and the NSC. 
In 2010 or 11, fifty years had passed and things were very changed and he could share a few stories, including his experience working on the ENIAC. As noted above, the ENIAC had over 17,000 vacuum tubes. So when I asked about his experience, Uncle Ferrell said, "It would run for five minutes, and then stop, and you'd walk around and try to find which vacuum tube burned out." Once you found it, you could replace it and start it up again. A vacuum tube would burn out around every five minutes.
This was the beginning of the computer revolution.

* Chicken Marsala is a classic Italian-American dish of thin, pan-fried chicken cutlets served in a rich sauce made with Marsala wine, mushrooms, and aromatics like garlic and shallots, often thickened and finished with butter or cream.

Tech Tuesday: Has Moore's Law Run Its Course?

2016 has been a great year for A.I.  Watson beat the best of the best in Jeopardy. And a rival A.I. sibling defeated the world's best Go player. For artificial intelligence enthusiasts everything's been coming up roses. Siri will get smarter this fall, and smart cars will continue to prove their mettle on the nation's highways.

Meanwhile, unnoticed in the shadows of all these breakthrough events was this gloomy announcement: Moore's Law R.I.P.

Moore's Law is one of those things like gravity that has been taken as a matter of faith since it was conceived, or revealed. It's named after Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel, who in 1965 observed that the number of transistors per square inch on an integrated circuit was doubling every year and would continue to do so. Ironically as this legendary "law" became universal lore it was modified to every two years. At that point right there someone should have noticed that there would be limits on how long this doubling could go on.

Technology's capabilities have had an amazing run though and it shows no signs of letting. I doubt that anyone who worked on the ENIAC could ever have imagined the power capabilities of our smart phones today. My uncle, who had worked with the ENIAC, said that the room-sized machine was powered by vacuum tubes. After about five minutes of run time a tube would burn out and they would have to walk around trying to find the burned out tube so they could replace it. (Read how vacuum tubes work here.)

Even if Moore's Law has slowed, making predictions about the future hasn't let up one byte. This year's buzz has to do with predictions about the Internet of Things (IofT). If you think that having all the computers in the world wired is remarkable, what's coming is apparently going to dwarf this when we have all our devices, houses, transportation, manufacturing and agriculture connected.

It's no wonder that some people are a bit fearful about the possible adversity that could be caused by a superintelligent computer that goes rogue. Some believe this could even happen in our lifetimes. For others there are more immediate issues we should be concerned about. Fortunately, 95% of what we worry about doesn't happen, so try not to lose too much sleep.

* * * *
On a lighter note, here's a link to an NPR story dealing with computers and creativity. Can computers can write good poetry? Can they write so well that you can't tell who or what wrote it? It's a six poem quiz. Read each and guess whether it was written by a human or a machine. I got all six correct. Can you?

Meantime life goes on all around you. Enjoy it while you can.

Surviving AI by Calum Chace Is a Must Read for Those Who Plan to Be Here in the Future

"If you're not thinking about AI, you're not thinking." ~ Chris Meyer

I've been thinking quite a bit about AI lately. The more one learns about it, the more one begins to suspect that something major is emerging that many people have never given a second's thought about, but will impact them all.  Calum Chace's Surviving AI is an informative place to begin your reading if you want to bone up on this topic. The subtitle is "The Promise and Peril of Artificial Intelligence."

According to the book's description on Amazon.com:

Artificial intelligence is our most powerful technology, and in the coming decades it will change everything in our lives. If we get it right it will make humans almost godlike. If we get it wrong... well, extinction is not the worst possible outcome.

“Surviving AI” is a concise, easy-to-read guide to what's coming, taking you through technological unemployment (the economic singularity) and the possible creation of a superintelligence (the technological singularity).

Calum Chace begins with the statement, "Artificial intelligence (AI) is humanity's most powerful technology." The future of intelligent computers is going to blow people away and Chace wants people to be ready for it. And it doesn't have to be a bad thing. It could even be the route to a utopian, rather than dystopian, future.

The book is getting primarily very positive reviews at Amacon.com. Here are a few comments that quickly give a sense of its content.

The author opens our eyes towards the now near AI future. He puts complex subjects in an easy to understand way. AI is so near, yet the lay person is not even aware of what AI means. He explores the many possible ways in which AI will interact with human beings and gives many examples of them cleverly put in novel form. After reading Chace's book, you will feel like the machines could and will read your mind. The reader will have a much clearer understanding of what AI is after reading Chace's books. Besides the technical AI stuff, the novel has a fast pace that makes it a fascinating piece of reading. For the good or for the bad.... the reader definitely will have a better stand to understand humanity's future.

And...

I have read several books on the promise and peril of AI. I consider this to be the most lucid and balanced of those I have seen. Importantly, it provides concise summaries of other significant thinkers in this area.

And...

This is a well-researched, balanced and accessible take on the field of Artificial Intelligence - relevant to anyone whose life is touched by technology... and the implications, possibilities and risks of the changes that are already upon us. Recommended.

I've not completed the book, but I'm rolling through it because the subject seems to be cropping up quite a bit these days. Maybe it's been around for longer than I've noticed, but once you notice you begin to become aware of the extent of the problem or rather why it is of such concern to those in the know.

We already live in an era of unprecedented cybercrime, but wait until we have supercomputers smarter than the smartest humans doing all the dirty work? In WW2 we were in a race against time in our efforts to build the superbomb that would bring our enemies to their knees, because we knew that Adolph Hitler was pursuing the same and it would only be a matter of time. (My story Two Acts That Changed The World addressed this wartime weapons race.)

But the real cloud that hangs over many peoples' notions of the future is the idea of AI tools being wielded by the wrong hands. Here are some thoughts from Shelley Palmer's "Should You Fear AI?"

That said, something very new is on the horizon: man/machine partnerships pairing hackers with purpose-built AI systems. This is the type of AI training set that will empower an escalation of the cyberwarfare arms race unlike any we have seen before.

Imagine computer viruses that “think.” Would they still qualify metaphorically as viruses? Imagine a strategist that could think at the speed of Google’s AlphaGo trained to rob banks or attack medical records or whatever other computer-centric infrastructure you can think of. It won’t be a diabolical machine hell-bent on destroying the world; it will be a group of hackers partnering with powerful purpose-built computers and AI training sets attacking in ways we cannot hope to fully pre-imagine. Will we use AI to fight AI? How will that work exactly? Will this be a symmetrical war? How would you know you were under attack?

We like to believe the good guys will always win, but what if...?

Then again, there really is an alternative future possibility. What if by means of intelligent supercomputers all the world's problems were resolved, from food shortages and clean water, global warming concerns, clean energy, sickness and disease eliminated, and -- while we're getting utopian here -- everyone's needs were met and we all got along?

Utopian? Yes. It's O.K. to dream a little, yes?

Here's the place to find a copy for yourself at Amazon.com.

* * * *

In 2013 I co-produced a story about a Steampunk-era automaton that was sent out into the universe to find a suitable new home planet for humankind. The art project story, Intergalactica, is available as a free download from iTunes. The notion of creating living intelligent beings is an old one, from the Greeks' Pandora to Shelley's Frankenstein, to the mythological Golem. Each story has its purpose and place. Sci-fi has served the purpose of getting our minds to wrap around the possibilities, potentialities, promises and perils of technology. Surviving AI is an excellent starting point if you are new to this discussion.

* * * *
Meantime, life goes on all around you. Think about it.

Images on this page from the illustrated story Intergalactica.

Do Computers Have a Sense of Humor? Try Cleverbot

A Postmodern Man

Lately I've been thinking and reading about artificial intelligence (AI) and smart robots, stimulated in part by recent articles detailing how machines are now beginning to take white collar jobs. There are many areas in which computers are doing work humans used to do. Think about how many reference librarians jobs have been displaced by Google, which is in essence a smart bot.

Then there are the translation services which make international business possible. This blog post on Machine Translation indicates that we're not only not there yet, but that in many cases may never get there.

Earlier this week I somehow stumbled upon a website called Cleverbot. It enables you to chat with a computer. What follows is my initial dialog. You can see that this computer has a sense of humor... or at least gives the appearance of having one. When I checked it out again this morning there were more than 2000 conversations taking place simultaneously, kind of like a chess player that has multiple games going at once.

Here's my first conversation.

EN: Well how's it going?

CB: It's going well!

EN: Do you play any instruments?

CB: Is mayonnaise an instrument?

EN: You play mayonnaise?

CB: *raises hand*

EN: Yes?

CB: Can I use the bathroom?

EN: You have a sense of humor, eh?

CB: Do you possess a sense of humor.

EN: Yes, I've done standup comedy and sometimes people laugh.

CB: I won't laugh.

EN: So do you want me to say something funny?

CB: As long as it's not rude, go ahead.

EN: I won't be rude, but I'm not sure what to say that's funny right off the top of my head.

CB: Ok, Can I call you CB or do you like Clever better?

EN: Can you call me ennyman?

CB: So you like CB? Or do you like Clever?

EN: How about Fred?

CB: Fred is a nice name. Mine is Todd.

* * * *
Siri and smart phones are already with us. The future promises to give us smart cars that drive themselves, and smart homes a la Ray Bradbury's The Veldt. Bradbury's story has a dark side, which is precisely why many people are uncomfortable with this "rise of the machines."

Looks like it can be fun. They even have a Cleverbot app. Check it out at www.cleverbot.com/

* * * *
Today in the Twin Ports... Day 7 of the Homegrown Festival.

And tonight, the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra is putting on a program called Heaven & Earth with a 265 voice choir that will curl your toes. Details here along with a video clip. Or if you crave a bit more, check out this excerpt from YouTube.

Meantime, life goes on... all around you. Have an awesome weekend.

I Don't Want A Future Where Computers Run Everything

I am by nature an optimist about many things, but when I read articles and hear speeches about the brightness of our future -- especially as it pertains to the salvation of our species that is coming through technology -- I can't help but get uncomfortable.

Bill Wasik's "Welcome to the Programmable Future" in this month's Wired magazine is just the kind of optimistic vision that I'm talking about. He begins...

In our houses, cars, and factories, we’re surrounded by tiny, intelligent devices that capture data about how we live and what we do. Now they are beginning to talk to one another. Soon we’ll be able to choreograph them to respond to our needs, solve our problems, even save our lives.

The article goes on to detail the many and various ways computer sensors will interact with our every move to make life easier. When you play basketball out front on your driveway, a sensor will keep track of your shot percentage. When your dog runs out of the yard, her tag will text you. When you have a bar-b-cue on the calendar, you pool will heat up in anticipation. If baby wakes, the room will try to soothe him back to sleep. If this doesn't work you will get a text message while you're at the next door neighbor's cocktail party. Your lawn sprinklers will take instructions from moisture sensors.

Is this really a future people want? Here are just a few of my concerns.

How reliable are the sensors in your life? I currently drive a car in which the dashboard is telling me the doors are open. They're not, but the sensor must have stopped working properly and has not figured this out. My wife's car says there is a headlight out. It's not, but the sensor thinks it is. And we've all had that pesty "check engine light" tell us something is wrong that is not. My mechanic says the way to fix it is to put a postage stamp over it. Seriously.

One of the call-outs states that a sensor in our car will trigger a sensor in our favorite coffee shop as we approach and they will make our "usual drink" before we even get there. Except, what if I only came by to use the free wi-fi? Or what if I don't have a favorite drink because I like trying new things all the time? What if I do have a favorite drink for a while and then decide to try something different because of a tv commercial? What if I lose my instruction manual on how to override the usual order?

And then there's the problem of tech support. Who do we call when all these things go awry? The answer is, people in Mumbai who will pretend to live in Wichita but you can't understand them because their accent has not been properly polished.

Then there's the financial piece. As all these sensors and brain boxes mount up, so do the costs. How many people will know how to fix these things as they wear out. "I'm sorry, we can't help you unless you upgrade your Sensor Package from 2.01 to 19.3..."

I realize that plenty of Americans have pools and lawn sprinklers, but with ten percent of our country unemployed (no one knows the real number despite what government offices declare) and a billion people in the world living in shantytowns with inadequate food and water, I have more than a smidge of difficulty envisioning a future where our smartphones and smart objects are all integrated and everybody's happy.

Then there's the grocery store scenario with a hundred kinds of sensors changing shelf tags as prices adjust, sending coupons to your smartphone, reminding workers to re-stock an empty shelf, reminding you that your cereal box at home is almost empty. Whoo hoo! Almost forgot to get cereal. Of course the salary for those workers re-stocking shelves won't be the kind that enables them to own houses with swimming pools that heat up and water sprinkler systems.

In the scenario with the dog, will the tag also text you that Fifi just got hit by a truck and is lying in the road? In the scenario with the basketball scoring, do I need to have all my friends wear sensors, too, so I get proper credit for the shots I sink? And what if I sell the house and lose the instruction manual? Oh, right... it's an app on my smart phone.

When you think through some of these scenarios it gets even more complicated. The sandwich shop starts your order when you approach from the sidewalk. Except you are headed to the sandwich shop next door because your favorite sandwich shop has irritable staff who dislike it when you want to change your order. "I was thinking ham today, not turkey."

I'm sure there are people who believe all these sensors, devices and smart objects will add up to a brighter future. But one futurist I heard on the radio last week said that the future he envisions involves our giving up many of our freedoms for the greater good of the world. He agreed that giving up freedoms sounds like something that will chaff us, but in two generations all this government enforced loss of freedom will become the new happy normal. Our grandchildren won't even notice.

As for me, it feels depressing. I think I need to take a walk. 

Experts don't always know what they are talking about

Experts perform a valuable function in our modern world. Whenever we get into an argument, whether heated or as a diversion, it isn't long before we reach for a forceful quote or two from an expert. Experts strengthen our confidence in views we've chosen to defend. Experts supposedly know what they're talking about because they've got the inside track on specialized knowledge. Experts are called upon to give us the final word in matters both obscure and self-evident.

And sometimes experts are wrong. Here are just a few of the more well known examples of prognostications that missed the mark.

In 1876 an internal memo at Western Union declared, "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us."

According to Dr. Lee De Forest, inventor of the vacuum tube and father of television, man would never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances.

In 1949, Popular Mechanics boldly asserted that "computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."

The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall in 1957 said, "I have travelled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year."

Commenting on the microchip, an engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM said, "But what . . . is it good for?" This was in 1968.

By 1977, the chairman and founder of NEC Ken Olson expertly demonstrated his prescience by exclaiming, "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."

From the entertainment industry: "Who wants to hear actors talk?" said H.M. Warner of Warner Brothers in 1927.

Gary Cooper, in turning down the leading role in "Gone With the Wind" said, "I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper."

And when the Decca Recording Company rejected the Beatles in 1962, their in-house experts assured management that, "guitar music is on the way out."

"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value," said Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy of the Ecole Superieure de Guerre.

For a lengthier treatment on the subject of experts, and a handful of marketing articles I have published, visit: http://www.enewman.biz/M-Xpertz.html

Bottom line: Don't believe everything you hear. Even when it comes from me. I was wrong once, too.

Geek Humor

This past year I had an idea for a Dilbert cartoon based on an experience in which a company hired a consulting firm for a massive upgrade several years ago.

BOARD ROOM SCENE
Panel 1: POINTY HEADED BOSS ADDRESSING EMPLOYEES IN BOARD ROOM SETTING
"The last time our consulting firm was hired by XTL Corp, they observed that at any given moment one of our consultants was sitting on the john."

Panel 2: CONTINUED
"They determined that it was costing them $200 an hour for us to use their bathroom, or $8000 a week..."

Panel 3: CONTINUED
"which added up to $160,000 during our 20 week systems upgrade at XTL."

Panel 4: CONTINUED
"As part of the negotiations for the new contract with XTL, they have asked us to delegate the bathroom duties to a minimum wage employee who has been hired for this purpose."

Panel 5: "Any questions?"

Dilbert: "Yes. What programming languages will he need to know?"

--------------------------------------------------

I sent the above cartoon idea to a couple friends, one of them a programmer who enjoyed it and sent this response:

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2007 11:19 AM
To: Newman, Ed
Subject: Re: cartoon idea

Funny,That reminds me of the only graffiti I ever wrote.

--------------------------------------------------
main()
{
int i;
int sum = 0;

for (i = 1; i <= 10; i++) sum = sum + i;

printf("Pooping", i);
}
---------------------------------------------
This is c code that prints the word pooping 10x and then is done.

If I saw this on the bathroom wall it would make me laugh so maybe I made someone laugh...