On 11/24/2023 11:01 PM, pete...@gmail.com wrote:
> The recent drama at OpenAI kind of feels like the opening chapters
> of a Technological Singularity novel.
>
> Pt

Definitely a Michael Crichton novel candidate.

I found ELIZA to be fairly creepy back when I tried it out 30+ years
ago. I suspect a few SF stories used it back then.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA

Lynn

On Monday, November 27, 2023 at 2:50:52 PM UTC-7, Lynn McGuire wrote:

> I found ELIZA to be fairly creepy

What makes you think that ELIZA is fairly creepy?

Sorry, I couldn't resist. As is well known, though, the
"intelligence" of ELIZA is all an illusion; it just takes
words from what the user has typed, and puts them into
a limited number of canned reply phrases.
It's only real intelligence is picking out substantive
words and ignoring conjunctions and the like.

So your example suggests that, if the situation with
current AI is similar, that the capabilities of current
AI are not frightening, the only scary thing is what
people mistakenly imagine it to be.

But that's overoptimistic. "General" intelligence may
be years - or ages - away, but current AI technology
does have some genuinely impressive capabilities.

John Savard

On Mon, 27 Nov 2023 15:50:47 -0600, Lynn McGuire
<lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:

>On 11/24/2023 11:01 PM, pete...@gmail.com wrote:
>> The recent drama at OpenAI kind of feels like the opening chapters
>> of a Technological Singularity novel.
>>
>> Pt
>
>Definitely a Michael Crichton novel candidate.
>
>I found ELIZA to be fairly creepy back when I tried it out 30+ years
>ago. I suspect a few SF stories used it back then.
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA

Crichton's "The Terminal Man" had a bit listing a conversation between
a friendly AI program and a hostile one (both text-based, being the
70s), likely intended as a hint of what was going to happen to the Man
in question.

I don't think that scene made it into the movie version (with George
Segal playing against type).

--
Jerry Brown

A cat may look at a king
(but probably won't bother)

On 27/11/2023 15.50, Lynn McGuire wrote:
> On 11/24/2023 11:01 PM, pete...@gmail.com wrote:
>> The recent drama at OpenAI kind of feels like the opening chapters
>> of a Technological Singularity novel.
>
> Definitely a Michael Crichton novel candidate.
>
> I found ELIZA to be fairly creepy back when I tried it out 30+ years ago.  I suspect a few SF stories used it back then.
>    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA

In the early 1980s, I managed to hack into a copy of it and was briefly
amused. I then showed it to Tammy, who was a programmer where I was
working. She sat down and started interacting with it. After three or
four lines of dialogue, she turned to me and said, "Mike, could you
please leave? This is getting pretty personal."

I was amazed that anybody smart enough to be a programmer could be
fooled by such simple text manipulation. So much for the Turing Test!

--
Michael F. Stemper
Economists have correctly predicted seven of the last three recessions.

On Tue, 28 Nov 2023 13:08:21 -0600, "Michael F. Stemper"
<michael.stemper@gmail.com> wrote:

>On 27/11/2023 15.50, Lynn McGuire wrote:
>> On 11/24/2023 11:01 PM, pete...@gmail.com wrote:
>>> The recent drama at OpenAI kind of feels like the opening chapters
>>> of a Technological Singularity novel.
>>
>> Definitely a Michael Crichton novel candidate.
>>
>> I found ELIZA to be fairly creepy back when I tried it out 30+ years ago.  I suspect a few SF stories used it back then.
>>    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA
>
>In the early 1980s, I managed to hack into a copy of it and was briefly
>amused. I then showed it to Tammy, who was a programmer where I was
>working. She sat down and started interacting with it. After three or
>four lines of dialogue, she turned to me and said, "Mike, could you
>please leave? This is getting pretty personal."
>
>I was amazed that anybody smart enough to be a programmer could be
>fooled by such simple text manipulation. So much for the Turing Test!

It has been a long time since I read it, but IIRC in Joseph
Weizenbaum's /Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgement to
Calculation/ the author had a similar experience with his secretary.
--
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

Michael F. Stemper <michael.stemper@gmail.com> wrote:
>I was amazed that anybody smart enough to be a programmer could be
>fooled by such simple text manipulation. So much for the Turing Test!

It goes both ways. I had a roommate in college who could not pass the
Turing Test either. He was indistinguishable from a random phrase
generator.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

On Tue, 28 Nov 2023 13:08:21 -0600, "Michael F. Stemper"
<michael.stemper@gmail.com> wrote:

> I was amazed that anybody smart enough to be a programmer could be
> fooled by such simple text manipulation. So much for the Turing Test!

Was she fooled, or was she using it as intended?

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at centurylink dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/

On Thursday, 30 November 2023 at 03:00:35 UTC, Joy Beeson wrote:
> On Tue, 28 Nov 2023 13:08:21 -0600, "Michael F. Stemper"
> <michael...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I was amazed that anybody smart enough to be a programmer could be
> > fooled by such simple text manipulation. So much for the Turing Test!
> Was she fooled, or was she using it as intended?

But is there a difference!

On Mon, 27 Nov 2023 15:50:47 -0600, Lynn McGuire
<lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:

>I found ELIZA to be fairly creepy back when I tried it out 30+ years
>ago. I suspect a few SF stories used it back then.
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA
>
As I remember, some of my buddies way back when obtained a copy of the
source code of one of the more detailed versions and reworked it into
a sexy bombshell version. Imagine an even more over the top Leisure
Suit Larry.

(Fortunately I graduated about that time and lost track of these
guys...)