(Written in 2016) After a recent survey of liberal friends regarding inequality, some common themes crystallized: We seem to genuinely share the desire for a better world. We want a world without dire poverty, for everyone to have a chance to succeed, to have better health and other technology, and…

ChatGPT is amazing. It really is. It can write romantic poems, summarize complex text, provide engaging fun conversations, and answer sophisticated general knowledge questions. It can also produce a fake report for your boss of what you’ve (supposedly) been working on for the last few days — complete with perfectly…

Exponential advances in technology are vastly improving our lives. Sadly, at the same time, lack of progress in moral theory is undermining this bonanza — in fact threatening our very survival. There are many reasons for ethics’ stagnation — the following I consider prime suspects: Lack of definition of the…

Freewill and determinism are both true. This philosophical position, called compatibilism, requires a true and specific understanding of the two key concepts involved. A number of core problems and misconceptions have so far prevented this view from becoming generally accepted: A mis-identification of what “freewill” actually refers to. Confusion between…

TRUE MORALITY — RATIONAL PRINCIPLES FOR OPTIMAL LIVING — Ethics, or morality, is a system of principles that helps us tell right from wrong, good from bad. This definition, by itself, tells us nothing about the standard by which we establish or measure right and wrong. The centuries have seen many different approaches to ethics; none seem to be…

“By 2020, 85% of consumer interactions will be managed by Chatbots and the average person will have more conversations a day with bots than they do with their spouse.” — Gartner 2016 “In 2018, 94% of adults have experienced frustration while using Chatbots.” — The Harris Poll 2019 There are…

How Real AI will improve our lives — Most AI that we see around us today is narrow and not very intelligent. It doesn’t learn interactively, doesn’t have common sense, and can’t reason or explain itself. ‘Real AI’ or Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is just starting to emerge and becoming available. AGI inherently has the attributes we’d expect…

Amazon’s Alexa recently received some deservedly bad press for a spectacular failure: She mistakenly sent a recording of a couple’s private conversation to one of their employees! Now in their defense one could say that any complex technology is bound to fail in some rare unforeseen circumstances. Amazon explained that: …

Today, so called ‘personal assistants’ aren’t PAs, and they aren’t personal. First of all, you’d expect a PA to understand and remember some random, but important fact about yourself; like for example: “I don’t really like sushi”. You would expect your PA to remember this and to take it into…