What Dragon Ball can teach us about AI… err, AGI…?
A story of endless power ups, meaningless narrative, and infinite fighting
AGI is rising. It is collecting more and more press these days. If you hadn’t heard — AGI is Artificial General Intelligence. It is different from AI… you know, generally speaking. More specifically, it refers to computer algorithms that are actually capable of human-style reasoning and thinking.
Wait! Isn’t that what AI is? Well, yes … sort of. Not so much anymore? Well, at least not to the intellectual elite. Wait… who gave them that title?
It is a bit like an episode of Dragon Ball.
They all just sort of look the same. Until they don’t. I am referring to Saiyans, an odd group of aliens that love to fight, engage in endless narrative, and grow stronger each time they almost die.
Which is to say that Saiyans are a lot like analytic buzzwords. They show up feeling a little clumsy, dumb, or sometimes evil. But after a whole lot of training people start to like them. At which point they start to collect broader powers, this actually distinguishes them less and less from other buzzwords/saiyans to the point that it is really hard to tell the difference!
Dragon Ball at least gives us color codes. Rather than AGI — maybe we would have been better off with AI Blue?
Hype or power. Saiyans or acronyms. Screaming or headlines. Endless descriptive narrative or… well, that isn’t even analogous. It is just identical. Training is training. Hell, Machine Learning (in this analogy AI’s son with an Earth woman) has even introduced GAN!
What is GAN ?
GAN is a general advisarial network. So now AI even fights other AI! It’s like a… tournament.
Now you’re talkin’.
Let’s talk about talking.
Love it or hate it. Dragon Ball is highly formulaic. It is a bit like a giant algorithm. We are introduced to a character that looks a lot like all the other characters. That character will inevitably fight another character. Sometimes for fun, sometimes to the death, or often both. During the fight, each character will prattle on endlessly about their various moves, health level, and strategy. It is a bit like taking a call from the AI sales guy.
Sometimes talking seems to account for far more screen time than any of the battles. Sometimes the characters dance in that weird Anime way that makes you wish they’d go back to talking. Sometimes they just scream, a lot. Do you ever feel like AI is more talk than action? … yeah, me neither
Is It Endless?
It certainly feels that way. There are well over 600 episodes spanning several decades. Of course, analytic buzzwords (including AI) have that beat. They have been around much longer and with each new episode we get higher power levels, new characters who look a lot like the old ones, and a story line that is so predictable — it is almost comforting.
Sometimes Things Die
But only to be resurrected in the a few episodes. The time off allows new characters / buzzwords to flourish and develop. Eventually, they start to look an awful lot like the old ones! So we just bring those back to keep things confusing.
Note — If DB is helpful in its color coding, it is not in the least when it comes to names — Goku, Gohan, Goten, Gotenks… go crazy. But then AI vs AGI?
Dragon Balls Saiyans have been around so long, they now have God-like powers!
Of course, so will our coming AI overlords. One can only imagine that after a lot of narrative and some screaming, they themselves will be replaced by Super AI Overlords… or will it be Overlords II? Maybe we will be lucky enough to see Overlords Blue.
What really matters is who would win in a fight?
DB characters prattle on endlessly about who is stronger. It is a bit like listening to a debate on Reddit about which programming language is better. Yes, at least some of the characters involved keep claiming that each one is different and special in some way or another. But to the outside observer, that is not at all obvious.
To make matters worse, when two characters/technologies start appearing to be a bit weaker than the others — the next thing you know they start dancing around and merging! The good ones anyway… the bad ones just eat the others and take on their powers. Remember text analysis… now NLP?
Does it seem like things with generic names are more likely to get eaten. Android 17 anyone?
In the end, even the new combination will be over powered by a new player or technique that looks oddly a lot like the old one. Really, things just seem to get bigger, faster, and more powerful — but the outcomes never really change. Ah, fiction… wait?
So yes — even Dragon Ball has a lesson or two to teach us about AI and analytics. Or maybe it is really a lesson in human nature? Ah, let’s not go too deep — this is Dragon Ball after all. Thanks for reading!
A Dragon Ball Quiz Question —
What do you do with a data set that displays deviant behavior but only in very unusual circumstances?
Leave your answer in the comments.
