Blog post 4: Artificial Intelligence
Published in
2 min readApr 19, 2018
- I think artificial intelligence is a very confusing topic to take a stance on. On one hand I find it very concerning that people are commenting on a possibility of an electronic take over. I think in current situations it is concerning that technology and machines are getting smarter and taking away some peoples jobs. That makes me align with Ted Chiang’s argument that artificial intelligence is a problem of taking over capitalism and humanity. Although, I think his comment that insight is a big thing to consider that new technologies do not have insight is both a reassurance but also a little scary if our world could be consumed by something without human insight capacity. On the other hand, I understand Newman’s points that systems such as Siri can be beneficial in many ways, like for her son with autism. Although, in a similar product, Amazon’s Alexa, it kind of creeps me out that Alexa is “always listening” because you can just say her name out of the blue and she will respond. I think artificial intelligence is tricky. It has positive and negatives, but ultimately my overall stance would be that it is very concerning as technology continues to progress.
- Ted Chiang and Judith Newman have very opposing opinions on the issue of artificial intelligence. Chiang uses what Elon Musk says about the take over of artificial intelligence and responds to it. He makes notes on the ethos of our current “startup culture” and capitalism. He uses what they say to support his argument that artificial intelligence is bad for humanity’s future and responds with questions other may have. Newman on the other hand uses a lot of her personal experience to support that some technologies, like Siri, are beneficial. She even uses “they say” by using accounts from friends and other children’s benefits from the technology that her son knows and who are in the same school as her. Both arguments are compelling and well constructed.
