Robot Overlords

[thatguy]

I think this topic needs a dedicated thread as the "sex with robots", er... "Robot Love" thread is too specific and not sinister enough.

https://www.neatorama.com/2021/12/29/AI-...pulate-Us/

AI Is Learning How To Manipulate Us
[color=var(--body-font-color)]sodiumnami[/color]
[img=375x0]https://uploads.neatorama.com/images/posts/553/120/120553/AI-Is-Learning-How-To-Manipulate-Us_0-x.jpg[/img]
This is scary. Artificial intelligence (AI) can be taught how to persuade people to make decisions that benefit its creators or owners. This technological marvel can only do so through huge amounts of data from other people obtained by private companies. AI can convince people to do a lot of things, such as buying something, sharing a post, or even voting for a candidate! 

In a study conducted by a team of experts from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia’s federal scientific and research agency, it was discovered that AI could locate and exploit weaknesses in human decision-making, and use that to guide people toward certain decisions. “The implications of this research are potentially quite staggering,” Amir Dezfouli, an expert in machine learning at CSIRO and lead researcher on the study, said in a press release.  

--tg

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https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2...-live-plug

Amazon’s Alexa device tells 10-year-old to touch a penny to a live plug socket

The child had asked the Echo smart speaker for a challenge, prompting her mother to post the response on Twitter




Maya Yang
Wed 29 Dec 2021

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Virtual assistants can set timers for people, play music, control smart home devices, respond to voice commands and set up reminders. As of Sunday, they have also proven their ability to challenge children to lethal dares.

Alexa, Amazon’s virtual assistant, recently advised a 10-year-old girl to touch a penny to a live plug socket after she asked the Echo smart speaker for a challenge.

“My 10 year old just asked Alexa on our Echo for a challenge and this is what she said,” said user Kristin Livdahl in a [url=https://twitter.com/klivdahl/status/1475220450598924297]tweet on Sunday. She accompanied the caption with a screenshot of Alexa’s response.

“Here’s something I found on the web. According to ourcommunitynow.com: The challenge is simple: plug in a phone charger about halfway into a wall outlet, then touch a penny to the exposed prongs,” read Alexa’s response.

The challenge began circulating on TikTok around a year ago and often results in the person getting an electric shock, along with potential fires and serious lifelong injuries.

Users were quick to express their shock and dismay at the tweet, which has since garnered 17,000 likes and more than 3,000 retweets.

One user tweeted, “Omg that’s horrible.”

Others poked fun at the incident, with one saying, “Clearly AMZN’s algorithm realize that by suggesting this challenge customers will later have to buy a lot of stuff to replace everything after the house burned down.”
Another user said, “What did you expect when you outsourced parenting to an AI.”

Amazon said they have since resolved the issue, with a spokesperson telling CNN, “Customer trust is at the center of everything we do and Alexa is designed to provide accurate, relevant, and helpful information to customers.”

“As soon as we became aware of this error, we quickly fixed it, and will continue to advance our systems to help prevent similar responses in the future.”

--tg

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

SkyNet INCOMING!!!!!

[thatguy]

Woof! beep...beep...Woof!

https://boingboing.net/2022/04/05/with-s...reets.html

Shanghai is seeing a new Covid surge, reaching 9,000 cases on Sunday — a city record — with 268 daily cases that are symptomatic, according to Reuters. In a city of 26 million, that seems like a relatively low number of people actually feeling sick from the virus, but China is taking no chances. 

In step with their zero-tolerance stance on Covid, the city is on lockdown, and its abandoned streets look eerie, to say the least. But what turns it into a scene from a dystopian nightmare (or an "adorable" sight, as some feel), is this scuttling robot creature roaming the streets. Similar to the Boston Dynamic dog that patrolled Singapore in the early days of the pandemic, this four-legged robot enforces stay-at-home measures by blasting health announcements through a loudspeaker. Fortunately that's all it does, for now.

--tg