Several U.S. Senate Committees and Subcommittees have been discussing and investigating artificial intelligence (AI), specifically software such at ChapGPT. Of special and legitimate concern is the ability of technology today.
Senator Richard Blumenthal introduced a recent hearing of the Senate Judiciary by playing a recording of him introducing the hearing. Although it was his voice and his speech pattern, it was entirely generated by artificial intelligence, specifically the aforementioned ChatGPT. Such is the ostensible danger of AI. One can easily manufacture a video and audio or anyone saying almost anything.
Blumenthal's committee is looking at rules for AI, its future and how it will affect us humans. Their concern it the disinformation and misinformation that can be easily be faked and spread these days. In short, the robot uprising that Big Band Theory's Sheldon Cooper so passionately wanted may soon be upon us.
I'm not worried.
As much as I agree that AI poses some problems, I'm not worried,
Machines can make our lives easier, faster, and more efficient, but they can't be us. Ever. Just ask Woody Guthrie.
Woody Guthrie had important stuff to say about the world he saw. Many of his songs and writings still have messages of relevance.
"Deportee" and “Pastures of Plenty,” for example, refer to migrant workers who pick crops and continue doing jobs too many of us find beneath.
His union and anti-fascism songs still speak to the working people and lovers of democracy.
As I’ve written before, Woody runs through us.
Sometimes neglected in the mix of Woody’s words, is a prescience about things in the world today.
The book Pastures of Plenty is a collection of previously unpublished prose, verse, songs, and notes. In it is a letter written in 1944 - years before the first IBM mainframe, years for the Internet, years before AI. Guthrie died a year before HAL appeared in 2001, A Space Odyssey.
Who has ever seen, who even ever hopes to see a machine made by the hands of men which grows each day into a living soul, or looks at you and knows you, answers your motions and responds to your call, which is warn as you are warm, living as you are living, growing and learning, hurting, and hoping the same as you. People will mould fine metals into uncanny machinery to do their work, but man will never invent at machine that knows him or hopes with and like him.
The only thing that people have that bugs at bugs, fish, animals, and machines do not is hope.
Look at Woody's work and his life. He still captures who we are.
Out of curiosity, I asked ChatGPT about it. The bot's response was:
If Woody Guthrie were alive today, he would likely approach artificial intelligence with cautious optimism, striving to ensure that progress and innovation are guided by the principles of compassion, equality, and human connection. He would challenge us to harness the power of AI to uplift humanity, foster empathy, and address societal issues rather than perpetuate inequalities. Guthrie's perspective reminds us that while AI offers immense potential, it is our responsibility to shape its trajectory in a way that harmonizes with our shared humanity and values.
Not bad. Not the way I would say it. And maybe what Woody would think. Wait. He did:
Hoping Machine
Don’t let anything knock your props out from under you
Always keep your mind clear, let your plans come out of mistakes
These are the plans and nothing can tear down
Made out of things that have already been torn down
Whatever you do, wherever you go
Don’t lose your grip on life and that means
Don’t let any earthy calamity knock your dreamer and your hoping machine
Music is the language of the mind that travels
Carries the key to the laws of time and space
Lonesome train whistling down the silent wail of wind
Life is the sound, creation has been a song
Whatever you do, wherever you go
Don’t lose your grip on life and that means
Don’t let any earthy calamity knock your dreamer and your hoping machine
Out of order
Quick to manufacture their schemes and ideas
Faster than any turn a tide can wash you out
Word is the music and the people are the song
Tomorrows chances feel like a singing god
Whatever you do, wherever you go
Don’t lose your grip on life and that means
Don’t let any earthy calamity knock your dreamer and your hoping machine
Out of order
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