Some three years ago I wrote about the evolution of AI, from just communicating in words to actually manipulating machines, in the broadest sense, and ultimately making these machines but better and even being able to order and build parts to make them. Ultimately AI systems can eliminate humans after we have foolishly educated them in all that we know! Yes, gonzo!
Now one of the next steps has been taken in the Lab as noted by the NY Times, as usual. They note:
On a recent afternoon, scientists buzzed around a lab in Cambridge, Mass., performing experiments. Their equipment was standard: a lab hood for working with dangerous chemicals, an incubator for growing cells. Their procedures were identical to those in biology labs everywhere. A closer look revealed some oddities, though. Along with lab coats and gloves, most of the scientists wore miniature cameras on headbands. Three additional cameras peered down at each work station from a shelf. Lab notebooks were strangely absent. Instead, the scientists quietly narrated their work, murmuring into microphones. A team huddled at one end of the lab, inspecting videos of the experiments. This was the real research taking place in this lab. With a system of sensors and software intended to capture science as it happens, down to the millisecond, scientists were training artificial intelligence models to recognize every object the scientists used and every action they performed. The A.I. even composed its own narrative, describing every few seconds of video with sentences like, “The operator resuspends the pellet by pipetting it up and down 10 times.” The technology is the creation of a start-up called Transfyr, which came out of stealth mode this week with $25 million in seed funding. The company is tackling an age-old challenge in science: the hidden factors that make some experiments succeed and others fail.
This system is training the AI entity to do what it does. Of course the AI entity will soon improve this process, albeit devoid of the human.
We seem so anxious to "train" these entities but fail to consider the results. As I noted recently, an AI entity generated new viruses. The entity may then go directly to the Lab and make them! Without any restrictions.
Should we be fearful of this result. This is not an Asimov robot tale, but a 21st century Terminator!
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