Yesterday, I wrote this:
The Turing Test is what will determine when computers have achieved artificial intelligence. When a person talking to a chatbot cannot tell that it is a chatbot, the threshold will have been crossed.
We are moving in the other direction. Although there are no computer programs which can yet successfully emulate human beings, there are apparently plenty of human beings who are capable of acting like computers.
Today, I saw this. Its developers say it will help autistic children learn how to interact socially. Which is, no doubt a worthy goal. It is, however, sort of weird and ironic that human beings are using computers to learn how to act like human beings.
Mary – a better human being than you
Also, as with every invention, it will be used in a lot of ways its inventors have not envisioned. Some company, soon, will start using this program, or one of its descendants, to train their sales people. Their sales will go through the roof.
Public relations people, and lobbyists, will practice their pitches in front of it. It will become the standard training method for news anchors. They are already half way there. Listen to them. One superfluously emphasized word in every sentence, just like William Hurt in broadcast news.
Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses will do hours of drills on this before they head out door to door, trained (conditioned) to look you straight in the eye, smile when you smile, nod when you nod, modulate their speech to your personal rhythm, and essentially hypnotize you into accepting the word of the lord.
Even the more ambitious girl scouts will polish up their cookie selling pitch.
Scariest of all, politicians will start using this program. I expect that to happen very soon. I read a science fiction short story like that once. The woman became president of the PTA. Within a few years, she had taken over the world.
This is scary stuff.
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