Artificial intelligence

 

I just finished reading a book by JL Lycette called The Algorithm Will See You Now.  

This is a story about allowing artificial intelligence decide who can or cannot receive medical treatment based more on whether the treatment is good for the profit of the health organization than on what is necessarily good for the patient. It is also a book about human nature and the lies we tell ourselves and others. Would we really be any better at making these rational decisions than a machine? Read the book and decide for yourself. It's a good story. I received an advance review copy for free, and left this review in various places voluntarily.

Artificial intelligence seems to be everywhere these days. 

This morning I have already seen an ad for an AI app that will write stories for me. I'm not interested in that as writing is how I like to express myself. It wouldn't be my story if I let a machine make it up.  It does prove that the algorithms are at play though. Already my tablet knows I was reading and writing about this subject. Why else would this ad pop up, not once, but three times this morning?

I already have an app with AI doing my bidding. I can say "Hey Google" and have any question answered. It's handy to just be able to check the weather before I get dressed, check for any needed conversions or even find out how to use left over egg yolks without even having to type the questions in.  I really should use her more often. I know she's listening because Google will occasionally pop up on her own and ask, "How may I help you?" That normally annoys me but next time I think I will just have her tell me a joke or play a song for me. A little something to brighten my day never hurts.

And, in case you have not noticed, I have been using AI art work on my blog and elsewhere since the beginning of the year. My eldest son has been having a great time with it and since he introduced  me to it I have had it  generate a few images that were useful to me. Sometimes I use them to illustrate my story and other times I use them as a jumping off spot for my own art.  If you look at the AI pictures I have posted so far this year you can tell they are computer generated as they often have obvious flaws in them. Many artists are worried about AI taking over the art world. While it may come in handy for writing factual pieces, and coming up with pictures you cannot find by simply searching I do not believe the human aspect is something  that can ever be totally replaced in either the arts or medicine.  What do you think?