It’s been one week since I made the dubious decision to finally join Facebook – a decision which immediately caused me to have my account ‘temporarily suspended’ presumably by an AI.
Despite this suspension, I have been able to log into that account via the mobile phone through which I set up the account. It is simply that I cannot access it via my desktop or tablet which currently is the source of annoyance.
And so, in the past week I have been adding various friends, kinfolk, and former colleagues as Facebook friends. I have also been reading or watching various Facebook information videos, sources of great fascination such as timelines for the mostly spoken languages since 1900 on a real time basis, or who has won the most World Cups on a real time basis, deaths in the Second World War by country by year, or countries with the most Miss World Winners (my favourite of those, obviously).
These sorts of information graphics are obviously created by AI. It would take a computer genius with OCD over statistics many months to create the sorts of dynamic graphics on something like language use or war casualties.
But there are some other clues. Where such videos have voices, the voice seems to be artificially generated, and frequently mispronounces fairly easy words. There are some odd terms used. In a video listing overrated people from history, Che Gueverra is described as having been appointed the ‘Pastor’ for economic affairs in Cuba, and Malcolm X is compared unfavourably to Martin Luther ‘Ruler’.
It is obvious that only an AI could substitute ‘pastor’ for ‘minister’ and ‘Ruler’ for ‘King’. A human intelligence is nimble enough to discern context.
So, just like in Blade Runner, the replicants are not yet quite ready to walk amongst us undistinguishable from us.
Lost For Words! 