Artificial Intelligence

Introduction

They call it "Artificial Intelligence", not "Super Intelligence" or "Real Intelligence" because it is not real or intelligent.

In the Bonzo Dog Band song "Shirt" from "Tadpoes" there's a section that goes:

Good morning. Could I have this shirt cleaned "express," please?

Yes, that'll be three weeks, dearie

Three weeks? But the sign outside says 59-minute cleaners!

Yes, that's just the name of the shop, luv. We take three weeks to do a shirt

Just the name of the shop!?

It seems that "Artificial Intelligence" is just a convenient brand name and does in no way describe the product.

So Where Did It Come From and Where Is It Going?

Since the dawn of time, humans have generally looked at trying to find ways to do things faster and more efficiently, at first to survive and then to build and progress.

Take the wheel, a simple concept but the effect it had on transport and moving things was phenomenal, and it is still with us today.

Writing was done by hand but Gutenberg invented the printing press. It didn't stop people from writing but it meant that prints could be mass-produced.

I am sure that some people saw this as taking away their skills.

The abacus helped with counting and calculating with numbers larger than the ten that we could count on our fingers and toes.

Roman and Arabic Numerals combined with writing on paper helped develop manual mathematics.

During the Industrial Revolution Luddites smashed factories because they saw their manual jobs being replaced by machines. The reality was that goods became cheaper due to "economies of scale". When Henry Ford built the Model T he wanted all of his employees to be able to afford a car. That was Hitler's intention with the original Volkswagen Beetle, but he was still the personification of evil.

Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage created the Difference Engine but it was not until Alan Turing that computers started to take off.

The thing is computers just do what they are told, but they become faster and faster over the years. We want results quicker and quicker. In the seventies, Dan Bricklin invented the Spreadsheet and the video of how that came about is in my story about analysing Facebook here:

So What Is "Artificial Intelligence" Then?

Anything a human can create with digital tools a computer, with programming can emulate. I am not sure whether they can pass a Turing Test but this is about creating art forms.

I use tools to create art, because I cannot do it myself and it would be economically unfeasible to pay an artist to do art for my Vocal stories or even my book covers.

I know we writers are threatened by tools that write fiction, but Vocal have ended up in the awkward position of allowing AI-generated stories. The problem being is that we have to assume they cannot easily spot AI-generated or plagiarised stories and so trust users to tell us when a story is AI-generated.

I agree with the attitude:

"Why should I read something that someone couldn't be bothered to write?"

"AI" is a tool, and if it is used correctly then it is fine. I never pretend my art is real art and give it away on Pixabay:

Though this is one of mine that became the cover of a single:

AI is fine if it used as a tool, but if you think of it like a crowbar. It is OK for its intended purpose but not for smashing down a door to rob somewhere.

Conclusion

Thank you so much for reading and I would love to hear your opinions.