Frenemies?... April, 2023

 Frenemies? Yet another attempt to understand the relationship between Society and Technology

: 

In the January column, I considered several issues concerning the rise of Chatbots and promised to address them in the February column in the vain hope these issues might be resolved by then. In the Feb issue, I humbly admitted how wrong I was in that instead of resolving issues, it created many more to resolve and so I thought it best to back up and review some basic concepts in order to begin to address the underlying new AI-driven search engines which make Chatbots possible in the first place.

As a result, I reversed my old prediction to a more realistic one in this column and instead will attempt to analyze them monthly as they continue to arise. There are already guide books on the web that promise not only to show you how to use a Chatbot but even on how to pose your questions.

It seems that  many of our solutions only create more interesting problems to satisfy our neverending curiosity about how and why everything works (even The question of “How vs Why” is an ongoing discussion in all of the Sciences). Don’t get the idea that I’m criticizing the trait of curiosity but you have to admit that it has its pros (especially in the field of medicine ) and cons (especially in creating activities for wasting time as well as creating unintended consequences).

While  a cynic could view curiosity as a waste of time, I believe that curiosity is the basic driver in the development of both science and technology, and while it is a double-edged sword, if applied thoughtfully it is an essential ingredient and overall boon to society.  For a more in-depth discussion of “The Importance of Being…Curious”, go to:

https://andersonuniversity.edu/sites/default/files/student-success/importance-of-being-curious.pd

Another good example is explained in the article by Dave Werner  “Unintended Consequences of Safety Technology” published in the 3/29  edition of the very same newspaper you are reading right now. He points out that while the technology in self-driving vehicles makes driving easier, it does not necessarily make it safer as it tends to make drivers lazier and less responsible for their actions leading to more accidents.

OK, enough philosophy and back to Chatbots, the latest hot product available on the Internet. Recall these bots are just apps that you run on your computer that use the latest developments of Artificial Intelligence to enhance the capabilities of your favorite search engine such as Edge, Chrome or Firefox. If you have ever used a search engine you know that it attempts to answer any and all questions (aka “queries” ) ranging from the trivial such as, “How many tennis balls would it take to reach the top of the Eiffel tower” to serious topics like, “Arguments for and against the existence of God'' which, while not exactly a question, is more like a request for information. The weakest part in the design of current search engine technology is that all it does is provide a list of links to explore which it thinks will help with your request. Then, each of these links provides even more links to other sites  that may (or may not) contain the  information you were searching for, so you must continue to explore ones that look promising. This can result in a long, tedious, dragged-out process of searching and remembering the paths taken (saving the information about where the information you want is saved).  So this process which  is supposed to save time and effort results in even more work which may include (God forbid) acquiring more knowledge and skills of how to do this on your personal computer. Makes one wonder if the main purpose of all this tech is to sell more tech.

However, when you use a Chatbot, it’s more like a conversation that you are having with an AI which, like a real person, remembers all of the past conversation so you don't have to completely restructure and repeat your queries as well as have less to keep track of.

 For example, in response to the query,  “Arguments for and against the existence of God”, the ChatBot might respond with a question something like,”any particular God you're interested in?” in order to clarify the task. The conversation continues like this from there on without having to remember previous interactions with the bot because these bots are set up to  display a scrolling text box containing what was said and by whom.  One of the most important skills to acquire on the computer is learning how to construct your questions in such a way that the computer understands precisely what it is you want it to do. Also a good “people skill”.

The number of examples of using a Chatbot on the Internet grows daily and are too numerous to mention.  As a compromise, I decided to use my Microsoft account with Bing’s Chatbot to generate some of my own examples which were responses to “the relationship between technology and society”.  Following is one example  reply from the bot (The complete conversation can be found on my blog at: https://tec-soc.blogspot.com/}.

“Hi there,

I hope this email finds you well. I'm writing to share some thoughts on the relation between technology and society.

Technology is a broad term that encompasses many aspects of human activity, such as tools, machines, systems, processes, information, communication, and innovation. Technology can have positive or negative impacts on society, depending on how it is used, by whom, and for what purposes.

Some of the positive impacts of technology on society include:

- Improving the quality of life and well-being of people by providing access to health care, education, entertainment, and convenience.

- Enhancing the productivity and efficiency of various sectors and industries by enabling faster, cheaper, and better production and delivery of goods and services.

- Fostering creativity and innovation by expanding the possibilities and opportunities for problem-solving, learning, and expression.

- Promoting social change and development by empowering marginalized groups, facilitating civic engagement, and raising awareness of global issues.

Some of the negative impacts of technology on society include:

- Creating new social problems and challenges such as digital divide, cybercrime, privacy invasion, misinformation, and addiction.

- Exacerbating existing social inequalities and conflicts by reinforcing power structures, widening gaps, and generating new forms of discrimination and oppression.

- Harming the environment and natural resources by contributing to pollution, waste, deforestation, climate change, and biodiversity loss.

- Threatening the human dignity and autonomy by reducing human interaction, replacing human labor, and manipulating human behavior.

As you can see, technology and society are interrelated and interdependent. Technology shapes society and society shapes technology. Therefore, it is important to be aware of the potential benefits and risks of technology and to use it responsibly and ethically. Technology is not inherently good or bad; it is what we make of it.

Thank you for reading this email. I hope you found it interesting and informative. Please feel free to reply with your own opinions or questions on this topic.

Sincerely,

Bing

- Exacerbating existing social inequalities and conflicts by reinforcing power structures, widening gaps, and generating new forms of discrimination and oppression.

- Harming the environment and natural resources by contributing to pollution, waste, deforestation, climate change, and biodiversity loss.

- Threatening the human dignity and autonomy by reducing human interaction, replacing human labor, and manipulating human behavior.

As you can see, technology and society are interrelated and interdependent. Technology shapes society and society shapes technology. Therefore, it is important to be aware of the potential benefits and risks of technology and to use it responsibly and ethically. Technology is not inherently good or bad; it is what we make of it.

Thank you for reading this email. I hope you found it interesting and informative. Please feel free to reply with your own opinions or questions on this topic.

Sincerely,

Bing”

P,S. Read this if you’re not sure about the distinctions between Microsoft, Windows, Edge and Bing:

Microsoft is a “Big Tech” corporation that began as a software vendor that is now also selling hardware. The top level of the software which tells the hardware what to do is the Windows Operating System which controls all of the programs which run on the machine (Apps are one  example of a “program”). With the appropriate command to Windows, it will run a program called “Edge” which uses another program called “Bing” which allows you to connect to the Internet which, in turn, makes further connections to other programs in other computers all over the world (that’s why it was once called the World Wide Web (WWW). Whew!

In any case, the new and improved Microsoft Bing browser has been updated and means to become a souped-up browser containing a Chatbot which attempts to provide a more “intelligent” dialogue between you and your computer.  Can it pass the Turing test which is basically “Can a Machine Think”?  In a nutshell, it means that: is it even possible to build a machine that is capable of convincing a human being that they are having an interaction with another human and not a machine?  Not yet, but many computer scientists think that we are well on the way.