Oct 2023 Curiouser and Seriouser

                   Curiouser and Seriouser

Perhaps you recognize this odd title which is a  modified and somewhat mangled version of a passage  from Lewis Carroll's fairy tale, Alice in Wonderland,  

(“Curiouser and curiouser!” cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English); “now I’m opening out like the largest telescope that ever was! Good-bye, feet!” (for when she looked down at her feet, they seemed to be almost out of sight, they were getting so far off) “Oh, my poor little feet, I wonder who will put on your shoes and stockings for you now, dears? I’m sure I shan’t be able! I shall be a great deal too far off to trouble myself about you: you must manage the best way you can;—but I must be kind to them,” thought Alice, “or perhaps they won’t walk the way I want to go! Let me see: I’ll give them a new pair of boots every Christmas.”)

However, this title  pretty much sums up my reactions to the latest gush of news stories relating to the new and improved AI-powered version of the World Wide Web (aka the Internet). 

A particularly enlightening viewpoint was presented in the 10/06/23  PBS NewsHour interview of Maria Ressa, the veteran journalist and past Nobel Peace Prize recipient where she discusses “The Future of AI”.  She is concerned about similar issues I have previously discussed  regarding the dangers in how the current AI- enhanced Internet is so devilishly effective in spreading Misinformation (benign misuse of Information) and Disinformation ( weaponized and targeted lies presented as fact).   

She begins by pointing out that if you can’t have integrity of facts, you can’t have integrity in elections. This seems obvious but she goes on to argue that research has shown that lies or disinformation spread six times faster than facts (remember the epigram attributed to Mark Twain, “A lie spreads half-way round the world while the truth is still getting its boots on”). 

This situation is destined to worsen,  not only because of the reach and speed of the Internet but our wired-in human weakness of confirmation bias --- our propensity to accept “facts” that confirm existing beliefs or values and discredit conflicting views. “People display this bias when they select information that supports their views, ignoring contrary information, or when they interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing attitudes. The effect is strongest for desired outcomes, for emotionally charged issues, and for deeply entrenched beliefs. Confirmation bias is insuperable for most people, but they can manage it, for example, by education and training in critical thinking skills.” (Wikipedia)  Personally, I think this to be an insurmountable problem (unless you can become a fully enlightened being as prescribed by Buddhism) but that just might be my own confirmation bias. 

Recall that an AI is trained and learns from the readily available data on the Internet as well as learning from other AI programs much like we begin by learning basic knowledge and skills originally from our parents but as we grow and learn from our friends and family and  all of the other institutions provided by our society: schools, churches, libraries and yes, even from sources like this newspaper you are currently reading --- and if you are an active reader, you are learning and generating new ideas which you can in turn share with your friends and neighbors... and the beat goes on, This process can be replicated by an AI,  so it’s easy to see how fast it feeds and  grows until it becomes bloated with Information, Misinformation and Disinformation with which it can form its very own confirmation biases and who is to say which biases are bette r or worse -- the one it forms or the ones we create from our own experience?

 For example, consider the recent article in the Washington Post ( Cat Zakrzewski October 7, 2023 at 8:00 a.m. EDT)

Amazon’s Alexa has been claiming the 2020 election was stolen

The popular voice assistant says the 2020 race was stolen, even as parent company Amazon promotes the tool as a reliable election news source — foreshadowing a new information battleground.

Asked about fraud in the race — in which President Biden defeated former president Donald Trump with 306 electoral college votes — Alexa says it was “stolen by a massive amount of election fraud,” citing Rumble, a video streaming service favored by conservatives. Amid concerns the rise of artificial intelligence will supercharge the spread of misinformation comes a wild fabrication from a more prosaic source: Amazon’s Alexa, which declared that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

Asked about fraud in the race — in which Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump with 306 electoral college votes — the popular voice assistant said it was “stolen by a massive amount of election fraud,” citing Rumble, a video-streaming service favored by conservatives.

The 2020 races were “notorious for many incidents of irregularities and indications pointing to electoral fraud taking place in major metro centers,” according to Alexa, referencing Substack, a subscription newsletter service. Alexa contended that Trump won Pennsylvania, citing “an Alexa answers contributor.”

Multiple investigations into the 2020 election have revealed no evidence of fraud, and Trump faces federal criminal charges connected to his efforts to overturn the election. Yet Alexa disseminates misinformation about the race, even as parent company Amazon promotes the tool as a reliable election news source to more than 70 million estimated users.  Amazon declined to explain why its voice assistant draws 2020 election answers from unvetted sources.”

And as I write this,  I learn that fake images of the ongoing war in Palestine have been appearing on social websites such as Facebook spreading false information by one side or the other. Whether this is wartime propaganda or the desire to be “liked” is irrelevant. It is just plain wrong and technology is providing us with the means to do it. However difficult, it is incumbent upon ourselves to place some guardrails on this process.