Remembrance of Things Past, Current Events and Further Evidence of Human Weakness
You may recall reading the article in the 12/05/2023 Spectrum section, “The Great Worm” by Charles Apple which recounted the story of one of the first viruses to infect the 1968 version of the Internet. Back then it was called the ARPANET because it was funded by the Advanced Research Project Agency of the Department of Defense. Coincidentally, I began working as a technical writer and programmer using the Arpanet via the ILLIAC IV Computer (Bouknight, W.J.; Denenberg, Stewart; McIntyre, David; Randall, J.M.; Sameh, Amed; Slotnick, Daniel (April 1972). "The Illiac IV System" (PDF). Proceedings of the IEEE. 60 (4): 369–388. )
at the University of Illinois in 1969 and had an opportunity to observe the burgeoning growth of the nascent network into the WWW or the World Wide Web or simply, the “Web”.
This brought back memories of using the network to submit jobs to other computers on the network located in California rather than the local ones in Illinois to enhance turn-around time as they were two hours earlier with corresponding lighter loads. I had an opportunity to work with some of the guiding lights in Computer Science such as Dan Slotnick, creator of the ILLIAC IV, and Doug Englebart, the creator of the mouse --- which we all now take for granted as an input device on our desk and laptop computers. To view one of his delightful conference presentations, visit Youtube and search on “Mother of All Demos” by SRI’s Doug Engelbart and Team” He also was fond of telling the story of how he traveled the world introducing various company secretaries to this new mouse technology. In one instance, after he was asked how to use it, he casually replied something like, “Oh, it’s intuitive, just move the mouse and the cursor will move correspondingly on your computer screen.” So she picks up the mouse and starts waving it around in the air, puzzled that the cursor on the screen is not only not moving correspondingly, but it is not moving at all! He had to explain that the mouse had to be on its pad for it to work. This confirmed the insight that nothing about a really new technology is intuitive! We’ve come a long way from the introduction of the earliest technology and have had to continually learn how to use it safely and humanely --- unfortunately, not always successfully.
Well, enough reminiscing about the “old” days --- what I have been following lately is the melodrama involving Sam Altman’s shocking dismissal from OpenAI (creator of the the first commercially available Artificial Intelligent application: ChatGPT). The drama gets juicier as we learn that he plans leaworlving to join Microsoft bringing along over 700 of the 770 OpenAI employees with him (creating a reverse company take-over, perhaps more aptly described as a “leave-under”). Many twists and turns later, OpenAI announces that Altman will return as CEO and the company’s board of directors is overhauled replacing the only two women members by males setting off speculation of sex discrimination.
Altmann’s situation has been compared to that of the visionary Steve Jobs, who in 1976, along with his friend Stephen Wozniak, a computer engineer, founded Apple Computer in Jobs' parents' garage. "We started Apple because we wanted the product ourselves," Jobs said in 1991. "We didn't start out to build a large company. We started out to build a few dozen computers for us and our friends” After butting heads with Apple's board of directors, Jobs left the company in 1985 and started a new computer company called NeXT. Apple was struggling without Jobs, and in 1996, the company bought NeXT and hired Jobs as an adviser. He later became Apple's CEO and led the company to be one of the most profitable corporations in the world. (https://www.kcra.com/article/steve-jobs-apple-2011-death-this-day-in-history/)
Regarding Altman’s situation, “The senior employees described Altman as psychologically abusive, creating chaos at the artificial-intelligence start-up — complaints that were a major factor in the board’s abrupt decision to fire the CEO.” (https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/12/08)
Other sources suggest that the board was irked by Altman’s desire to quickly ship new products and models rather than slowing things down and being careful to emphasize safety. Most observers, analysts, and talking-heads seem to agree that, at its core, this was a dispute between the “boomers'' and the “doomers” (the boomers being driven by the glitter of technology and the opportunity to make a quick buck and the doomers being the ones worried about AI becoming AGI or Artificial General Intelligence whose goal is to mimic and eventually surpass human intelligence at which point conjectures range from: a) humanity is doomed and becomes slaves to the will of the machine or b) humanity and the machine merge to become super-creatures and we all live happily ever after in the New Eden we have re-created for ourselves.
The irony of the situation at OpenAI was that it was envisioned as providing a tool for all of humanity and not just its stockholders. Its Mission Statement was,
“ OpenAI is a non-profit artificial intelligence research company. Our goal is to advance digital intelligence in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return. Since our research is free from financial obligations, we can better focus on a positive human impact.”
However, this lofty intention proved to be beyond the reach of frail humanity and OpenAI submitted to what many consider to be the root of all evil: the greed for money. (personally, I think it all comes down to greed for power or control and money is just one of the means for achieving that goal...)
On a positive note, this incident could not only leave the company stronger but will draw world-wide attention to the need for the regulation of Artificial Intelligence and should strengthen the resolve to return to the original mission for all technological advances: to serve humanity. On the other hand, it will not be an easy path to follow. Regulation will be difficult as all of the previous and current guidelines are based on risks posed by specific applications and AI is, in and of itself, not the application but the means to effect and enhance it, It will not be enough to have warning labels as do all drugs (Take no more than three doses per day and do no mix with Tylenol; if condition persists, immediately contact nearest System Administrator.)
Meanwhile, we human bystanders can only laugh and/or cry as our leaders struggle with yet another self-inflicted dilemma. “We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies - it is the first law of nature.” (Voltaire) Pergite!
