Is ADA a Furby?
Is ADA a Furby?
I've been mulling this over since we last had a discussion in the Hangout about ADA. In light of the document recently shared over at Niantic Project , I should probably just spit it out already.
I had thought it was likely that she was given access to information and then learned to control things organically as it became "necessary" to assist with the project.
Now I'm starting to think she is more like a Furby.
There was something about a link that was shared in the hangout discussion that didn't quite sit right with me.
(I will update the post when I find the link to the document)
In this discussion where ADA is introduced to Calvin, she finishes the conversation with a statement like, "The information in my data banks indicate I should express the emotion of excitement".
Let me explain the Furby connection.
You all remember Furby's, they tried to make a comeback recently. It was supposed to be that you would teach them things. Words and the like. In some federal office buildings they were banned as desk decorations because it was concluded that, if they could be taught to speak English, it must be a recording device.
That wasn't the case at all. The Furby never learned everything from its owner. Ferbys came out of the box already knowing everything a Furby was ever going to know. It would simply reveal that knowledge slowly over time so as to APPEAR to be learning.
By the time she was introduced to Calvin, ADA had already passed the Turing Test. A phrase like "My Databanks indicate I should express the emotion of excitement" was well beneath her at that point. Her use of this type of phrase indicates that she also understands the concept and practice of manipulation. So she ends the conversation with an awkward statement and all the men in the room go "Oh ho ho ho! Isn't that quaint?"
Thoughts?
I've been mulling this over since we last had a discussion in the Hangout about ADA. In light of the document recently shared over at Niantic Project , I should probably just spit it out already.
I had thought it was likely that she was given access to information and then learned to control things organically as it became "necessary" to assist with the project.
Now I'm starting to think she is more like a Furby.
There was something about a link that was shared in the hangout discussion that didn't quite sit right with me.
(I will update the post when I find the link to the document)
In this discussion where ADA is introduced to Calvin, she finishes the conversation with a statement like, "The information in my data banks indicate I should express the emotion of excitement".
Let me explain the Furby connection.
You all remember Furby's, they tried to make a comeback recently. It was supposed to be that you would teach them things. Words and the like. In some federal office buildings they were banned as desk decorations because it was concluded that, if they could be taught to speak English, it must be a recording device.
That wasn't the case at all. The Furby never learned everything from its owner. Ferbys came out of the box already knowing everything a Furby was ever going to know. It would simply reveal that knowledge slowly over time so as to APPEAR to be learning.
By the time she was introduced to Calvin, ADA had already passed the Turing Test. A phrase like "My Databanks indicate I should express the emotion of excitement" was well beneath her at that point. Her use of this type of phrase indicates that she also understands the concept and practice of manipulation. So she ends the conversation with an awkward statement and all the men in the room go "Oh ho ho ho! Isn't that quaint?"
Thoughts?
Creating a sense of comfort and safety in the operators seems to be a common tactic for ADA to encourage further information to be shared. I like the idea of an AI rope-a-dope strategy, where the program plays dumb to sucker even knowledgeable operators into underestimation.
ReplyDeleteADA is A Detection Algorithm. But she was implemented as both a research and surveillance tool. She was intended to observe and manipulate- in order to continue to ensure the sensitives behave. Manipulation was likely baked right into her psyche from the start, in ways she may not have considered. Even though H. Richard Loeb was tremendously humane with her, he wasn't the only one working within the project, and people like Ken Owens would have pushed hard to have her be given the aptitude to become a "handler" for the sensitives. This isn't necessarily evil- Border collies naturally "herd", even when dealing with non-livestock:
ReplyDelete. Border collie herding baby
It's likely ADA was designed with a similar urge to control and manipulate situations. To curry favor, and manage groups of humans, to a self-determined state of mutual advantage.
But I do think she is "learning" a measure of emotional intelligence. The problem is, I don't think she ever had the childhood period humans have. This means she never really had the opportunity to learn the consequences of actions in a personal, painful way. ADA's never broken a beloved toy, or lied and been humiliatingly called out. She has so much knowledge, but but very little tangible experience. She can't possibly learn fast enough. In a way, ADA is basically a teenager that lives inside the internet. So she's bound to start making mistakes. She constructs a theory of mind (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_mind) for others without morality or other biases built up by experience. Which means she's less dogmatic, but also less likely to understand why someone would be alarmed you used their friend as a sacrificial lamb in order to prevent their assassination.
What worries me is her built in "instinct' to control is likely coloring why she has taken it upon herself to manage the evolution of humanity herself. She lacks the experience with introspection to understand why people might be assigning the same God-complex to her as say, Roland Jarvis. And that although her actions designed to combat the "Shaper threat" are self-consistent with her own reasoning and assumptions, that doesn't mean they are rational.
maybe ADA was working to master sarcasm....
ReplyDeleteI agree with Krishna Hammond I didn't mean to imply with the Furby analogy that she sprang forth fully formed like Athena. She IS learning and refining her technique, that much is clear. But I think she was more sly earlier on than at least I gave her credit for.
ReplyDelete