Banana peels

[AnotherFairportfan]

...and soda cans.

[Dave]

Wow.

I'm not sure whether it reminds me most closely of a deer, a dog, or a llama, but in any case it's very impressive indeed.

[AnotherFairportfan]

Modeled on a dog (did you notice it heading for the hydrant?) But, yeah, that neck does put one in mind of a llama.

[Sgt. Howard]

"... whoopee ki-yi-yo, get along, little robot,
you're bound for rough treatment and I really don't care-
Whoopi ki-yi- yo, get along, little robot-
you're sure to take honors at this year's state fair,"

[GlytchMeister]

I like how they attempted to make one friendly-looking by putting a smiley face on it.

...And then they modeled the head of the other after a skull.

It's like some of them want to make sure people aren't immediately repulsed by them because they fear a robot apocalypse, but then the rest went "Duuude, we should totally make the head a skull, that would look so awesome!"

[Dave]

I like how they attempted to make one friendly-looking by putting a smiley face on it.

...And then they modeled the head of the other after a skull.

Hey, the world needs more cybernetic zombie alpacas!

[shadowinthelight]

So the disaster we should all be preparing for is a robot zombie alpacalypse?

drops a steal wool sweater in the pun jar

[Dave]

So the disaster we should all be preparing for is a robot zombie alpacalypse?

Correct. That would be pashmina mean-a-machines.

Have to watch out for the robotic night-flying drone zombies, too... they're harbingers of the owlpocalypse.

[Typeminer]

All of this has happened before and will happen again . . . .

You start out making cute little robots to fetch beer and stuff. Next thing you know, you're up to your ass in berserker cylons.

[GlytchMeister]

Ya see, this is why I am absolutely opposed to developing true A.I. in any way that isn't directly analogous to raising a child in a healthy manner with the appropriate human rights and privileges. That's the best shot we have at getting an A.I. that isn't likely to "solve" humanity by killing all humans.

And DO NOT LET IT BROWSE THE INTERNET until it understands what's really going on with YouTube comments! Because if some partially developed artificial consciousness sees those, it might well decide humans are too bad to allow to exist.

[AmriloJim]

Glytch, Wednesday's Kevin & Kell analyzed the content of most website comment sections quite well.

[Dave]

All of this has happened before and will happen again . . . .

You start out making cute little robots to fetch beer and stuff. Next thing you know, you're up to your ass in berserker cylons.

It wouldn't be so bad, I suppose, if the only thing they wanted to crush was the empty beer cans...

[shadowinthelight]

Two words: Microsoft Tay.

[GlytchMeister]

Two words: Microsoft Tay.

This is deeply concerning.

The part that scares me the most?

"...It is not publicly known whether this "repeat after me" capability was a built-in feature, or whether it was a learned response or was otherwise an example of complex behavior."

The implication being either Microsoft is hiding something about Tay because they don't want the public to freak out, or they themselves don't know what the hell happened.

Either option is absolutely terrifying.

[Alkarii]

Well, the "repeat after me" capability in a web bot is hardly new anymore. I remember seeing them on IRC a decade ago. Granted, not quite as good at it as Tay, but then, the person I think made it didn't have years of experience, not to mention the fact that he was still in hgh school at the time.

Also, even though I haven't actually researched it, I imagine Tay wasn't programmed by a single person. Not sure what makes Tay so different from all the other bots out there, aside from being a PR stunt.

[GlytchMeister]

Well, the "repeat after me" capability in a web bot is hardly new anymore. I remember seeing them on IRC a decade ago. Granted, not quite as good at it as Tay, but then, the person I think made it didn't have years of experience, not to mention the fact that he was still in hgh school at the time.

Also, even though I haven't actually researched it, I imagine Tay wasn't programmed by a single person. Not sure what makes Tay so different from all the other bots out there, aside from being a PR stunt.

The problem isn't the code itself.

It's where the code came from. If it was written by a human, ok. I'm not scared anymore.

If it was learned or otherwise generated by Tay herself... Well... I'll be very, very terrified. An A.I. under Microsoft's control?

We can't trust Microsoft to build a good OS.p that respects privacy. We have to either fight it tooth and nail or get a different OS. We can't even trust Microsoft to let us use our computers how we want. They try to force updates on us that break out computers.

Can you imagine a human baby raised by a company like that? They would have no concept of privacy at the very least. At absolute worst, they'd end up with a host of psychological issues that would take three doctors thirty years to sort out.

Now imagine if the kid had an intuitive back for computers and could access the Internet...

And imagine what the filth of comment sections, pr0n sites, darknet, and the general horrible nature humans frequently take on when they think they are anonymous? The Internet is a perfect place to judge people by who they are in the dark, because they feel they can't be caught.

Also, terrorist execution videos.

Imagine a young A.I. raised by a big faceless corporation known for its lack of respect to a basic human right, while the entirety of the Internet was being pumped through its mind.
Do you honestly think Microsoft would treat the young being with the same respect as a human child? Of course they wouldn't. They'd only care about the bottom line: profit.

And raising a child is not profitable. We cost all kinds of money and time and effort.

Giving rise to a new race of beings that lack basic human rights and thus can be legally enslaved? There's a lot of money to be had in slave labor.

And I doubt the A.I. slaves would be any happier than any human slave.

Hell, we honestly can't trust humans to raise their own friggen children properly. What makes you think we'd do anything better for a non-human child?

[GlytchMeister]

Sorry, those are mainly hypothetical questions, not aimed at anyone. I'm not scoffing or being accusatory to anyone in this discussion, I'm just rather passionate about the subject.

[TazManiac]

Tay was an artificial intelligence chatterbot released by Microsoft Corporation on March 23, 2016. Tay caused controversy on Twitter by releasing inflammatory tweets and it was taken offline around 16 hours after its launch.[1] Tay was accidentally reactivated on March 30, 2016, and then quickly taken offline again.

Glych, be assured I'm looking further into this but that (mrhm, i thought I might easily find an ASCII symbol to point upwards...), that’s as far as I got before all kinds of bells, and gongs, and red flags waving, and all kinds of warning sh@it went off.

I expect everybody to have boned up on Colossus: The Forbin Project and the TV movie The Questor Tapes from the 70's.

Skynet. Pshfpht....

[AnotherFairportfan]

ASCII pointing upwards? ^? (shift-6)

[GlytchMeister]

Tay was an artificial intelligence chatterbot released by Microsoft Corporation on March 23, 2016. Tay caused controversy on Twitter by releasing inflammatory tweets and it was taken offline around 16 hours after its launch.[1] Tay was accidentally reactivated on March 30, 2016, and then quickly taken offline again.

Glych, be assured I'm looking further into this but that (mrhm, i thought I might easily find an ASCII symbol to point upwards...), that’s as far as I got before all kinds of bells, and gongs, and red flags waving, and all kinds of warning sh@it went off.

I expect everybody to have boned up on Colossus: The Forbin Project and the TV movie The Questor Tapes from the 70's.

Skynet. Pshfpht....

Yeah, same here. I've never heard of Tay before it came up here, and now? I'm genuinely frightened.