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You replace "Artificial Intelligence" in this title with nearly anything, and it will remain true.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
skewart 10y ago
True. It's not a very good title. "As drones evolve, so does their criminal potential." Yup. "As electric cars evolve, so does their criminal potential." Okay, uh, sure, I guess so. "As turtles evolve, so does their criminal potential." Wait, what?
- gdubya 10y ago
  As criminals evolve, so does their criminal potential!
  - amelius 10y ago
    As cops evolve, so does their criminal potential!
    - TeMPOraL 10y ago
      As criminal potential evolves, so does its criminal potential. #FullMetaJacket
- hueving 10y ago
  Well turtles may evolve to figure out how to steal food from grocery stores.
- pmontra 10y ago
  They are apparently good analogies but they break because of the difference in scalability (maybe not for the turtles...) Paper based advertising and con artists always existed, but the availability of email over the Internet made automation possible and opened up the possibility to do that on a totally new scale with spam and phishing. The example in the post (impersonating an old mother) is a kind of phishing that doesn't scale if criminals have to do it by themselves. An AI able to handle the conversation would make it possible to make much more money in a single day. By the way, that would be detrimental to the less technological criminals because there is a limit to the number of such a calls you can believe. Probably either 0 or 1. A "90% of the market vs all the others" rule for criminals as well?
- nekopa 10y ago
  The worst thing is, unlike your other examples, it's turtles all the way down. What will it be like when it's AI all the way down?
- placebo 10y ago
  When turtles evolve they become ninja turtles, and if they go bad, well... do I really need to paint you a picture? Seriously though, the level of evil that can be perpetrated as technology evolves is scary and I ask myself sometimes whether humanity's wisdom will manage to catch up to it's intelligence before it destroys itself in very creative ways... Though I must admit that criminal AI feels much less threatening to me than criminal biotechnology.
  - TeMPOraL 10y ago
    Criminal AI wielding biotechnology? Hack into some database to steal bioweapon designs (or invent one by itself), get a few chemical companies to assemple components, bribe some poor schmuck into mixing the vials together, boom. THB though, what I fear is individuals. Humans as a group behave often in batshit insane ways, but most of the time, they're a peaceful and kind species. But you always have, by the random lottery of genes and environment, crazy people. What technology does is magnifying the power a single person can wield, and thus the damage they can do. Self-replicating stuff is particularly nasty power amplifier here.
- JohannesH 10y ago
  "As diapers evolve, so does their criminal potential."
denzil_correa 10y ago
You've got to understand the context. The average person DOES think that technology (or AI) can reduce crime in a sustainable manner. This article is for such an average person.
- hellofunk 10y ago
  Your point, whether valid or not, actually has nothing to do with my comment.
YeGoblynQueenne 10y ago
As [Igglybuff] Evolves So Does its Criminal Potential.
pdkl95 10y ago
That's because AI - just like "nearly [any]" technology - is a tool. Tools amplify our abilities, and they are not magically limited to only "good" uses (if it is even possible to define a "good use". One of Frank Zappa's insightful observations may have been about drugs, but it could apply to anything (including AI): A drug is not bad. A drug is a chemical compound. The problem comes in when people who take drugs treat them like a license to behave like an asshole. Modern machine learning techniques can do great things, but they are still just a tool. The problem is when people use AI as an excuse to skip important steps, over generalize, etc.
FrancoDiaz 10y ago
Yeah, it's a common template used by media. 1) Because of new thing "X", bad things are going to happen. 2) Quote a government bureaucrat to "confirm" it. 3) What wasn't used in this article surprisingly was some government program to "help", but in reality just takes things away from people.
Fiahil 10y ago
At least, this kind of media campaigns might span interesting conversations. "- Artificial Intelligence is really bad for X. I lost Y because of it. Ban Artificial Intelligence! Let's keep our jobs and our family safe! - Dude. You have no idea what you're talking about."

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

True. It's not a very good title. "As drones evolve, so does their criminal potential." Yup. "As electric cars evolve, so does their criminal potential." Okay, uh, sure, I guess so. "As turtles evolve, so does their criminal potential." Wait, what?

gdubya 10y ago
As criminals evolve, so does their criminal potential!
- amelius 10y ago
  As cops evolve, so does their criminal potential!
  - TeMPOraL 10y ago
    As criminal potential evolves, so does its criminal potential. #FullMetaJacket
hueving 10y ago
Well turtles may evolve to figure out how to steal food from grocery stores.
pmontra 10y ago
They are apparently good analogies but they break because of the difference in scalability (maybe not for the turtles...) Paper based advertising and con artists always existed, but the availability of email over the Internet made automation possible and opened up the possibility to do that on a totally new scale with spam and phishing. The example in the post (impersonating an old mother) is a kind of phishing that doesn't scale if criminals have to do it by themselves. An AI able to handle the conversation would make it possible to make much more money in a single day. By the way, that would be detrimental to the less technological criminals because there is a limit to the number of such a calls you can believe. Probably either 0 or 1. A "90% of the market vs all the others" rule for criminals as well?
nekopa 10y ago
The worst thing is, unlike your other examples, it's turtles all the way down. What will it be like when it's AI all the way down?
placebo 10y ago
When turtles evolve they become ninja turtles, and if they go bad, well... do I really need to paint you a picture? Seriously though, the level of evil that can be perpetrated as technology evolves is scary and I ask myself sometimes whether humanity's wisdom will manage to catch up to it's intelligence before it destroys itself in very creative ways... Though I must admit that criminal AI feels much less threatening to me than criminal biotechnology.
- TeMPOraL 10y ago
  Criminal AI wielding biotechnology? Hack into some database to steal bioweapon designs (or invent one by itself), get a few chemical companies to assemple components, bribe some poor schmuck into mixing the vials together, boom. THB though, what I fear is individuals. Humans as a group behave often in batshit insane ways, but most of the time, they're a peaceful and kind species. But you always have, by the random lottery of genes and environment, crazy people. What technology does is magnifying the power a single person can wield, and thus the damage they can do. Self-replicating stuff is particularly nasty power amplifier here.
JohannesH 10y ago
"As diapers evolve, so does their criminal potential."

denzil_correa 10y ago

You've got to understand the context. The average person DOES think that technology (or AI) can reduce crime in a sustainable manner. This article is for such an average person.

hellofunk 10y ago
Your point, whether valid or not, actually has nothing to do with my comment.

YeGoblynQueenne 10y ago

As [Igglybuff] Evolves So Does its Criminal Potential.

pdkl95 10y ago

That's because AI - just like "nearly [any]" technology - is a tool. Tools amplify our abilities, and they are not magically limited to only "good" uses (if it is even possible to define a "good use". One of Frank Zappa's insightful observations may have been about drugs, but it could apply to anything (including AI): A drug is not bad. A drug is a chemical compound. The problem comes in when people who take drugs treat them like a license to behave like an asshole. Modern machine learning techniques can do great things, but they are still just a tool. The problem is when people use AI as an excuse to skip important steps, over generalize, etc.

FrancoDiaz 10y ago

Yeah, it's a common template used by media. 1) Because of new thing "X", bad things are going to happen. 2) Quote a government bureaucrat to "confirm" it. 3) What wasn't used in this article surprisingly was some government program to "help", but in reality just takes things away from people.

Fiahil 10y ago

At least, this kind of media campaigns might span interesting conversations. "- Artificial Intelligence is really bad for X. I lost Y because of it. Ban Artificial Intelligence! Let's keep our jobs and our family safe! - Dude. You have no idea what you're talking about."