3 ms·

Imagine an AI that instead finds potential infrastructure problems riddled across the country. Buildings, bridges, roads, you name it. Then the AI priorities th

Imagine an AI that instead finds potential infrastructure problems riddled across the country. Buildings, bridges, roads, you name it. Then the AI priorities them into a queue and generates cost/resource estimates for repairs. Thereby helping the government improve the livelihood of its constituents! Or wait, imagine if the AI were finding all the rivers and lakes that corporations are dumping trash, chemicals, and other waste products into! Right? Right? Surely they'd do that with this great technology!

hkt 3y ago
These are all things the state used to do without AI - people did it perfectly well. Regrettably it isn't a matter of technology that prevents this sort of thing. It is the hollowing out of the public sphere, the shrinking of state workforces, and the diminishing horizons of what is considered to be 'feasible' - where feasibility is often determined by consultants.
- samstave 3y ago
  If it was done 'perfectly well' -- we wouldnt be in the position we are in WRT infra. Or taxes. Taxes are done exactly the opposite of 'perfectly well'.
  - beerandt 3y ago
    We don't need AI to add to our to-do list, we need it to cross things off.
zulban 3y ago
Who is this "they" you're talking about? Lots of people and lots of groups are trying to use AI in different ways. So yes, obviously people are looking into that too. You seem cynical.
- alecco 3y ago
  Not OP, but let me try: career bureaucrats and democratically elected officials.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
throw_m239339 3y ago
> Imagine an AI that instead finds potential infrastructure problems riddled across the country. Well you need tax payer money to finance the AI that find potential infrastructure problems... So an AI that find tax avoiders might bring more tax payer money to fix other problems.
- samstave 3y ago
  >Well you need tax payer money to finance the AI that find potential infrastructure problems You mean like the tax-payer money paid at the pump which was sold as a way to finance the maintenance and fix of potential infrastructure problems? https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/the-gas-taxs-tortured-history-shows-how-hard-it-is-to-fund-new-infrastructure https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/the-gas-taxs-tortured-...
  - s1artibartfast 3y ago
    But where could those gas taxes have possibly gone? That the question only AI can solve
kwanbix 3y ago
Imagine an AI that instead can find corrupt politicians, judges, and business men! That would be something!
- devoutsalsa 3y ago
  …and THAT is how we got AI regulation!
samstave 3y ago
This is actually really important! Both statements. It would be amazing when the planning dept just has you upload a BIM an an AI not only devours the BIM model -- but this is how we are going to get to the sci-fi version of "Pull up a blueprint of downtown and show me all the air-ducts where John McClain is hiding!" and "There is a door on your left" -- But the rivers and lakes thing should be readily doable right now - based on media reports of spills - then geo locating them on a map, then pulling in studies based on toxicity and soluability of stated chemicals in the spills - then pull the environmental reports from planning agencies for 'environmental impact reports' which would have a composition of the soil, then compare the chemical lliterature to its permeability to the soil conditions in the area, with the water precipitation records - and you can see where a chemical is going to leech - and what waterways it will affect... and the environmental impact report will tell you all the critters that live in that type of habitat... and if the chemical is egregeous to amphibians, and that marsh is home to a lot of frogs.... you get the idea - but this could be done right now with autoGPT with some effort... (I cant get autoGPT to write out files though - even though I can get it to do the work... What I think Ill do is have it write python scripts for me to scrape the data I need? Any thoughts on some approches? There is historical data trapped in ChatGPT till 2021 that can be useful for the framework, and then auto GPT to get some current data to populate with? Or is there a tool that I should be using? Is there a GIS-AI tool somewhere I can use?
- ShamelessC 3y ago
  Probably worth mentioning that governments already have backlogs of infrastructure which is broken and can’t be fixed for a variety of reasons. Plenty of journalism about it. Making the discovery aspect “perfect” with AI won’t necessarily lead to improvements although I respect the passion.
sveme 3y ago
Live EO is working towards that. So far though mostly focussing on vegetation encroachment and similar dangers for linear infrastructure.
seydor 3y ago
Politician: Hmmm, we need to regulate AI asap

hkt 3y ago

These are all things the state used to do without AI - people did it perfectly well. Regrettably it isn't a matter of technology that prevents this sort of thing. It is the hollowing out of the public sphere, the shrinking of state workforces, and the diminishing horizons of what is considered to be 'feasible' - where feasibility is often determined by consultants.

samstave 3y ago
If it was done 'perfectly well' -- we wouldnt be in the position we are in WRT infra. Or taxes. Taxes are done exactly the opposite of 'perfectly well'.
- beerandt 3y ago
  We don't need AI to add to our to-do list, we need it to cross things off.

zulban 3y ago

Who is this "they" you're talking about? Lots of people and lots of groups are trying to use AI in different ways. So yes, obviously people are looking into that too. You seem cynical.

alecco 3y ago
Not OP, but let me try: career bureaucrats and democratically elected officials.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]

throw_m239339 3y ago

> Imagine an AI that instead finds potential infrastructure problems riddled across the country. Well you need tax payer money to finance the AI that find potential infrastructure problems... So an AI that find tax avoiders might bring more tax payer money to fix other problems.

samstave 3y ago
>Well you need tax payer money to finance the AI that find potential infrastructure problems You mean like the tax-payer money paid at the pump which was sold as a way to finance the maintenance and fix of potential infrastructure problems? https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/the-gas-taxs-tortured-history-shows-how-hard-it-is-to-fund-new-infrastructure https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/the-gas-taxs-tortured-...
- s1artibartfast 3y ago
  But where could those gas taxes have possibly gone? That the question only AI can solve

kwanbix 3y ago

Imagine an AI that instead can find corrupt politicians, judges, and business men! That would be something!

devoutsalsa 3y ago
…and THAT is how we got AI regulation!

samstave 3y ago

This is actually really important! Both statements. It would be amazing when the planning dept just has you upload a BIM an an AI not only devours the BIM model -- but this is how we are going to get to the sci-fi version of "Pull up a blueprint of downtown and show me all the air-ducts where John McClain is hiding!" and "There is a door on your left" -- But the rivers and lakes thing should be readily doable right now - based on media reports of spills - then geo locating them on a map, then pulling in studies based on toxicity and soluability of stated chemicals in the spills - then pull the environmental reports from planning agencies for 'environmental impact reports' which would have a composition of the soil, then compare the chemical lliterature to its permeability to the soil conditions in the area, with the water precipitation records - and you can see where a chemical is going to leech - and what waterways it will affect... and the environmental impact report will tell you all the critters that live in that type of habitat... and if the chemical is egregeous to amphibians, and that marsh is home to a lot of frogs.... you get the idea - but this could be done right now with autoGPT with some effort... (I cant get autoGPT to write out files though - even though I can get it to do the work... What I think Ill do is have it write python scripts for me to scrape the data I need? Any thoughts on some approches? There is historical data trapped in ChatGPT till 2021 that can be useful for the framework, and then auto GPT to get some current data to populate with? Or is there a tool that I should be using? Is there a GIS-AI tool somewhere I can use?

ShamelessC 3y ago
Probably worth mentioning that governments already have backlogs of infrastructure which is broken and can’t be fixed for a variety of reasons. Plenty of journalism about it. Making the discovery aspect “perfect” with AI won’t necessarily lead to improvements although I respect the passion.

sveme 3y ago

Live EO is working towards that. So far though mostly focussing on vegetation encroachment and similar dangers for linear infrastructure.

seydor 3y ago

Politician: Hmmm, we need to regulate AI asap