In many ways ChatGPT was less of a technical breakthrough than a user interface breakthrough. By organising and configuring the capabilities of the model in a novel way - chat - the implications of the underlying technology became more accessible and open to analysis and understanding. This seems to suggest that we should be interested… Continue reading The teleonomic moment (Agency and policy II)
Author: Nicklas Lundblad
Notes for a panel OMFIF – and further exploration later
These are some notes for a panel discussion this afternoon - they are sketches, much more work needed on this and I need to also figure out if this is quite right, and don't feel it is, not yet. Notes on macroeconomics and AI The mental models we have when we try to assess the… Continue reading Notes for a panel OMFIF – and further exploration later
Space curious
Can space save the economy from secular stagnation? That is the hypothesis explored in this paper by Matthew Weinzierl. The way you react to papers like this is interesting - there are, I find, two typical reactions. The first is an enthusiastic "Yes!" and the other is a deep sigh, followed by complaints about people looking… Continue reading Space curious
We are all tulpamancers now
One of the key features of interaction is the sense of presence. We immediately feel it if someone is not present in a discusison and we often praise someone by saying that they have a great presence in the room - signalling that they are influencing the situation in a positive way. In fact, it… Continue reading We are all tulpamancers now
The summarised society
One of the things that generative AI will enable is the summarisation of the growing flows of information that we all live in. This is not surprising to the reader of Herbert Simon, who suggested that with a wealth of information comes a poverty of attention and a need to allocate attention efficiently. Now, what… Continue reading The summarised society
Studying the mereologies of AI
In this article Robin Hill suggests something that may seem both obvious and strange at the same time: that our artificial intelligence systems might not cut the world up in the same way we do, or that they may not use the same features to cluster concepts as we do. The example she gives is… Continue reading Studying the mereologies of AI
Reading with bots
It seems obvious that anyone who is not using generative AI in their day job is missing out. There is a wealth of interesting opportunities, and new ways of working that need to be explored and analysed. What I have been playing around with lately is what it means to read with the help of… Continue reading Reading with bots
Invisible commons
Are there some commons that we should protect that we are just not aware of? Well, for the longest time the idea that there was a "climate" to protect was not obvious to people - and the overall discussion we now have about climate change required a concept to focus on, and climate ended up… Continue reading Invisible commons
Some policy problems in artificial agency (Agency and policy I)
A further step in understanding the challenges artificial intelligence will pose for public policy and regulation is understanding the role, construction and problems of artificial agency of different kinds. The models we are discussing today are mostly prompted in different ways, and so are in a way easy to regulate, since they only do what… Continue reading Some policy problems in artificial agency (Agency and policy I)
An agnostic position
What is the bare minimum you need to believe to believe that we should invest significantly in ensuring that AI-systems are secure, safe and sustainable? That seems like a simple question - and it is not that hard to answer. You essentially just need to believe that they are going to be impactful and that… Continue reading An agnostic position