{"id":237642,"date":"2023-06-19T13:45:19","date_gmt":"2023-06-19T12:45:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=237642"},"modified":"2023-06-19T13:45:19","modified_gmt":"2023-06-19T12:45:19","slug":"the-frankenstein-chatbots-are-erupting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2023\/06\/the-frankenstein-chatbots-are-erupting\/","title":{"rendered":"The Frankenstein Chatbots Are Erupting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Will the People Counter with Ethical and Enforceable Legal Frameworks?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

ChatGPT. Bisast, CC BY-SA 4.0
https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

16 Jun 2023 – <\/em>Rick Claypool is a level-headed policy analyst and number-cruncher for Public Citizen, who is known for reporting the decline in corporate crime enforcement with each succeeding Presidency. (Biden less than Trump). His latest report (with Cheyenne Hunt) clearly shows him in an unusually agitated state. Its title is \u201cSorry in Advance!\u201d Rapid Rush to Deploy Generative A.I. Risks a Wide Array of Automated Harms<\/em> (See, https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/article\/sorry-in-advance-generative-ai-artificial-intellligence-chatgpt-report\/<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Claypool is not engaging in hyperbole or horrible hypotheticals concerning Chatbots controlling humanity. He is extrapolating from what is already starting to happen in almost every sector of our society.<\/p>\n

I challenge you to read his report without experiencing cognitive dissonance and throwing up your hands thinking the genie is already out of a million bottles. Claypool takes you through \u201c\u2026 real-world harms [that] the rush to release and monetize these tools can cause \u2013 and, in many cases, is already causing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Claypool\u2019s analysis takes you through five broad areas of concern, excluding the horrific autonomous weapons the Department of Defense (aka the Department of Offense) is deeply involved in developing. The various section titles of his report foreshadow the coming abuses: \u201cDamaging Democracy,\u201d \u201cConsumer Concerns\u201d (rip-offs and vast privacy surveillances), \u201cWorsening Inequality,\u201d \u201cUndermining Worker Rights\u201d (and jobs), and \u201cEnvironmental Concerns\u201d (damaging the environment via their carbon footprints).<\/p>\n

Before he gets specific, Claypool previews his conclusion: \u201cUntil meaningful government safeguards are in place to protect the public from the harms of generative A.I., we need a pause.\u201d Just how, he doesn\u2019t say. Because with so many increasing generators of these Chatbots around the world, this flood of Frankenstein Chatbots may present a problem the Dean of the Harvard Law School, Roscoe Pound, described regarding the prohibition of alcoholic beverages in the 1920s as being beyond \u201cthe limits of effective legal action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Claypool quotes Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, who released last November the shocking ChatGPT A.I. product, saying afterward: \u201cI think we are potentially not that far away from potentially scary ones.\u201d Altman has been busy up on Capitol Hill mesmerizing legislators by saying \u201cregulation is needed\u201d by which he means the industry itself writing the rules and standards for Congress.<\/p>\n

Using its existing authority, the Federal Trade Commission, in the author\u2019s words \u201c\u2026 has already warned that generative A.I. tools are powerful enough to create synthetic content \u2013 plausible sounding news stories, authoritative-looking academic studies, hoax images, and deepfake videos \u2013 and that this synthetic content is becoming difficult to distinguish from authentic content.\u201d He adds that \u201c\u2026these tools are easy for just about anyone to use.\u201d BIG TECH is rushing way ahead of any legal framework for AI in the quest for big profits, while pushing for self-regulation instead of the constraints imposed by the rule of law.<\/p>\n

There is no end to the predicted disasters, both from people inside the industry and its outside critics. Destruction of livelihoods, harmful health impacts from promotion of quack remedies, financial fraud, political and electoral fakeries, stripping of the information commons, subversion of the open internet, faking your facial image, voice, words, and behavior, tricking you and others with lies every day. AI\u2019s potential for deception will make Fox News\u2019 deceptions look comparatively restrained.<\/p>\n

With Congress and the White House issuing unenforceable exhortations to the industry to be nice, safe and responsible, critics are looking to the European Union\u2019s first stage passage of an A.I. Act to protect its people from the more overt damages to their common and individual rights and interests. The Act\u2019s focus is on which uses<\/em> of A.I. need to be curbed, including the adverse impact on elections. It mandates the labeling of A.I.-generated content. On May 16, 2023, Public Citizen petitioned the Federal Election Commission to issue a rule preventing the use of AI to deceive voters. (See, https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/article\/petition-for-rulemaking-to-clarify-that-the-law-against-fraudulent-misrepresentation-applies-to-deceptive-ai-campaign-ads\/<\/a>).<\/p>\n

All legislative bodies will have to confront the barriers of secrecy \u2013 claims by governments on weapons and surveillance development and the already asserted \u201ctrade secrets\u201d by corporations. In the U.S., there will also be First Amendment defenses for free speech by these artificial entities called corporations. Their corporate lawyers will have a lucrative field day concocting delays and obstructions.<\/p>\n

Our nation and the world are barely organized enough to control through treaties the use of nuclear weapons \u2013 through treaties, poorly prepared for devastating pandemics, and virtually nowhere in foreseeing and forestalling the mega-threats of generative A.I. \u201cto society and humanity.\u201d Those were the words of an open warning letter calling for a six-month pause, signed by top CEOs (such as Elon Musk), technologists and academics (See, Pause Giant AI Experiments: An Open Letter, March 22, 2023 \u2013 https:\/\/futureoflife.org\/open-letter\/pause-giant-ai-experiments\/<\/a>).<\/p>\n

With few exceptions, a lazy Congress, readying for a long July 4th<\/sup> holiday break followed by taking off all of August for a congressional recess, is oblivious to its special powers and duties to the American people. Let\u2019s see some congressional urgency to put some specificity and enforcement teeth behind and beyond Biden\u2019s nonbinding \u201cBlueprint for an AI Bill of Rights<\/a>\u201d published by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in October 2022.<\/p>\n

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA), who sits on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, is pushing for the creation of a new federal agency to regulate A.I. Technologies.<\/p>\n

For now, I have two recommendations. Demand your Senators and Representatives join you for local town meetings during Congress\u2019s August recess where you and your lawmakers can listen to each other and address the pressing issues. Tell them that this run-away robotic juggernaut is stripping humans of their own mental identities, autonomy and self-reliant judgments.<\/p>\n

Everyone is at risk. Even Microsoft and Google have little idea of the whirlwind they are unleashing, driven by shortsighted profits, not wisdom, civic principles and accountabilities to public institutions and the people themselves. Have your local experts formulate the focus of the town meeting agendas, backed by your sense of urgency.<\/p>\n

Then demand that your members of Congress end their three-day a week work routine and conduct rigorous hearings in D.C. and around the country with a deadline for passing legislation. Tell them they, too, are at risk for the fakery, slander, and imitations of the Chatbots.<\/p>\n

Lastly, upgrade and make more precise your skepticism toward the Chatbots already entering and affecting your lives and localities. Be on guard and develop an ever-larger circle of trusting relatives, friends, neighbors and coworkers.<\/p>\n

The corporate Chatbots are coming on fast without any legal or ethical frameworks to restrain and discipline them from subverting your freedoms and true sense of realities.<\/p>\n

_____________________________________________<\/i><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Ralph Nader is a US political activist, author, lecturer, and attorney noted for his involvement in consumer protection, environmentalism, and government reform causes. The son of Lebanese immigrants to the United States, Nader attended Princeton University and Harvard Law School.<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original – nader.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

16 Jun 2023 – Will the People Counter with Ethical and Enforceable Legal Frameworks?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":237643,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3078],"tags":[1733,3022,2994,461],"class_list":["post-237642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence-ai","tag-chatbot","tag-chatgpt","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237642"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":237644,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237642\/revisions\/237644"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}