Teniola Taiwo, a guest of the club. She is a student at Conestoga College. Her mother and grandparents were all Rotarians and she is looking to get involved herself.
Happy Jar
New 50/50 Event
Paul Rostrup reported that all paper work has now been completed and we are just awaiting the official license to kick off 5050KW.ca, a new 5 club fundraiser, in support of KidsAbility. The first round will begin later this month with a draw date of March 15. There will be two early bird draws as well.
Volunteer Hours
Our project to get a more accurate accounting of the number of volunteer hours contributed by members continues. Jim Brown reported that for October the number is 600 hours. Data is still being collected for November and December. A report will be sent to committee chairs and they are asked to fill in any missing numbers.
Special Cluster Event
On January 19 members of our KW Rotary Cluster will come together in fellowship and to hear a message from our District Governor, Sandhya Maini at the Granite Club. Be sure to join in as we Imagine Rotary together!
Registration fee of $27.00 includes buffet dinner. Doors open at 5:30 for social time and the event starts at 6:00 PM.
Dine-A-Round Social
Secretary Bill reminded members that our Dine-A-Round Social activity is back on. Information has been sent and members are asked to review, consider, and, hopefully, sign up or check with Bill if you have any questions.
Our program today was a presentation on Artificial Intelligence by our very own JB Moore, introduced by President Adrian:
JB was President of the Kitchener Rotary Club in 2002-2003.
He graduated from Engineering at the University of Toronto in 1964.
His career has included being a:
- secondary school teacher
- computer systems engineer with IBM
- software developer and database consultant
- President of 3 small businesses
- author of 5 textbooks on computer programming
- lecturer on Artificial Intelligence at Wilfrid Laurier
- Professor Emeritus at the University of Waterloo
JB has many varied interests that involve technology, politics, sports, bridge and community service.
He has been married (same wife) for 58 years and has 4 children and 6 grandchildren.
Here are some highlights from is presentation entitled Artificial Intelligence Promises & Perils
“Artificial intelligence could have more profound implications for humanity than electricity or fire.” - Sundar Pichai, CEO, Alphabet
Intelligence
Intelligence is hard to explain but involves: abstraction, reasoning, planning, problem solving, creativity, self‐awareness and other characteristics.
There are seven generally accepted types of intelligence:
- Bodily-Kinesthetic
- Intrapersonal
- Interpersonal
- Logical-Mathematical
- Naturalistic
- Verbal-Linguistic
- Visual-Spatial
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence:
“the use of computers that imitate human methods of problem solving”: J.B. Moore
The problem‐solving process involves the key aspects :
monitor, diagnose, prescribe, implement
AI can be used in any or all steps
The 4th Anthropocene Revolution
• AI can outperform humans on tasks like trivia, SAT tests, IQ tests, and standardized math tests.
• ChatGPT, a model not specifically trained for law, even recently passed a practice bar exam.
• Current Go, Bridge, Chess, and Poker champions are all AI
AI Penetration
A Minute on the Internet in 2021:
(Estimated amount of data created on the internet in one minute)
- 28,000 subscribers watching Netflix
- 695 stories being shared
- 9,132 Instagram Connections being made
- 69 million messages being sent
- 5,000 Tik Tok downloads being made
- $1.6 USD spent on line
- 2 million swipes
- 197.6 million emails sent
- 500 hours of content uploaded
Artificial Intelligence Enablers
Supporting Technologies
• Computer speed
- ‐ thousands of billions of calculations per second (brain 10/sec)
- ‐ quantum computing on the horizon (000’s times as fast)
• Data storage
- ‐ a thousand‐trillion bytes of new storage every day
- ‐ future: 1 DNA molecule can store 650 volumes of the encyclopedia
• Networking
- Thousands of world-wide interconnected networks
AI Levels
- Narrow: (current) Solve Specific problems
e.g. facial recognition, game playing, chat bots, language translation
- General: (2030?) Match human intelligence
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. -
Robert A. Heinlein
- Super AI: (20xx?) Far surpass human intelligence
‐ is there a limit to any or all types
-what are the consequences?
AI Methods
‐ trained on massive amounts of data
‐ you figure it out; e.g. what’s in this picture?
- Adversarial & goal‐seeking
‐ rewards for winning; e.g. play chess against itself or find the way through a maze
‐ create text, images, music, computer programs, business strategies
Examples / AI Real & Potential Uses
Selected Applications and (mostly) benefits
Medicine:
- 24‐7 monitoring via chipping, superior diagnoses, smart pills, nightmare detection and control
- thought control of real‐world entities, increase life expectancy
Science:
- Protein folding, synthetic life, hybrid human/artificial processors
- Climate change solutions
Private Sector:
- Industry: robots, 3‐D printing
- Job/task replacement of: accountants, teachers, lawyers, engineers, midlevel managers, clerical, retail, advertising and media workers, …
Society:
- language‐independent conversations; shared thoughts on the cloud
Consumers:
- Housekeeping robots & companions
- Creation of user‐defined videos, novels, music
Government
- Law Enforcement: crime solving, judicial decisions
- Military: smart weapons
- Elimination of bureaucracies, wealth distribution
- Citizen surveillance (“Brave New World?, 1984?)
AI Challenges
Issues with Current AI’s
Algorithm bias: examples include applications such as:
- employee & student selection, criminal sentencing
- Job & student evaluations, mortgage approvals
- Lack of explanation of how AI decisions are made
- Regulation of collection and use of data
- Tax treatment of sellers of AI apps
- Distribution of AI Benefits
Road‐blocks to General Intelligence
- Use of multiple types of sensory data (text dominates)
- AI’s lack: intuition, awareness, consciousness, goalsetting, morals, empathy
- Huge gap between knowing and understanding
- Inability to generalize
Perils
What Can/Can Not AI’s Do?
Generate false reality
- Control individuals via imbedded chips
- Designer humans
- Existential threats:
- genocides by polluting water, air, food
- new pandemics
- super weapons
- destroy electrical and communication
Biggest Peril: Lack of Control
Control of:
- Research
- Applications
- Implementations
- Commercialization
- Users
- Distribution of benefits
By?:
- National governments
- International organizations
- The Private sector
- Criminal organizations
The Future:
Extinction or Immortality?
