Eh, I will pass

With all the fuss about AI recently (most of it made by me...you should see the living room) I decided to turn my gaze inward and try to figure out my resistance to interacting with the future rulers of earth.

What follows is a series of observations, not a cohesive essay, so bare with me (I'm not wearing pants).

I have, on my phone, a couple of these apps that present a human voice and mechanical mind. Thing is, the spoken word component is a lie. All one ever needed was a written-to-speech converter. This is nothing new https://www.naturalreaders.com/online/ . Heck, go back and watch Wargames -- the WOPR (nicknamed Joshua) communicates in written words but the synthesizer converts it to speech. It isn't speaking. So let's get that out of the way. The computer is still running and still running like a computer. What we have is really just a spoken word interface for a text based search engine.

See, that's the thing. Underneath it all, the "AI" is just a search engine and a predictive language engine. There is no thought or consideration. It is just as easy for me to type in a search as it is for me to speak (unless I'm driving). And while the results can be combined and read to me, all we have is a program that mines for info in the same old way.

Some of the more advanced interfaces attempt to refine their approach, but really they are all just running an algorithm to recognize words, create searches and then put the information together in sentence form. And you can "speak" back to them. But what do they do with the words you say? Bottom line is that the system is recognizing words and phrases and assembling words and phrases in return. But none of it is real. 

Our approach to language is that we master spoken word communication first. We speak before we can read. The written form of the language then spends a lifetime trying to catch up. We develop inflection, intonation, pauses, body language and all sorts of things that allow us to communicate in the spoken sphere even without the specific use of words. We can pick up on sarcasm, or lies, flirting or fear and we recognize the limitations of written language in capturing the meta data of our conversation.

Computers are native to the written language. That's all they know -- words and phrases and their semantic position and value. Not only do we lose the emotional context when we type, but a computer is incapable of recognizing and including spoken word tools when it tries to transfer its data to the spoken word. 

But we forget that the computer can't pick up on subtleties, choose to omit, or lie or spin and we project our expectations and our emotional content onto what the computer presents. So when I sit down and speak with my Gemini, while it might sound understanding or might make me feel better, it isn't really doing anything intelligent. It is Eliza for a new generation. In truth, spoken natives (humans) and written natives (computers) will always be separated by this rift.

On another note, I was shown this thing called "Grok" yesterday. Grok takes still photos and turns them into 5 second videos. I was able to see a video of my mother (A"H) when she was younger. I saw a "video" of me as a baby. And you can set it to be normal or funny. But the bottom line is IT NEVER HAPPENED. We are recording over the past because we think that a computer's revisionist vision of our past is preferable as it is in motion. We are dissatisfied with the fact that in the past, certain technologies didn't exist so we are inventing a more technologically gifted past which then creates a false version of our own histories. We can't even believe our own photos anymore. This isn't only about the distant past. I can show someone a "video" of a wedding from last night and that person will assume that the video is an actual recording of  the events of last night. But it might have no basis in any truth but it will look authentic and might lead people to draw conclusions, pass along stories or perpetuate the lie. And how can it be disproven?

I just sent a letter out to the student body as composed by AI. Next I'll send out one that's actually useful