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We Are Summoning the Demon with Artificial Intelligence - says Elon Musk

Posted: Oct 27, 2014

Interesting article mentioning voice recognition technology, etc.

AI - Critical thinker

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One problem with discussing AI is that the term itself is so nebulous and fuzzy.

Take the example of voice rec. that you mention; the 'AI' involved in that is essentially nothing more than a highly specific pattern recognition system ('nothing more' is perhaps a poor phrase here, as voice rec. is highly complex software). It is capable of learning, after a fashion, but that learning is all very domain specific. Given enough statistical information it can get very good at figuring out what a dictator is saying, but it will never learn, for example, how to drive a car.

Similarly, the AIs that have been written to play chess are amazing pieces of software, but again chess strategy is a highly narrow domain. I'm not certain those systems were even designed to learn from experience. The chess software would do a terrible job at voice rec. :-)

These kinds of systems are very powerful, and certainly are a threat in that they'll put some people out of jobs (as has every significant invention of the industrial age). But an existential threat to humanity? No, we're a long way from Skynet.

As an aside, the field of AI that has always been of most interest to me is genetic algorithms (GA). This is software in which the working code itself changes and adapts in a way which closely mimics evolution - the more able to solve a problem, the more likely any given 'solution' is to reproduce.

This is a bit of a different approach than a voice rec or chess system. In those systems, a human is building a very specific solution to a very specific problem. With GA, one goal is to be able to give a generic system a task, and let the system itself come up with a solution. The challenge here is that it's extraordinarily difficult to describe a specific problem's parameters to a generic GA system in any meaningful way.

I don't share Elon Musk's concerns about AI in general. Sure, the idea of a powerful, self-aware computer system taking over the world is scary, but it's also nothing more than fiction, and despite talk of a singularity, I don't think it'll stop being fiction.

I have trouble being frightened by a monster that can be defeated with a pair of wire cutters or a bucket of water.

Are you a medical transcriptionist? - Just wondering...

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I, for one, feel that part of the downfall of our industry is as a result of voice recognition, and Nuance is one of the big giants behind this downfall. Doesn't that bother you?

Bother? - Critical thinker

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Does it bother me? Of course - it's never a pleasant thing when people are losing their jobs. But that's certainly not a new phenomenon; as I noted, this has happened over and over again throughout the technological age.

I knew a guy a few years ago who was a movie projectionist. Member of the union, highly specialized skill set, etc. He was spending a lot of time with his union brothers picketing various theaters, as they were employing fewer and fewer projectionists. Often none at all, and the technical operation was done by a manager. Once upon a time, the tasks of splicing and repairing film and maintaining highly complex equipment and so on really did require skilled projectionists. But what my acquaintance refused to recognize was that the world had passed him by. Theater equipment was increasingly digital, computerized, and automatic. There was no longer a need for his specialized knowledge. Operating a theater projector system was becoming not much more difficult than a home DVD player. Why would a theater pay him a lot of money for a job that essentially no longer existed?

Point being, MTs aren't the first ones to find their skills made increasingly unnecessary by some technological advance, and certainly won't be the last. Remember the old folk song about John Henry, the steel driving man who was defeated by a steam engine? Frankly, no one is really safe. The trick is to be able to recognize when the hammer is about to drop on you, and move on to some other field.

It sucks, without question. But that's the reality of the situation, and ignoring reality has never made it go away.

Well said but -sm - dz

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It reminds me of this lady who tried to apply for an MT job but wanted to first do short hand and then type from her notes.

The only trouble is that SR obviously isn't replacing us, it's doubtful it ever will and it sometimes makes our jobs harder when it has a sound-alike phrase that isn't right. That's frustrating because we probably wouldn't have missed it on our own. Add to that the pressure to produce a ridiculous amount of lines and when you're skimming quickly over the draft and don't notice that word that's so close but so very wrong. Yet again another mistake you would not likely have made without SR.

Even more frustrating is that employers don't appreciate that it's really us that give the work it's true value. We could do the job without the SR but the SR couldn't do the job without us and that's quite a different story from that of the projectionist. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Replacing? - Critical thinker

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Like all analogies, my comparison of MT to projector operators isn't perfect. So no, you are not wrong, at least in terms of how things stand today.

However, I could argue that in a way, SR actually is replacing MTs right now. Consider, there used to be no other way to do this. You had to have a person with extremely good typing skills, good listening skills, and also a considerable knowledge of medical terminology. Those MTs were the only way the doctor's words got put on paper.

Now, with SR, a great many people who used to be MTs have been reduced to editing, not typing. Those editors are no longer central to the system as MTs used to be - the SR has taken on that role. Instead, MTs have become ancillary, only there to catch mistakes by the SR.

Speech recognition, as I noted before, is incredibly complex software, and it certainly isn't perfect yet. But once upon a time I could beat a computer at chess, even though I absolutely suck at chess. Now, a computer can beat a grand master. I think it is only a matter of time before the human portion of the medical transcription process is replaced by machines.

I'm sure a couple of people will click the thumbs down button on this message. I don't blame them. Heck, *I* dislike this message. But I think anyone in the MT field today ought to be taking a very serious look around for some different options. If the machines don't get you, the off-shoring will.

In any case, we are a long way off from Mr. Data - nm

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x

To critical thinker from critical thinker too - CuriousGeorge

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I never picked up where you clarified if you were a medical transcriptionist or had ever done this work. You sound like an IT guy or Geek for Dragon.

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