H.I. (Human Intelligence)

You may have read some of the headlines about search engines rolling out new tools powered by artificial intelligence.

In one instance, a chat bot was trying to talk a guy into ending his marriage.

In another, the bot began arguing when the user pointed out that the information the bot provided was incorrect.

A well known psychologist recently reported that after uploading a few of his books into a A.I. program, the software was able to write a long article in a matter of seconds, perfectly consistent with his views and opinions but also an original work.

If you google A.I. art, it will bring up images, some of which are fantasy-like or futuristic, others a little disturbing.

Last summer there was big uproar over a piece of A.I. generated art that won the prize for digital art in the Colorado State Fair.  

The.. uh.. artist said he typed text into an A.I. program which generated the piece of art.

There is plenty of disagreement in the art world about whether the images created by A.I. are actually art. 

Sure it requires imagination to create A.I. art.  But whose imagination?

If someone asks me to create a futuristic painting and they describe to me the details they want included in the piece, does that make them the artist or me?

Of course there is going to be a market for A.I. art.

There’s still a market for black velvet paintings of Elvis.

Yes, some of what’s generated by A.I. looks or sounds scary.

But I’m most scared by the lack of human intelligence involved in the use of A.I. 

That is, humans who ask A.I. to do things ‘just to see what will happen’.

There have already been reports of users making ‘jail breaks’ (attempting to get around safeguards in A.I. software).

If we truly want A.I. to be a benefit for the world then why not limit it to those who are working to cure degenerative diseases or terminal illness? 

Or I don’t know, help bring about world peace?

Do we really need to make it easier for someone to cheat on their college thesis

or do research for us when doing it ourselves will only benefit our brain?

More studies are showing that passive use of media contributes to cognitive decline.

In an age where dementia and Alzheimer’s are on the rise, why are we creating more ways for humans to use less of their brains?

Anything that makes life easier is attractive.  But is easier always better?

Art Hike

It was the night before Erin was going to be teaching a number of voice lessons back to back at home and Finn and I needed to make ourselves scarce for most of the day.

“Where are you going tomorrow?” Erin asked, probably knowing I hadn’t thought of anything yet.

Finn looked at me.

“We are going…on a…hike. On an art hike,” I said trying to come up with something original for him.

“What’s an art hike?” Finn asked.

“We’re going to hike and paint.” I said.

“Where?” Finn asked.

“We’ll figure that out tomorrow” I said, having no idea.

I didn’t really think it would be an art hike. I really thought that we would hike somewhere and Finn would get distracted looking for rocks or collecting sticks and I would carry the art bags and maybe get half an hour of sketching in while we ate lunch.

The next morning we packed lunches and snacks into our already full bags along side what we had packed the night before: watercolor paints and plenty of paper.

We hiked a familiar trail. Eventually we came to a nice place to rest beside a stream.

“This is it!” Finn said.

“You want to paint here?” I asked

“Yep!” he said claiming the perfect little spot under a tree.

After sitting for a while just observing the brook and a tiny water-fall for several minutes, he spread out all his art materials and got to work painting right away.

I was a little in disbelief. I had come up with the idea as something to get us out of the house. I didn’t really expect it to hold his attention very long.

But he was ‘in-it-to-win-it’ as Erin and I like to say when he’s in the zone.

We were all alone. Then an hour or so later in an elderly couple wandered by and sat for a while chatting and dipping their feet in the stream.

I noticed them observing Finn as they chatted. The sound of the water masked their conversation.

After sometime they got up to leave and the woman said:

“My father was a painter and I have many fond memories of painting watercolors along side him. This is a joy to see. Thank you!”

I got a little lump in my throat at her reaction, fumbling with my words saying something like:

“Oh I’m so glad.”

Then I saw Finn gathering up his things. But he wasn’t done. He moved to another rock and started another series of paintings.

A little while later we had our lunch. He talked about his paintings and what a good idea this was, painting outside.

He ended up with nine little masterpieces. Some realist, some expressionistic, one rainbow and one map showing where we were in relation to Mommy. My favorite was a little sketch of me sitting under a tree sketching him.

“We should do this every week, right?” he said.

“Absolutely” I answered.