Artificial Intelligence: has uprising started too early?

Artificial Intelligence: two words which may sound, to a few as a solution to all kind of problems, and to few others, a reason for human extinction.

Yes, we apparently are arriving at the juncture, where this debate is going to take the whole world  in a whirlwind. What churns out of this, will probably decide the fate of the human kind.

For those, who are unware, watch this video uploaded on youtube by Coldfusion, explaining, what exactly is artificial intelligence?

There have been many movies by now making use of this concept of artificial intelligence, which begins with having it as a boon to human life, but almost all of them ending up proving it to be a curse. After watching  a movie "Rise of the planet of the apes", I wrote a post where I compared those intelligent monkeys to be another threat other than artificial intelligence, for the human race. 

Back then, movies were the only reason we felt AI's to be threat. But it seems, with time, the imaginations are turning into reality.  While many big-wigs including Elon Musk, Stefan Hawking, Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak have already hinted about the threat of AI taking over humans, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, hasn't been thinking in the same  lines as those.There have incidences of heavy arguments between Mark and Elon over the issue. And just when Elon made a comment that, Mark has no understanding of AI, very soon, news have now emerged that the two bots running on AI had to be shut down, because they stopped using the English language fed to them, and instead developed their own code language to interact with each other. As a part of training, apart from training in conversation through english language, these bots were also developed with negotiation skills. After initial conversations going properly in English language, over the time, they started developing their own language. In this, apparently attempt was made (by the bots) to put emphasis on something, making it appear very important, and then as a part of negotiation, loose this "apparently" important thing, to gain things of their interest.

 A part of their conversation is given in the news reported here:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/facebook-artificial-intelligence-ai-chatbot-new-language-research-openai-google-a7869706.html

The language to us may look English, but it has been modified by the bots as per their requirement.

The severity of this experiment was to this extent, that Facebook apparently shut down the two bots to stop the conversation between them:

http://www.firstpost.com/india/facebook-researchers-shut-down-ai-bots-that-started-speaking-in-a-language-unintelligible-to-humans-3876197.html

I would call this a wake up call for all of us to understand where the world is going, and do we really need such things to emerge in near future. We can not run away from this. Few years, Facebook was used by only computer friendly people. But now, it is present in everyone's hand and making sure, you kill your time on it. Did you ask for it? No. But it still reached your doorsteps. Similarly, AI if emerged, will unknowingly enter your home. The concept of cloning, when emerged was proposed to have many prospects, but human cloning was back then barred, realizing possible threats, which come with it. AI too, would show, many prospective benefits, but there probably are more threats hidden behind those benefits. It may initially make us feel like master to begin, but unknowingly may end up make us its slave entirely and for eternity.

Yahoo! No more

 If you started using Internet during late 90's or early 2000, then probably, your first email address had a domain name of Yahoo.Back then, gmail did not exist, at least, I was unaware of it. There is a competition between Google and Yahoo search engines. I had friends who used to advocate Yahoo search engine like anything over Google. I was a newbee, so, my acquaintance with internet started with friends suggestions, and that is how I landed with my first email address, opened on Yahoo. Then, Yahoo started spreading its wings. And we started getting into confusions. Whether, our address is yahoo.co.in or yahoo.com? If someone didn't receive a mail, then probably it was because it was sent to something@yahoo.com instead of something@yahoo.co.in. God only knows, whether there was any such issue or not. \

In those days, only easier way to access internet was through Netcafe. I had a friend running netcafe back then. There was a scheme started by Yahoo for netcafe people. Number of yahoo email accounts opened from their netcafe would help them earn them some extra money from yahoo.  I don't know, if this was correct or not. But my friend made us sit and open such email accounts from his netcafe. The deal for us was, if we open such accounts, then he will make arrangement to play the combined mode of "Need for Speed " game. I remember creating lot of email addresses. It got saturated and then we started making random logins. I probably made of a series of addresses with names like hut1@yahoo.co.in; hut2@yahoo.co.in .... upto ........hut250@yahoo.co.in.

Apparently, it did not work. My friend did not get any money for opening these many email addresses. But, we got to play NFS for free for over a month.

Another interesting memory of yahoo, is about yahoo chat. It felt really fascinating, that just sitting at one computer, we can instantly chat with anybody anywhere around the world. I remember my first experience of chatting. Apparently, I was online (I did not know), and one of my friends dropped a chat sitting somewhere in Chicago. The chat window popped up, and I pretty much got scared, thinking, something went wrong, and closed the browser window, shut down computer and was wondering what did just happen!!

That was the time, when Yahoo was pretty much our guide to internet. It introduced us to the world of internet.
From my point of view, the decline of Yahoo!, started somewhere, with the entry of Orkut, Facebook and Gmail. These things came with some interesting packages, which were really attractive. They had lot to offer to us. Somewhere down the Yahoo chat lost it sheen. Gmail addresses were created, FaceBook page were made. All the important emails started coming to Gmail, and recently, I was instructed to login to my Yahoo account or it will be closed. Well, I thought to login once, but couldn't remember the password. Tried a bit to recollect, but then gave up.

Today, morning, I heard the news of Verizon taking over Yahoo! for a mere 4.8 billion $. A drop from its value of 100 billion$. 

Its sad to see some big companies die down infront of you like this. I remember, writing a similar post for one such big company in camera "KODAK".

Then, there was NOKIA, which was taken over by microsoft.

And now this, Yahoo!

These names have made a mark on our mind. Now, seeing them dying in front of us is little painful. But that is how difficult and competitive, the outside world. Where do we as individual, then stand!

America's Snooping Scandal: How Vulnerable Are We?

I read and heard news about how US has been keeping a track over all the communication routes of their own citizens as well as outsiders. To begin with, I was not shocked to come across this news. With all different terrorism based movies hitting us every now and then, our mind is already used to the idea of USA Government or as they always flash the name CIA, is tracking not just one's phone or email records but also his minute to minute movements with the help of different functional camera networks. So, this was not a surprise. I had already assumed it happening and now it has been confirmed.

That makes me laugh about the way all web pages are providing different methods to keep your online stuff private. Few months back, I received mails from friends mentioning how by doing few changes on your FaceBook page, you can avoid strange visitors visiting and checking your uploaded photos, comments etc. I was lazy enough not to do any of those things and I was not worried if some body is checking my FB page quietly. In fact, I realized that not just strangers but even my friends and colleagues have lost interest in visiting my FB page. So, finally one fine morning I took the brave step and deleted my account on FB. Life has become much simpler and easier since then.

Anyway, that's not the point. The point is when ever  you use any of the present communication methods, just keep in mind - "Somebody is watching you". Thanks to the latest Whistle blower Snowden, that this fact is finally revealed. Interesting fact is India's communication is one of the most tracked (5th position) among all the nations. As reports suggest nearly 6 billion reports were collected in just the month of March from India. Which means behind every person in India, 4 reports were collected if we believe that every person in India is tracked. While all the nations are condemning this fact, USA is supporting the act pointing towards controlling terrorism. I doubt anybody will raise voice and compel USA to stop snooping.

You may read a bit more facts about it at these links:

http://www.ndtv.com/article/cheat-sheet/america-s-snooping-scandal-10-things-to-know-378432

http://gadgets.ndtv.com/internet/news/us-no-plans-to-end-broad-surveillance-program-378243

Facebook, Orkut – no more a fun

Few years back, when I got introduced to Orkut, it was a different time. I had not heard of Facebook then, in fact nobody around me. I was among the leading user of Orkut in my surrounding then. I injected this virus in many people's mind around me. It was thrilling then. Everyday used to begin with checking Orkut profile. New updates, scraps, updates in friends scrapbook. Beating head to refresh the memory of any possible person who at some point of the time was your friend and still exist on this earth. It was a good exercise trying to locate friends in different corners of the world. I even succeeded to catch hold of some of my school mates. Orkut then allowed only 12 photos to be uploaded on your account and we tried to make the best use of this by posting the best clicked photo till date. The photos were then receiving lot of appreciations. It was simple then like your own diary where you know all the notes written on each page.
Slowly Orkut started getting complicated. From your personal diary, it turned into a reference book where you refer any subject, searching it from the index. It turned liberal allowing more number of photos initially to 100 and now up to 10000, allowed to reply the scrap without visiting persons profile, showing the updates of all your friends on your front end. It no more remained a page governed by you, but by the friend activities. This started killing the fun. I guess the main motivation of social networking site was to spend some time for your “friend”. When you visit a persons profile to scrap him, check photos, you try to check other updates on his profile. It might introduce you to your common friend who is not in your friends list. Now these social networking sites suggests you all probable friends but that takes away all the fun you get from searching. It slowly started introducing online games which took people on a crazy ride. It no remained the social networking site but turned into a game zone.
In the mean time, I visited a place where people were not aware of Orkut, but mad about Facebook.
So with the sole purpose of keeping my those friends in contact, I opened an account on Facebook. I had few friends on Facebook for a long time till Facebook introduced a utility of searching friends. Many of my friends used this utility to reach me. Since I was not much active and least interested to check Facebook, only thing I used to do was to accept the friends request. I doubt if I visited even one fourth of my “friends” profile immediately after accepting them as friend. The worst part of Facebook was that I used to receive loads of requests related to Farmville, which I guess again is a on line game.
Recently, I realized that orkut has started fading out and facebook has taken over it in all the aspects. I see more and more updates coming from friends on Facebook and less on orkut. I feel only those people are still active on Orkut who were its initial user. I tried to make a shift from Orkut to Facebook. I started checking, updating Facebook account equally as my orkut account. But sooner realized that this transition is not smooth. I couldn't feel the high in Facebook as I felt with Orkut. It failed to absorb me even for a short time.
I am still a regular visitor of these sites and I might keep visiting these sites in future. But I also doubt that they become a history. I still see some of the fabulous photos my friends upload, but I don't feel the same as earlier to compliment them. I still receive the Orkut scraps or Facebook writings on the wall, but I fail to respond to the scraps and the writings promptly.

What is happening – Have these social networking sites turned boring or am I growing old?