385: You Look Like a Thing (with Janelle Shane)

Artificial intelligence is everywhere, and that freaks some people out. But the real problem is that AIs may not be smart enough.

Whether you’re concerned about the future of human/computer interaction, or you just want a fun description of machine learning algorithms, there’s a new book you should read.

We’re talking with author Janelle Shane on this episode of Talk the Talk.

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Promo

TtT promo 2019-10-05 with Jeff Buller: Artificial Intelligence

Daniel talks to Jeff ahead of the show. Steamy AI fan fiction ensues. And ketchup.

Find Janelle Shane’s AI fiction at http://aiweirdness.com.

Also at https://www.patreon.com/posts/ttt-promo-2019-31358557

Leave That In!

Leave That In! 385: You Look Like a Thing

Daniel was besieged by trick-or-treaters yet again this year. Why is Australian Halloween so big on gore, by the way?

Janelle Shane reveals something exciting: a neural net that makes DnD scenarios for you automatically. Want in-game advice from Harry Potter? Weird things coming out of the walls? No problem!

What’s going on with Ethnologue? Hedvig drops us the lowdown.

Prepare for the upcoming PartnerSwap episode, where Hedvig and Ben are replaced by their partners. Daniel still has to be in this one.

Also at https://www.patreon.com/posts/31474975

Reflections on 385: You Look Like a Thing

Welcome to… Reflections. 🎹♫

We had a really enjoyable recording session with Janelle Shane. She’s the author of the new book You Look Like a Thing and I Love You. This is a book I wish I’d had when I started work in machine learning. If you want to understand AI algorithms, this is a fun and easy way to start.

While many of us (Ben) freak out a bit about AI, the real problem is not that they’re scary smart. The problem is that they’re dumb, and we trust them too much. This is encapsulated in this meme, which Hedvig tried to describe to us, but which I’m going to just post.

Janelle was patching into the recording from her home in snowy Colorado. It’s strange knowing about her work on AI Weirdness — which you should definitely check out and subscribe to — and then listening to this person who is clearly normal. But she has the sense of humour and curiosity that you’d expect, if you know her work. We really enjoyed chatting with her.

While we were having our discussion of VSCO girls, Hedvig the Millennial was somewhat startled to discover that she had just about all of the items in the VSCO girl starter pack. Here she is, obligingly modeling. OMG.

I can’t say that I partake in that VSCO vibe — I am older, but not a Boomer (though alarmingly close!) Here’s a photo of me anyway, as I was during the recording. That’s a new pop shield. The foam mic condom was not cutting it. I think all of us TtT teammates have a thing for robes.

If Ben sends us a photo, then we’ll post it here. He definitely looks like a thing, and we love him.

Enjoy the episode. This has been… Reflections. 🎹♫

Also at https://www.patreon.com/posts/31297917

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Show notes

AI Invents Paint Colors ‘Dorkwood,’ ‘Stanky Bean’ – Geek.com
https://www.geek.com/tech/ai-invents-paint-colors-dorkwood-stanky-bean-1700421/

AI Weirdness • Bigger than before! A larger neural net tries to…
https://aiweirdness.com/post/187374759802/bigger-than-before-a-larger-neural-net-tries-to

Janelle Shane: The danger of AI is weirder than you think | TED Talk
https://www.ted.com/talks/janelle_shane_the_danger_of_ai_is_weirder_than_you_think

Student in Peru makes history by writing thesis in the Incas’ language | World news | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/27/peru-student-roxana-quispe-collantes-thesis-inca-language-quechua

Turns out bats talk and 60% of what they say is arguments, including a whole category of calls for “males making unwanted mating advances” and another for when “a bat argues with another bat sitting too close.“ https://t.co/DasX9Oo3Ah
— Celeste Ng (@pronounced_ing) October 8, 2019

Scientific Babel (featuring Michael Gordin) | Because Language
http://becauselanguage.com/scientific-babel/

Researchers “Translate” Bat Talk. Turns Out, They Argue—A Lot | Smart News | Smithsonian
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/researchers-translate-bat-talk-and-they-argue-lot-180961564/

Bat banter is surprisingly nuanced : Nature News & Comment
https://www.nature.com/news/bat-banter-is-surprisingly-nuanced-1.21215

Google Introduces Huge Universal Language Translation Model: 103 Languages Trained on Over 25 Billion Examples
https://medium.com/syncedreview/google-introduces-huge-universal-language-translation-model-103-languages-trained-on-over-25-74f0eb71b177

Google’s AI translation tool seems to have invented its own secret internal language – TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/22/googles-ai-translation-tool-seems-to-have-invented-its-own-secret-internal-language/

Good, now do the other 98.7% of the world's languages.#languagediversity https://t.co/fh3oWlYp4w
— Simon J Greenhill (@SimonJGreenhill) November 1, 2019