Friday Wrap: Volume Three

Welcome to this, the third Friday Wrap covering the AI and other tech news stories that caught my eye over the past week.

Digital love

One of the psychological traps of large language models (LLMs) is to mistake their apparent command of language for evidence of personhood. We usually interact with other human beings through language; so when we interact with a computer that way, we can convince ourselves that it is actually a person and not a computer. In this Guardian article, some people have taken this to an extreme end: falling in love with and then marrying their AI chatbot.

My computer doesn't understand me

Similarly, some AI-boosters are suggesting that the close human interaction of therapist/client relationships can be performed by LLMs. Stanford University research strongly suggests that this is a terrible idea. In an article at Ars Technica, they detail how supposed therapeutic chatbots have given guidance on suicide methods and have supported conspiracy theories, leading to worsening of people's mental health issues.

Cat chat

If talking with fake human beings isn't your thing, perhaps you'd prefer talking to your pets. The Jeremy Coller Centre for Animal Sentience, at the London School of Economics, is an interdisciplinary research centre investigating non-human animal consciousness. Of course, the big headline has to include the word "AI" and, sure enough, the emphasis is on one project with the potential to use AI to talk to the animals.

A different kind of computer bug

Sticking with animals and technology, scientists in Australia and China are working to develop "cyborg beetles" with the potential to search for people trapped under fallen buildings. The darkling beetles have a microchip attached to their backs and electrical impulses are sent to their antennae allowing them to be "remote controlled". And if that doesn't work out, they're also apparently highly nutritious.

Sick cow-spotting supercomputer

Here in the UK, a new £225m national artificial intelligence supercomputer has officially been switched on in Bristol. Its tasks will include spotting sick dairy cows, improving the detection of skin cancer on brown skin and helping in the creation wearable AI assistants that could help riot police anticipate danger. It will consume almost £1m a month of mostly nuclear-powered electricity.