Data Dignity and the Inversion of AI - Jaron Lanier

Data Dignity and the Inversion of AI - Jaron Lanier, Prime Unifying Scientist, Microsoft

Abstract:
In this talk, Jaron Lanier will discuss a piece he published in The New Yorker (“There Is No AI”) about applying data dignity ideas to artificial intelligence (AI). Large-model AI can be reconceived as a social collaboration between the people who provided data to the model in the form of text, images and other modalities. This is a figure/ground inversion of the usual conception of AI as being a participant or collaborator in its own right. Explanations of model results and behaviors would then center around the relative influence of specific inputs through a provenance calculation mechanism. This formulation suggests new and different strategies for long-term economics in the context of high-performance AI, as well as more concrete approaches to many safety, fairness and alignment questions.

Speaker Bio:
Jaron Lanier is a computer scientist, composer, artist and author. He currently serves as prime unifying scientist for Microsoft. His many awards include an IEEE lifetime career award and the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. He was named one of the 25 most influential people in the previous 25 years of tech history by Wired, one of the world’s 100 most influential people by Time, one of the world’s top 100 public intellectuals by Foreign Policy, and a top 50 world thinker by Prospect Magazine. In computer science Lanier is probably best known for his work in virtual reality. He coined the term, had the first startup, sold the first hardware and pioneered the major applications. His tech startups landed at Adobe, Google and Pfizer. He is also known as a critic of technology, through books like “Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts” and TV appearances such as in “The Social Dilemma.” He is active in cognitive science, theoretical physics, philosophy and economics.

About the Talk:
Co-hosted with the UC Berkeley College of Computing, Data Science, and Society and the UC Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research (BAIR) Lab.

About the Series:
CITRIS Research Exchange delivers fresh perspectives on information technology and society from distinguished academic, industry and civic leaders. Free and open to the public, these seminars feature leading voices on societal-scale research issues.

Research Exchange:

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[supersonicej]

Jaron's perspective is such a gift. I'm glad he's around and speaking up.

[garypuckettmuse]

He's got it all -- such a big heart to go with the rest of the package. I'm glad to see him in front of students. Sets a good example of what it means to be human. Thank you, Jaron!

[ubeydk]

"What do we want from all this technology?". This guy is awesome!

[danrice]

Wow no comments, seems like an important topic to discuss; life is still local but can instant access confuse decision making; the heart knows but the antecedent has to be reasoned for courage and wisdom to move forward. The era of artificial socialization should be an interesting step for humans, lets keep our balance in check, how to do this.. go slow, keep it simple-beautiful-good for others and our self, of course this takes the most effort and Tech is working hard and has been holding the reins for awhile, if billions are being made and spent it will be well spent to kindle other's fires and not just fill their vessel with water. no worry, humans know pleasure can't be experienced without knowing pain, thirst-satiety. Thank you Berkeley and Mr. Jaron for overseeing your vision well, and to both of you, besides hiring all the regular qualified people you need to do your work please hire as many kids- as possible to help keep the future real and good.

[garycard]

Excellent presentation. Jaron explains some fundamental concepts extremely well. I'm glad he's at Microsoft where he might actually impact the future. 👍

[kennbmondo]

Thank you Jaron. Been following you for over 30 years.... wow...

[pulsenewsarena]

Hi Jaron. What you said about the U.S. no longer being a country in a few years really cut me to my core. There's so much truth to those words.

Like Fei-Fei Li, I think AI should be constantly governed by humans. Potentially where the LLM "intelligent agents" and UI should have built-in rating and survey systems with weighted feedback to help steer the AI in the right direction. With citations.

We're building a decentralized news arena and taking our idea to universities globally first. Would be incredible to get your ethos infused in our building of this.

The part where you said "When you get a result, you should get antecedent example sets..." 40:34 Onto something.

Have a great life! ❤

[dilbyjones]

Societal inputs. Really love going down this path . Need more research.

[onbnkzp]

Jaron Lanier is one of the most brilliant thinkers of our times❤

[YOVOZOL]

this is such a good perspective that i think i also share, i am aiming to live by it and share it with others as a creative person

[MilanLD]

Very interesting idea. But I wonder how you could avoid that people use AI to generate data and earn money with it. Or in general, how do you make sure it's "high quality content" and not just bs?

[alepeni]

In the human being there will always be the double side of the coin.
Whether you like it or not, things today are as they are today.

[cownoy]

My idea is AI can be a collaboration and councious, a kind of "cloud consciousness".

when is Jaron going to be with Joe Rogan?

[gialavendel]

yikes when Jaron says he's nervous, that makes me real real nervous

[itsnotlevel]

OMGGGG! He said Commander Data!!! TNG Rules All!!!

[jaysphilosophy]

10, 000 views in 3 months? Pathetic. If it was a guy chasing a beaver it would have a million views. The internet should be ABSOLUTELY ASHAMED at what they promote, the damage it's caused, and the damage it will continue to cause, for short term gain. Jaron (while being a part of it), tries to redeem himself through these talks....

[DejanOfRadic]

We invented a perfect chess Ai, but nobody sits around watching Deep Blue play Deep Blue. We have near perfect CGI, but how many films have non-human leads?
We crave human expression, not perfection. Once AI becomes ubiquitous and perfect, it will become settle down into its proper place as a remarkable tool.

[pelinerkgoreke]

The questions are offensive after a very articulate speech about a complex topic. There is no AI as you think of it, that’s the whole point 😂