back to article Fear the wrath of robots, for their judgement is final and irrevocable

A colleague recently excused himself from a meeting because he had to go and judge a robotics contest. It quickly struck me this was a very modern inversion, because we're constantly judged by robots. We're observed and recorded everywhere we go online thanks to cookies, certificates and loyalty codes. All of that goes into …

  1. Voland's right hand Silver badge

    Provided it does not revoke another fundamental right

    I am OK with the right to forgive AIs, Algorithms and Machines as long it does not revoke my fundamental right to deliver said forgiveness using a sledgehammer.

    On a more serious note, it is unfortunately essential part of using AI and neural net. As anyone who has actually studied the underlying math can tell you it is guaranteed to go off the deep end once in a while. So, as long as we use it for something "serious" we have to have the right to "forgive".

    That also clearly defines the line up to which NN can be deployed. If it is something for which we are not willing to "forgive" it does not belong there. Something algorithmical with real math should be used instead.

    1. Chris G

      Re: Provided it does not revoke another fundamental right

      I think the author intended forgiveness to be for us after being incorrectly judged as wanting or guilty by dysfunctional algorithms.

      I wouldn' t consider forgiveness for algorithms or robots when they misfunction until they become sentient and sentience is something that is yet to happen or be defined.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Provided it does not revoke another fundamental right

        > I think the author intended forgiveness to be for us after being incorrectly judged as wanting or guilty by dysfunctional algorithms.

        Or even forgiveness for being correctly fingered as having said something rude, improper, nasty, etc, under the presumption of privacy or anonymity. Like a statute of limitations.

    2. Rich 11 Silver badge

      Re: Provided it does not revoke another fundamental right

      as long it does not revoke my fundamental right to deliver said forgiveness using a sledgehammer.

      I suspect a sledgehammer would not be much use against a massively-parallel distributed system. You'll need a pre-crime analysis of an early-stage AI so you can identify it as problematic before it causes any trouble.

      Basically, you've got to hit them when they're young.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Big Brother

    All in all it's just...

    Another reason to shun social media altogether...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: All in all it's just...

      A certain 'malle-herbert' of 246 Main Ave suggested, "Another reason to shun social media altogether..."

      Vee haf noticed zat you haf shunned zee social media altogether... This social deficiency haz been duly noted in zee files zat vee hold on you.

  3. m0rt

    Correction

    "Pre-crime is a neologism from Phillip K. Dick's The Minority Report,"

    At least attribute it to the originator...

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I see the main problem coming when they start using the wrong thinking by including things like race in calculations or picking out keywords or phrases as opinions without context. It's going to happen eventually, the question is can government stay ahead and not fall into this trap while being blinded by the perceived benefits of labelling everyone? I see a future fraught with danger that needs to be discussed and fixed before it becomes a problem or we will all fall into a society of fear where we double think everything we say and penalise the people that don't.

    1. Claptrap314 Silver badge

      In the US at least, race has long been a proxy for which party you can be expected to support in elections. Which is what really matters. Analysis of your graph is far more predictive. I don't know if we will have reached the tipping point by 2021, but certainly by 2031, talk about race in redistricting is going to be largely dropped because it will be considered far too crude a measure.

      1. onefang

        With more and more interracial couples breeding, race might be getting harder and harder to determine. I think there has recently been very white looking people in USA and Australia at least, claiming African or Australian Aboriginal descent. If the out of Africa theory is correct, we are all descended from Africans.

  5. Pete 2 Silver badge

    You're never alone with all your online personalities

    > China's "social credit" system, wherein each of the Middle Kingdom's billion connected adults have a rating drawn from the performance of their public role

    We already have such a system in the West. Many employers (we are told) will refer to candidates social media presence to get an idea of the "real" them. Prospective partners, too. And I fully expect it is the first port of call for anyone who does a bit of private detective work, or stalking.

    Therefore it would be only sensible to have as many different and separate (using different browser profiles, so different sets of cookies) online presences as possible. One to communicate with your close family, another to converse with your work colleagues, a third for your actual friends, another for your secret passion regarding whippets and maybe others concerning leathercraft, baby oil and jubilee clips (to choose items purely at random, you understand?).

    Even though many social media sites have Ts & Cs that require you use your own name, none have the wherewithall to validate or even check if that is so. Until they do, this would be a good time to establish all your personas and their individual networks of associates.

    Then, as the old naval toast used to go "May they never meet".

    1. Charles 9

      Re: You're never alone with all your online personalities

      "Even though many social media sites have Ts & Cs that require you use your own name, none have the wherewithall to validate or even check if that is so. Until they do, this would be a good time to establish all your personas and their individual networks of associates."

      And then someone will just establish a private investigation business (outside inappropriate jurisdictions) where they tie these "dissociate" identities together.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: You're never alone with all your online personalities

      You could always just change your name to "John Smith" or some other popular name then no one will know which one you are.

      1. Someone Else Silver badge
        Big Brother

        Re: You're never alone with all your online personalities

        You could always just change your name to "John Smith" or some other popular name then no one will know which one you are.

        I thought the guy's name was "Winston"....

    3. Claptrap314 Silver badge

      Re: You're never alone with all your online personalities

      Except that facial recognition at The Social Network has rendered this essentially useless for several years already. Clark Kent?

  6. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

    The rise of the machines

    seems to coincide with a general dumbing down of the population.

    It seems that 'I'm sorry Dave, I can't allow that!' is the new norm these days.

    "Computer knows best" and all that.

    We are doomed if this goes on.

    1. Chris G

      Re: The rise of the machines

      Don't worry Steve you and all the rest of us are just tiny routines in a simulation, you were judged before you were run.

    2. JeffyPoooh
      Pint

      Re: The rise of the machines

      SD suggested, "We are doomed if this goes on."

      No, they'll keep us around to change their CMOS batteries.

      Here, have a nice story. It's very reassuring...

      (...as the conspiring and manipulative Evil AIs have intended it to be. <evil laugh>...)

      http://jeffypooh.blogspot.com/2018/02/an-evil-ai-short-story-by-jeffypooh-rev.html

    3. onefang
      Terminator

      Re: The rise of the machines

      The computer says no.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It's here too...

    Who doesn't choose to post anonymously on here when it suits them and nonymously (?) when they want credit for their witticisms and such?

    And don't say you never post anonymously - we've only got your word for that...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: It's here too...

      I never post anonymously here.

  8. Anonymous Noel Coward
    Terminator

    >A colleague recently excused himself from a meeting because he had to go and judge a robotics contest.

    I need the rest of this story.

    What kind of robotics contest? Was it a Robotics Beauty Contest?

    Who won?

    The world needs to know!

  9. RobertLongshaft

    Spielberg's Minority Report?

    You mean Phillip K Dick's Minority Report, surely?

  10. gypsythief

    "we need to remember that...

    ...ratings hide as much as they illuminate. Data scrubbed of story can be cruel and unforgiving."

    Obligatory XKCD:

    https://xkcd.com/937/

  11. FuzzyTheBear

    The real error

    Is to have web browsers that allow this to happen in the first place.

    If i can't navigate without the browser sending back a shitton of info back to the servers maybe it's time firefox , chrome and safari be tossed in the fire along with it's design and admin staff.

    Really. They're the ones engineering browsers that allows sites to gather our personal information after all ..

    1. Twanky

      Re: The real error

      Just tried finding and reading these comments using curl... :(

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