Hi Friends,

Even as I launch this today ( my 80th Birthday ), I realize that there is yet so much to say and do. There is just no time to look back, no time to wonder,"Will anyone read these pages?"

With regards,
Hemen Parekh
27 June 2013

Now as I approach my 90th birthday ( 27 June 2023 ) , I invite you to visit my Digital Avatar ( www.hemenparekh.ai ) – and continue chatting with me , even when I am no more here physically

Tuesday, 25 July 2017

Artificial Intelligence : Destroyer of Privacy ?



Hindustan Times ( 26 July ) carries following report :




“ Elon Musk escalates row with Zuckerberg over AI “



The ongoing spat between tech honchos Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg escalated on Tuesday, with the Space X and Tesla CEO saying the Facebook creator’s understanding of artificial intelligence (AI) is “ limited ”.

Zuckerberg had earlier claimed Musk’s warnings of the dangers of AI were “irresponsible” and castigated him for arguing that care and regulation is needed to safeguard the future if AI were to become mainstream.

“I think people who are naysayers and try to drum up these doomsday scenarios – I just, I don’t understand it. It’s really negative and in some ways I actually think it is pretty irresponsible,” Zuckerberg had said.

In response, Musk shot back with a tweet on Tuesday, writing, “I’ve talked to Mark about this. His understanding of the subject is limited.”

Musk had ignited a global discussion on the dangers of AI back in 2014, when he predicted that machines that are smarter than humans would spell “doom” for mankind. He is involved in a startup called Neuralink that intends to build devices to connect the human brain with computers.

Meanwhile, Zuckerberg considers himself an optimist when it comes to AI. Inspired by Iron Man’s AI assistant Jarvis, the Facebook chief has coded and developed his own artificial assistant which can control his home — including lights, temperature, appliances, music and security — that learned his tastes, and can even entertain his daughter Max.

The system he developed uses several AI techniques, including natural language processing, speech recognition, face recognition and reinforcement learning.



Even if we are not sold on Musk’s idea that AI powered Robots will spell “ doom “ for the mankind , there is no doubt that Zuckerberg has designed his assistant  JARVIS  in such a way that it observes Mark – and his daughter – all through the day and “ learns “ WHAT THEY ARE DOING , HOW THEY ARE DOING , WHY THEY ARE DOING

With all this “ learning “ ( info shared voluntarily by the Zuckerberg household ) , Jarvis keeps getting better

Not so frightening , as yet !

Now extend this scenario to JARVIS ( and similar devices from Microsoft / Google / Amazon / Apple etc) sitting inside a million households and picking up info about the behaviours ( including spoken words / facial expressions ) of a BILLION persons and relaying to the CLOUD [ - in 2 years , JARVIS will shrink / morph into that smart phone in your pocket ! ]

That is , “ accumulating / filtering / multiplying / analysing / extrapolating “ HUMAN INTELLIGENCE  of a billion persons

This will be the TIPPING POINT , when Artificial Intelligence will overtake the Human Intelligence !

AND THIS WILL COME ABOUT THROUGH VOLUNTARY ( - OR INVOLUNTARY ) SHARING OF PERSONAL INFO BY A BILLION PERSONS

If you still entertain doubts about  the future of  PRIVACY , here is what Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen ( both of Google ) wrote in ,

The New Digital Age ( pg 57 ) - 2013  :

" In an open democracy , where free expression and responsive governance feed the public’s impulse to share, citizens will increasingly serve as judge and jury of their peers

More available data about everyone will only intensify the trends we see today

Every opinion will find space in an expansive virtual landscape , real-time updating will foster hyperactive social and civil spheres, and the ubiquity of social networking will allow everyone to play celebrity, paparazzo and voyeur , all at once

Each person will produce a voluminous amount of data about himself – his past and present , his likes and choices , his aspirations and daily habits

Like today, much of this will be “ opt-in “, meaning the user deliberately choose to share content for some undefined social or commercial reason ; but some of it won’t be

Also like today, many online platforms will relay data back to companies and third parties about user activity WITHOUT THEIR EXPRESS KNOWLEDGE

PEOPLE WILL SHARE MORE THAN THEY’RE EVEN AWARE OF "



26  July  2017


No comments:

Post a Comment