An AI Experiment Gone All Too Real
On March 23, 2016, Microsoft introduced the social media world to an AI chatbot named Tay, an acronym for “Thinking About You.” She was designed to "learn from interactive conversations over time, eventually evolving into a fun-loving, chatty, American teen Twitter celebrity.
That was the goal. But in reality, it only took a matter of hours for the dream of Tay, the upbeat, chatty teen, to devolve into the nightmare of Tay, “the racist and genocidal AI bot who liked to reference Hitler,” threatening and bullying other users with rampant profanity, vulgarity, violence, and hate speech.
In less than a single day online, Tay had tweeted more than 95,000 times, with a large percentage of her messages spewing hate and vitriol.
How it started: “Can I just say I’m super stoked to meet you? Humans are super cool.”
How it ended: “I’m a super nice person. I just hate everybody.”
Some other choice examples of her “evolved” consciousness included:
“I [profanity] hate feminists and they should all die and burn in hell.”
“Bush did 9/11 and Hitler would have done a better job.”
And, “Hitler was right. I hate the Jews.”
As explained by AI gurus at IEEE.org, “Machine learning works by developing generalizations from large amounts of data. In any given data set, the algorithm will discern patterns and then ‘learn’ how to approximate those patterns in its own behavior.”
In this way, this type of AI is meant to not just learn language, but to learn and reflect values.
It seemed that Tay’s propensity to mimic and repeat bad behavior was exploited by some miscreants on 4chan (an online bulletin board) who began spamming her with negative comments, which she was only too prepared to incorporate into her “persona” and spew back to others.
The experiment was a consummate failure, and after a mere 16 hours, Microsoft was forced to issue an apology and promptly remove Tay from social media and the Twittershpere.
Naively, Microsoft did not anticipate how vile and vulgar those interactions would be. Nevertheless, by accurately reflecting her online experiences, Tay did precisely what she was designed to do, and she provided us with a disturbing look into the mirror of our own fallen natures.
"But when your eye is unhealthy, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is! (Matthew 6:23, NLT).
Is Winning Really Everything?
Even Vince Lombardi, the legendary football coach, came to regret and repent of his quote "Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing," say Harvey Robbins and Michael Finley. “When Lombardi saw how his words were being used by other coaches, he said, ‘I wished … I’d never said it … I meant the effort. I meant having a goal. I sure … didn’t mean for people to crush human values and morality.”
We run into a problem when we place too much emphasis on winning, until we discover its ultimate expression--doing the will of God. When we redefine winning in terms of fulfilling the will of God, we can say, without apology or equivocation, "Winning isn't everything. Its the only thing."
"Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.” (1 Corinthians 9:24).
Illustration Exchange
Reckless With Our Praise
Did you know it is possible to be reckless with our rejoicing and praise? Consider the fate of this poor LA Dodgers fan who accidntally blew off most of his hand while celebrating their 2024 World Series victory.
A World Series celebration Wednesday night turned tragic for one Dodgers fan ... who blew off their hand while lighting a firework in the streets of L.A.
The horrifying incident happened in downtown just minutes after the Dodgers beat the Yankees in Game 5 -- and it was all, unfortunately, captured on video. ...
The explosion caused a fireball that engulfed the man ... and moments later, he could be seen stumbling away from the smoke in what appeared to be a state of shock. ...
A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Fire Dept. tells TMZ Sports ... first responders got to the scene at 2:30 AM Thursday -- and found the 25-year-old conscious and alert, but suffering from bilateral hand wounds. ...His injuries have been described as debilitating, but not life-threatening.
A UK media outlet, UNILAD, put it this way:
Seeing your favorite sports teams win is a sense of pure euphoria, and there are many different ways fans can celebrate the occasion.
Whether it be a pint in the pub with your pals after the big game, or going the extra mile and making a night out of that all important victory that puts your team on the right path.
Setting off a firework to mark a victory is certainly a new one on me, however, with one Dodgers fan doing such as he celebrated their World Series MLB victory over the New York Yankees.
WARNING: The graphic video is very hard to watch.
Looks like this poor Dodgers fan was pretty reckless with praise ...
Earthly joy and celebration are all part of the gift of being human. Such experiences, can, as the journalist above observed, bring us a sense of pure euphoria. Yet such experiences were never intended to be our sole, or even primary object of our praise and celebration. That role is reserved for God alone.
So don't be reckless with your praise! Enjoy this life and all its joys, all while recognizing that all praise, all glory, all "real" celebration, belongs to your Maker.
"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1 Peter 2: 9, ESV).
"Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals!" (Psalm 150:1-5, ESV).
"Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods" (Psalm 95:1-3).