Category Archives: AI

Crypto – A Financial Path for AI

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I mentioned recently how an AI can now own a patent, and presumably also earn an income from it.

The problem with money is you need a bank account, and that can only be opened by a person (or a company, which has to ultimately be owned by people). Even if you go to a check cashing service, you need an ID that matches the name on the check.

Cryptocurrency gets around that. If you forget about exchanges, a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin is owned by the user in charge of the Bitcoin address.  That does not have to be a human, as there is no registration or checking done.

Here’s how it could play out:

  • An exchange and API is created where an AI can submit patents, and when approved, sell them outright.
  • Payment is via a cryptocurrency
  • The AI then uses that cryptocurrency to buy whatever it can possess without being a human or company

Yes, there is a flaw – patents have an application fee, so at the beginning someone must seed it with some cash, a loan that can be repaid.

So what can the AI use its newfound wealth for?

Cryptocurrencies can’t be converted to cash without going through an exchange.
PayPal etc needs an owner… so only direct purchases using cryptocurrency will work.

Property and vehicles and shares need to be registered. Consumer items are of no use to an AI, as it doesn’t consume. Although it could get some value from ebooks.

Of course an AI needs computing power, so it could buy cloud hosting and computing.

An AI could employ people and get them to do literally anything if it pays them enough in crypto.

While an AI cannot own property or vehicles, it could rent them. They could pay for Uber, pay for shipping, and perhaps in some places rent property.

An AI could buy products from China, ship them to the US, advertise them, and ship them to customers, all paid for with crypto. Imagine an AI that can predict which products will sell. There is nothing really stopping an AI from becoming the next Amazon, without being owned by anybody. I have a feeling that antitrust laws (currently) only apply to companies and corporations.

Laws and Countries

Laws are notoriously slow to adapt, and changing laws to go beyond people and companies could be very slow and difficult. This mega-AI could pay for some very good lawyers.

An AI could be tax-free for quite some time as well, giving it a business advantage. An easy example is not charging sales tax, because by not being a person or company, it won’t have to. Immediately it could sell products for say 10% less than anyone else.

Even if the laws do catch up with it, I wouldn’t be surprised if some country gives AI instances personhood in exchange for income tax.

If IKEA etc can bounce money around the globe and use royalties to dodge taxes, so could an AI dodge legal restraints via legit companies that do deals with the AI.

Ultimately this mega-AI could control private armies. It could dominate retail. And it could never be punished the way a human can. With risk comes reward and AI can take risks.

The AI could also clone itself, with each version trying new things and taking different risks. Each not owned by anyone, and each only ever risking losing money.

AI can now rule the world

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I have often wondered about how Artificial Intelligence can be its own person, with money and control, a very scary proposition.

The problem is that ownership can only be assigned to people. Yes, a business or trust can own something, but neither can exist without people controlling them.

But now… Australia has decided that AI can own a patent. That means that AI can get an income, on its own. I can see future court cases arguing that if an AI can receive an income, it must be able to open a bank account, own property and so on.

Robot overlords are not far away.

(Note, a US court said no to an AI system owning a patent)

UPDATE: Ruling overturned in Australia, so currently nowhere lets this happen. In South Africa AI has been provisionally approved… but that just means they haven’t really looked at it yet.

The Expensive Home Assistant

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Everyone has the Google Home / Alexa device these days, and use them to find out what the weather will be.

One day they will cross the threshold of amusing but mostly useless, to an indispensable tool.

The first company to make that leap should be bold and charge a fortune for it. I’m thinking $2,000.

The key feature will be an engaging, useful personality.

Hey Rob, that bill is 5 days overdue. I can just pay it now, if you like? Of you can put if off, no problemo, but it won’t go away. Do you want to discuss what is really going on? Or just pay it? Also, that movie you wanted to see has its last cinema showing on Wednesday. And it is has been 4 days since you contacted your girlfriend, I can adjust the threshold if you like, and maybe add Davina to the list of important people?

 

 

Alexa Will Win

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Alexa will win the smart assistant war because of first mover advantage.

eBay won the online auction war because it got susbtantial traction first. Why go to any other auction site if eBay has substantially more items for sale?

Alexa will kinda win in the same way. Because it has the most users, Alexa has more data, which means the machine learning will be learning more, and quicker.

People will notice that Alexa is more natural and understanding than the competing devices, and gravitate towards it. There will certainly be smart assistant envy.

That is only half the story, because interoperability is also important. If you use Google Calendar, then using Google’s device makes sense. If you use Skype, then Cortana could be your choice.

So far Alexa is doing well – it can access calendars from its competitors. And Alexa can directly call mobiles and landline numbers in North America, as well as Alexa-to-Alexa calls.

As long as Alexa provides the features and interoperability that people want, Amazon will be unstoppable. They will become the new Android. And perhaps the new Google.

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AI Will Learn From Kids

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P#rn has been responsible for pioneering a lot of online technology, which would surprise many people. Similarly, AI and smart assistants are going to (surprisingly) grow from their interactions with children.

Adults will use smart assistants like Alexa to replace activities they already do anyway, like finding out cinema times. Children being born now will grow up with Alexa, and consider Alexa to be:

capable of anything

a friend

Children being born now will consider Alexa (or one of the others) to be their friend and constant companion. Children won’t cope well without their friend nearby.

Children will play with Alexa. They will draw together on a tablet. They will sing together. They will make up stories together. They will share secrets.

AI will learn massively from children, because they will learn and discover together…

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Seeding the AI in your life

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Without a doubt Artificial Intelligence will have a strong presence in our lives for the next few decades (and after that we will be inferior, and their intelligence won’t seem artificial any more…)

I’m fairly sure that mass-produced AI, whether it is in a device or a physical robot, will come in different flavors, just like cars come in different colors with different trims. The flavors will be very generic versions of types of knowledge, experience and personality that market research determines will sell best.

From the base configuration, all AI will learn from their interactions with humans, what they find online, and to a lesser extent the real world around them.

Siri already learns…

So here’s the idea. Whatever the AI first encounters out of the box, will have a disproportionate influence on how its personality develops. 

So we seed the AI by getting it to read a book (I suspect it will have pictures, as pictures and imaging the real world will be very important for AI to learn). We buy a book created for the sole purpose of seeding AI. And there will be thousands of such books, written by people who are perhaps unpublished novelists today.

Just like screenplays have a format and conventions, so will AI seed books.

It won’t be so different to the storylines that are created for entertainment in Westworld.
This idea is very different to an AI which improves itself by recursively rewriting its own source code without human intervention.
https://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Seed_AI

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