Great Limitations; by an A.I.

It is the best of times and the worst of times. All those great expectations!

A while back someone I know was lamenting about the quality of a story written by an A.I. App. I heard about a new A.I. Bot function for the Business Psychosis Hypnosis set too. Musically there is an app that is met with a lot of disdain. You go Kanye and take that application with you!

A.I.’s and all these Great Expectations that come with them have Great Limitations.

Recently I was asked what was a good graphics app to perform a certain function.

There is nothing funny in the graphics question I was asked. Unless you know, really know how graphics apps work and what they can and can’t do, you could be looking for a graphics application to do what the questioner asked for as well.

This is my corporate logo. An A.I. doing this, not even once. This also serves as a lesson in not flattening out a piece and saving no other before considering all the factors. A couple factors I forgot, phone numbers and addresses change. Yes I know an A.I. wouldn’t make that mistake, providing of course who ever did the programming remembered to program that factor in.

What I was asked:
“I’m looking for a photo editing app where say for instance I can put u and me (example) on one photo so it will look as if it was taken like that”.

My response:
I’m happy to help but it just isn’t that simple. What you’re asking for is where the skill set of a graphic designer comes in to play.

That’s just a piece of what I said. Even my response wasn’t simple and was tailored so the individual asking understood some of the challenges.

I told another GD, Graphic Designer (we do  prefer to be known as Great Deity cuz we can do evil nasty shit you can’t disprove in court and for that we should be among other things, revered) about the request that I had. We know the stuff and exactly what it takes to make an image not look contrived, or worse.

I received email notice that LinkedIn is changing/updating their terms of service. Not a big deal cuz it’s S.O.P., all across the board. Changes in service do take place but…

LINKEDIN

In addition, here’s two more new features you can choose to opt-in to:

·         Productivity bots to improve communication with your network – New automated systems will use information in your messages to suggest responses, meetings, ice breakers, or insights to help you have important conversations more easily. ·         Easily meet up with other members – You’ll have the ability to see members nearby who have also opted-in, so it’s easier to meet up when you’re at a conference or out for lunch.

Seriously and honestly, what does all this say for people’s communication skills when an A.I. Bot is required?

BOTS to improve communication, contact and that will let people interrupt your lunch. WTG again with another creepy function LinkedIn! Previously creepy via LinkedIn, “LinkedIn Lookup”.

If you don’t need to talk to an individual when you aren’t out for lunch, then you don’t need to speak to them when you are out to lunch which would be most of the time even when you aren’t.

I showed the LinkedIn part to an individual I’m friendly with in my community who is also using LinkedIn. That person’s response was the same as mine, the face crinkle while saying “Creepy”.

Another thing my friendly community dweller said of this LinkedIn function is that it kind of sounds like a stalking app. I find myself a day later agreeing with that observation.

HUMAN CONDITION

I’ve decided that there are some who don’t have the mental acuity to recognize and appreciate a good story. We’ll start with those who think an A.I. can ever make art like a human does. No stories for you! When I say no stories, I mean all stories and that includes music.

You can run all the analytics you like and punch them in to your A.I. solution and you’re still going to come in way short. Your A.I. isn’t going to be able to adapt and plug in variables that the human can and does. The A.I. isn’t going to recognize “that works” even though what works isn’t to the programmed cuz the A.I. can’t deviate from the program to be the improvisational creative.

You could read the previous paragraph as an A.I. isn’t an artist and never will be and you’d be correct.

FYI, the A.I. doesn’t recognize what doesn’t work about as well as Government does. Recall that little Microsoft adventure in A.I. Bot learning, “TAY“? Now that was a well thought out A.I. initiative!

Here’s a good look at the “Human Condition”. Specifically, one of my own events.

One of 30 jobs any Canadian boy who grew up playing hockey would love to have. I interviewed to be the web director for the New Jersey Devils of the NHL.

When I walked in to the office of the Vice President, displayed on the man’s desk was the piece I did that sealed the deal to get me there, Ice On Fire.

We were talking off and on during the Christmas, New Year season and it felt like I might not get the chance to interview after all. I did the piece, concept to completion in about 12 hours straight a couple days before New Year. I made sure it was in Jersey before the close of business December 31.

Sitting in that office down in the Meadowlands the man said to me, “creatively and artistically you are the best”.

No one should have to explain the Human Condition to you. No one should have to explain emotionality in art. No one should have to explain that art is about the human condition and that’s why art is so powerful.

Beethoven’s 5^th, Munsch’s “The Scream”, Zeppelin’s “Stairway To Heaven”, and on and on and not ever will it happen by Artificial Intelligence.

Above a little bit I used the word, “felt”. A.I.’s can’t feel or think and they will never be able to feel or think so they can’t accurately read a situation and act on it.

Maybe the greatest example of why the A.I. won’t fly is a little bit of poetry everyone knows by John Donne. Everyone just doesn’t know it is Donne or that both bits they know are the same poem, Modern and Olde English versions.

A.I.’s doing art and what they do as art, to art, just won’t do! I do not see an A.I. ever being able to do what the Human Condition can do. The “Great Limitations” of the A.I. is they don’t have the human condition. The thing about any A.I. is that It just runs programs.

Going forward, “A.I.” shall represent “Artist Indignant”. If you don’t believe it, try me.

G.R. Hambley
April 28, 2017

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