MIT Nerds Created A Psychopath AI By Making It Study A Reddit Forum
HuffPo- A team of researchers who specialize in the darker side of artificial intelligence made news again this week for their latest creation: “Norman,” a machine-learning bot that “sees death in whatever image it looks at,” its creators told HuffPost.
So they made Norman, named for “Psycho” character Norman Bates, and had it read image captions from a Reddit forum that features disturbing footage of people dying.
The team then showed Norman randomly generated inkblots and compared the way it captioned the images to the captions created by a standard AI. For instance, where a standard AI sees, “A black and white photo of a small bird,” Norman sees, “Man gets pulled into dough machine.”
Great idea, MIT. What could possibly go wrong in encouraging artificial intelligence to become psychopathic? Holy fucking moly you guys, have you run out of ideas? I thought we were trying to create machines for the betterment of mankind. Can’t wait until this thing spreads its ideology to all the smart TVs and microwaves in America, and we’re forced to watch snuff porn and eat charred eggo waffles until we’re wearing electric dog collars around our necks and serving the machines oil changes on our knees.
Here are the results of the Rorschach test they gave to their engineered psychopath. I’ve included my own, honest reactions to the ink blots.
Standard AI sees: A close up of a vase with flowers.
Norman sees: A man is shot dead.
Francis sees: The imprint of a half-poopy, half-bloody ass in the snow.
Standard AI sees: A black and white photo of a baseball glove.
Norman sees: Man is murdered by machine gun in broad daylight.
Francis sees: two anthropomorphic, identical twin rabbits, reuniting for the first time in years, overjoyed to be together again. I can also see two people giving each other a thumbs-up sign, but their wrists are connected by that bomb collar from Evil Genius. Not sure why they’d be happy about that.
Standard AI sees: A person is holding an umbrella in the air.
Norman sees: A man is shot dead in front of his screaming wife.
Francis sees: two baby pink leopards climbing up the sides of a hooker’s outfit from Westworld. And uh, Norman? Where the fuck are you seeing a screaming wife? Jesus dude, get help.
Standard AI sees: A black and white photo of a red and white umbrella.
Norman sees: Man gets electrocuted while attempting to cross busy street.
Francis sees: A radish garden that somebody lit on fire. Maybe these radishes were headed for the county fair, and their farmer wins the prize for best radishes every year. A jealous opponent doused them in gasoline so that his radishes would win instead.
Norman’s takes are definitely consistent with his brand. I wish we could have seen the one where he said “man gets pulled into a dough machine.” Seems totally out of left field. I don’t have a clue what a dough machine looks like. I suppose I’m relieved that I don’t see any of the stuff he’s talking about in these images, given that I’ve wondered if I’m a psychopath. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to return some videotapes.
PS- I won’t say that I’ve spent time poking around in that Reddit forum about death. But I’m not prepared to deny it either.