You might be right as far as the fact that we might have to wait a while longer to be able to benefit from the full potentials of AI, but we are in transformational and transitional times and things can develop much faster than we can anticipate and for that reason sometimes the lines between hype and reality might get blurred as something that sounds like hype this year might become reality in just a few years later.
There are plenty of ways we can benefit, but don't expect a fully-interactive bot just yet.
If you have proposals for ways in which NamePros could benefit from AI, we're all ears, but the best proposals probably won't involve bots that act like humans. We already have humans for that.
Nevertheless you are sitting on a wealth of Big Data that is contained in this forum which represents the collective knowledge of the domaining community and which might come in handy if and when you decide to use it to train the NamePros AI.
I have been trying to be helpful by introducing certain new ideas to the community here, but I do respect the fact that at end NamePros is a business and as such the responsibility ultimately falls on your shoulders to decide what is in yours and NamePros' interest,
While I'm a programmer and security professional, not a sociologist or psychologist, I do worry about the current state of the relationship between our society and technology. As technology improves, some of the biggest hurdles we will encounter won't be with the technology itself, but in how we develop and codify ethics and policy surrounding it. These are tough problems to solve, and we've only seen the tip of the iceberg.
While I'm personally not opposed to using AI in a way that benefits the community, it has to be done in a responsible manner, and that's not easy to achieve if the AI is interacting directly with users. I don't have a good solution for that, but we're certainly open to suggestions.
Going forward I try not to be too disruptive with this or any other subject.
Disruptive ideas are great! Since this particular topic happens to overlap with my area of expertise, I'm attempting to ensure the discussion moves forward in a manner that facilitates debate over features an policies that are likely to be relevant in the near-term while simultaneously dispelling fear that might exist surrounding the topic.
NamePros hasn't seen truly intelligent AI yet. Even if it exists somewhere out there, most of the automated posting we see doesn't even make an attempt to be particularly deceptive. As it stands, we don't expect it to be a near-term concern, although that could always change.
This is certainly a topic you're free to discuss here, but I do have a few requests:
- Please don't turn this into a witch hunt. If you suspect that another member is a bot, and you'd like to discuss the matter with me personally, DM me. The thread needs to remain constructive, not accusatory. (I'm not saying this has been an issue in the thread yet, but I suspect it will become an issue.)
- We already have humans who act like humans. The best uses of AI will probably be to handle tasks that humans can't, not to impersonate humans. Please try to find uses for AI that fill gaps that can't better be filled by humans.
- Please do your best not to promote fear. This can be a scary topic for a lot of people, especially those who aren't dealing with the limitations of computers on a daily basis as part of their job. By extension, this means the following types of statements aren't constructive:
- "Bots are running rampant and spreading misinformation on platform X, therefore they must be doing the same thing on NamePros."
- "I, for one, welcome our new robot overloards."
- Avoid logical fallacies in your arguments.
