Trump CTO Addresses AI, Facial Recognition, Immigration, Tech Infrastructure, and More (ieee.org) 26
Tekla Perry writes: Michael Kratsios, the fourth U.S. Chief Technology Officer, explains administration policies at the Fall Conference of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence -- and takes some tough questions from the audience. An exchange between Kratsios and Stanford's Eileen Donahoe hit on current hot topics, starting with the tension between the U.S. and China: Donahoe: "You talk a lot about unique U.S. ecosystem. In which aspect of AI is the U.S. dominant, and where is China challenging us in dominance?
Kratsios: "They are challenging us on machine vision. They have more data to work with, given that they have surveillance data."
Donahoe: "To what extent would you say the quantity of data collected and available will be a determining factor in AI dominance?"
Kratsios: "It makes a big difference in the short term. But we do research on how we get over these data humps. There is a future where you don't need as much data, a lot of federal grants are going to [research in] how you can train models using less data."
Donahoe turned the conversation to a different tension -- that between innovation and values.
Donahoe: "A lot of conversation yesterday was about the tension between innovation and values, and how do you hold those things together and lead in both realms."
Kratsios: "We recognized that the U.S. hadn't signed on to principles around developing AI. In May, we signed [the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Principles on Artificial Intelligence], coming together with other Western democracies to say that these are values that we hold dear.
[Meanwhile,] we have adversaries around the world using AI to surveil people, to suppress human rights. That is why American leadership is so critical: We want to come out with the next great product. And we want our values to underpin the use cases."
A member of the audience pushed further:
"Maintaining U.S. leadership in AI might have costs in terms of individuals and society. What costs should individuals and society bear to maintain leadership?" Kratsios: "I don't view the world that way. Our companies big and small do not hesitate to talk about the values that underpin their technology. [That is] markedly different from the way our adversaries think. The alternatives are so dire [that we] need to push efforts to bake the values that we hold dear into this technology."
Kratsios: "They are challenging us on machine vision. They have more data to work with, given that they have surveillance data."
Donahoe: "To what extent would you say the quantity of data collected and available will be a determining factor in AI dominance?"
Kratsios: "It makes a big difference in the short term. But we do research on how we get over these data humps. There is a future where you don't need as much data, a lot of federal grants are going to [research in] how you can train models using less data."
Donahoe turned the conversation to a different tension -- that between innovation and values.
Donahoe: "A lot of conversation yesterday was about the tension between innovation and values, and how do you hold those things together and lead in both realms."
Kratsios: "We recognized that the U.S. hadn't signed on to principles around developing AI. In May, we signed [the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Principles on Artificial Intelligence], coming together with other Western democracies to say that these are values that we hold dear.
[Meanwhile,] we have adversaries around the world using AI to surveil people, to suppress human rights. That is why American leadership is so critical: We want to come out with the next great product. And we want our values to underpin the use cases."
A member of the audience pushed further:
"Maintaining U.S. leadership in AI might have costs in terms of individuals and society. What costs should individuals and society bear to maintain leadership?" Kratsios: "I don't view the world that way. Our companies big and small do not hesitate to talk about the values that underpin their technology. [That is] markedly different from the way our adversaries think. The alternatives are so dire [that we] need to push efforts to bake the values that we hold dear into this technology."
A CTO with no technology knowledget (Score:5, Insightful)
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Now the Trumpers will criticize that I even suggest such a thing But wouldn't they be the ones who should be cheering this insanity?
There are any number of excuses that could be used. "The 2020 election was compromised. It is necessary for me to remain in office until a safe and secure election can be held. One that gives us an outcome we can trust!"
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>Trump will do anything to stay in office beyond 2024.
How right you are. Ivanka 2024 & 2028. Jr. 2032 & 2036. Baron at 2040 & 2044. (He'll be tall enough to pass as a 35 yro.)
Just in time for cloning technology to be perfected to reincarnate the God-Emperor. The 2 term limit does not apply to clones! That way we can repeat the cycle ad infinitum. We just need to get the Pence progeny to agree. I am sure a few electro-shocks will do wonders to convince them what they want/need.
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Which is good. MAGA!!!!!!!!!!
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Only four? I think Trump will do anything to stay in office beyond 2024.
How about I am THE PRESIDENT and I am DECLARING A NATIONAL EMERGENCY due to "election influencing irregularities" That is literally all it would take, Trump has already declared and been supported in declaring that "The President Declared an Emergency" Trumps (pun intended) EVERYTHING.
The entirety of America bas ALREADY been bought (or sold, depending on how you look at it) and NONE of you are sane enough to admit it to yourselves.
Values? (Score:1, Insightful)
Maybe he's referring to separating kids from their parents at the border? Or denying the science behind human powered global warming? Or about those values that let the Republicans claim a tax cut for the rich was going to pay for itself? Or about the values of the Baby Christian who feels it is okay to grab women when they are powerless to resist? How about the values of not allowing the Iraqis who worked for the U.S. to emigrate to the U.S.?
I presume it was those values that allowed the Baby Christian to
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do you ever get tired of your manufactured outrage virtue signaling?
asking for a friend.
Re:Values? (Score:5, Interesting)
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No, it is bullshit like this "Our companies big and small do not hesitate to talk about the values that underpin their technology.", yeah that is all the liars do, publicly talk about and virtue signal as PR=B$ whilst corrupting democracy, invading everyone's privacy, using that data to 'TARGET' and manipulate adults and minors, specifically targeted psychological manipulation.
Common decency is doing it, not just talking about it for marketing purposes whilst doing the exact opposite. You have to be decent
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Surprisingly competent on AI (Score:2)
He's spot on on deep learning and data. I'm surprised. Typically I expect the US government to strictly hire total mouth breathers.
Surveillance ... (Score:4, Insightful)
What about for quality control in manufacturing ?
What about for medical uses ?
What about for self driving cars ?
What about for agriculture, spotting disease , pest control , water management ?
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While I don't doubt that surveillance applications are important to our government, I think the reason surveillance was brought up in this discussion is that it provides an ample dataset for the training of computer vision, and not that it's necessarily the most valued application thereof: "they have more data to work with, given that they have surveillance data" implies that we don't have surveillance data, or at least have far less than China.
I can't take "we have adversaries around the world using AI to
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> Surveillance is only one aspect of machine vision, yet it seems like it is the only one the government cares about...why ?
Because it is easy to understand the usefulness and application from all levels of government thereby creating more demand and interest.
What does the government manufacture and why would any dollar used to fund that research not be part of a general grant that interested parties compete for?
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Agriculture, technology, etc bring in hundreds of billions of dollars through exports.
It creates jobs.
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> government cares about...why ?
> What about for quality control in manufacturing ?
> What about for medical uses ?
> What about for self driving cars ?
> What about for agriculture, spotting disease , pest control , water management ?
Surveillance is about the government caring about "quality control" of human beings. For certain specific definitions of "quality".
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Commit a burglary...BOOM
Jaywalk
Drink Drive
Vote wrong...BOOM
Vote against Ivanka becoming the USAs first queen
Maroons (Score:2)
So ... Statistical Analysis (which the yung'uns call ML or Machine Learning) to generate inference engines (Algorithmic Inference -- which the yung'uns call AI) requires the statistical analysis of data? Well, shiver me timbers... Who would have thought?
Re: Maroons (Score:1)
Someone else mentioned it too, but there wasn't near enough marketing fluff in those CTO responses. Almost like a real CTO....