[05-09-2017] WTAG – Craig Peterson

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Transcript

WTAG_2017-05-09_A-Deep-Dive-into-Artificial-Intelligence-and-Where-its-Leading

Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors.

Airing date: 05/09/2017

A Deep Dive into Artificial Intelligence and where it’s Leading

Jim Polito: He is our Tech Talk guru. We’re talking about Craig Peterson. The man who knows it all. And we always run out of time because he’s got so much. But don’t worry, at the end of this segment, get ready to take down a number and we’ll be able to get you that information for free. And he won’t annoy you. He never annoys anyone. Joining us now, Craig Peterson. Good morning sir.

Craig Peterson: Hey good morning. Maybe I annoy my wife and kids from time to time.

Jim: Well that’s a little different. We’re talking about your professional life.

Craig: Oh ok.

Jim: Professional life, you’re not annoying at all. Ok. What happened with Google and Gmail and this hack? How come this is isn’t getting much more attention? Why is it I’m first learning about it from my friend Craig Peterson?

Craig: Well this is an interesting hack and what happened was some guys put together what looked like a Google doc invite.

Jim: Ok.

Craig: You would click on that and someone was sharing this file with you so you click on it. In reality it really wasn’t Google docs. But what it did at that point was it compromised your Google account and allowed them now to start using your email address for sending spam and also to spread this Google doc scam here, this hack that was happening. It was a huge, huge, phishing operation. And it spread like crazy last week. Google says it was less than 1% of its users but, you know, add up the numbers, it was a lot of people before Google caught it. Because people were complaining. Hey, look at what happened here. And I went so far because this is a real problem Jim, is I made a little video that I put up in my show, after my show on Saturday.

Jim: Yeah.

Craig: And it explained what to do, how to look for it. Because your accounts, your Gmail account, might well have been hacked. Now, this particular hack Google cleaned up after the fact, which is really good.

Jim: Ok.

Craig: They do it programmatically, they knew what to look for in your account, ok? So the information got out but it wasn’t your credit cards or anything else. It was just your email contacts. So I made a video that I think it’s right up at the top of my site. Here, let me go there, http://CraigPeterson.com. That I think everybody should take a minute and look at that here. And, yeah, there you go. It’s called Google Docs Hack. What to do now? Because if you did get hacked, I’d walk you through trying to figure out, first of all, were you hacked?

Jim: Ok.

Craig: How should I clean it up? And this isn’t the first Google Doc hack that has happened. And again, I don’t know why it wasn’t covered more generally because it was a huge problem and it really was spreading like wildfire last week.

Jim: Wow. You know, my initial thing was oh, maybe Craig, they’re hiding it.

Craig: Yeah. Well yeah. It could be, you know. Google didn’t make any announcements about it. They didn’t even tell people near as I could tell. They didn’t even tell people that they’ve been hacked. Or that their account was used for sending spam and things. All I was able to find out, the reason I was able to find out about it is because I’m on some of these boards that really track security very, very closely. That’s how I found out about it. And then Google did come out with a little statement but they didn’t make a big deal about it. They just kind of quietly cleaned up everyone’s account near that I can tell.

Jim: Wow. We’re talking with Craig Peterson folks. And don’t forget, get your pencil ready because everything we discuss here is going to be shared with you. If you would like it, it’s free. And you don’t have to worry about Craig Peterson bothering you. So don’t worry.

Now, Craig, we joke all the time about artificial intelligence. We talk about the movie, The Matrix. We talked about Terminator. Both of those movies the premise is machines become self-aware and they decide hey, what do we need these humans for anymore? Now, you’re saying that machines now have knowledge that we will never be able to understand. Isn’t that the beginning of the end? One state like we have knowledge that cows will never ever understand, right? I guess what we do with cows.

Craig: Yeah. You know what’s interesting too when you think about like the Terminator movies and things and Skynet taking over.

Jim: Yeah.

Craig: There’s another whole philosophy where people are saying listen, if we make computers to protect us or to take care of us, which we’re doing right now. And we make AI, artificial intelligence to do the same, where does it end up? So, for instance, I’ve seen all of these machines that are designed for elder care, and they’re getting more and more popular. Everything. From weird looking pets that look like a little dinosaur or pig thing, that you have to kind of care for, all the way up to robots that help you move around and help take care of you and in the house, ok? So, the computer’s designed to take care of you. How does it take care of you? Well there’s a certain amount of programming that we can do that says ok, here is how you get a can of beer for me out of the refrigerator.

Jim: Ok.

Craig: But as time goes on, the computers need to learn more and understand more. So we have, for instance right now, a computer that plays the game of Go. Have you ever played that? It’s kind of a fun board game.

Jim: No. Go? No.

Craig: So it’s a rather simple concept game. You’re flipping tiles and you’re moving them around. But it is hundreds of times more complex than chess is, when you get right down to it. You know a 2-year-old can learn how to play Go. But to master it is crazy. It’s incredible.

Jim: Ok.

Craig: So for instance, we made a computer that just beat every champion of Go out there. Ok?

Jim: Alright. So.

Craig: And we didn’t program it to say ok now, if this tile is next to that tile, and this one’s white and that one’s black, and the other ones over here, and you flip it this way. We didn’t teach of that. All we taught it was basic rules of how to play Go. And then it went through and analyzed the hundreds of millions of potential combination. Ok?

Jim: So it thought for itself.

Craig: Yeah. Basically. So let’s take this to another level that’s already happening. And that is our criminal justice system. We are now using software that is proprietary. That the condemned cannot look at. They can’t question. They can’t get it up on the stand. They can’t look it all of the algorithms, all the portions of it that are in there, that’s used to analyze court cases and has been used at least once right now. It’s making it up to the appeals system to convict someone of a crime.

Jim: Really.

Craig: So we have now software that is being used, this is just a few weeks ago, to convict people of crimes, that is trying to figure out if this person is guilty and it’s doing it on its own and we don’t have access. We can’t uncover it. We can’t look inside the box. So, let’s move this to the next level. That is that our computers, these artificial intelligences have now, let’s say they convicted someone of a crime.

Jim: Yeah.

Craig; Well let’s say they won the game of Go.

Jim: Yeah.

Craig: How do you question the computer? Is the computer going to say, well, I analyzed 500 million different legal cases…

Jim: And that’s how I reached my conclusion.

Craig: Exactly. So are you, Jim, going to look at each one of those cases and now try and decide whether or not its conclusion was right?

Jim: Wow.

Craig: Are we going to look at its, you know, body language for instance? I got called up for jury duty. And one of the things that you’re looking at is the people’s body language. And you can say yeah, you know, the guy looked guilty. Or he sounded guilty.

Jim: Yeah. Yeah.

Craig: Yeah. How about the computer? The artificial intelligence that’s going to be doing that. Then how about the artificial intelligences that are designed to help us if they ultimately go too far and decide that the help that we need isn’t help that we want. You know they disarm us. They don’t allow us to drive our cars anymore. They convict us of crimes that, you know, that’s pre-crime almost.

Jim: Well, we already know that there are computer systems that can predict, in a community, where crimes are likely to occur. You know, it’s different times of the day. It looks at all the data and says yeah, based upon whether all of these other factors, we think that you would be best served to deploy more in this area than this area. And I know that exists and I know departments who use it.

Craig: Right. But they’re not convicting anyone.

Jim: No they’re not. No, they’re, right, they’re patrolling.

Craig: They’re profiling. Right? Because they are saying you’re profiling our community based on thing that have happened in our community in the past. But when it comes to police work that seems to make a lot of sense.

Jim: Right.

Craig: Because crimes do tend to cluster in different areas. But the way that this is going, our computers have been learning. And they’re learning by themselves. They are not thinking in any way that we would understand. In any way frankly that we consider to be thought. At least not at this point of the game. And within just a few years, Jim, these artificial intelligences that we have are going to be so far beyond our believed comprehend. It’s like that example that you used of the cow not understanding our thinking.

Jim: Right.

Craig: We won’t have any chance of understanding the thinking of the computers and yet, we are allowing them to help with the community policing with convictions in criminal cases and we’re letting them help our elderly population, which by the way means you and not me, in a couple of years. So what’s going to happen here ultimately? It’s really concerning. And that’s why Elon Musk, that’s one of the main reasons, he wants us to colonize Mars. He says what happens if these artificial intelligences run away? We need to have people on another planet where we can control it.

Jim: Just in case.

Craig: Just in case.

Jim: You’re scaring me again. You’re scaring me again. Alright, Craig, I wanted to get to the 3D printer at MIT that can build a building but we don’t have time. But if folks want to get it, they can text my name, Jim, to this number.

Craig: 855-385-5553.

Jim: Ok, say that again.

Craig: It’s 855-385-5553.

Jim: Ok. Standard data and text rates apply. But you will get all of this information. Plus other stuff, periodically. And it’s not annoying. And Craig Peterson does not sell your contact information to Skynet or to the Matrix. That’s a guarantee there. Craig, thanks so much. We’ll talk with you next week.

Craig: Thanks, Jim. Take care.

Jim: You too.

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Show Notes

Joining Jim Polito for another Tech Talk on his show over at WTAG.

We discussed how a Google hack was done using an invite via Google docs. And even though it wasn’t as alarming as it sounds by not making it in the news, everyone should still stay vigilant of how even a simple Google doc file will penetrate your privacy and security.

Also, how far is artificial intelligence (AI) going? Is this the future where robots will be taking over, starting with jobs?

These and more on CraigPeterson.com.

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