Kevin

I am the writer, editor and publisher behind this future technology blog and I predict you will keep reading to see what is coming right around that metaphorical corner.

Is Google LaMDA the Omega?

Artificial Intelligence Comments Off

Jun 252022

Google laMDA AI

When we talk about artificial intelligence, there is always going to a comparison to science fiction. From the likes of The Terminator film franchise to the likes of The Matrix, we have many fictional examples of AI gone wrong. Yet, for many, the creeping move towards the use of AI in far more diverse ways has some people on edge. Could we actually be facing the potential for a sentient AI coming to life in the near future? According to one Google engineer, this has already happened.

Recently, the internet was shaken by the reports that a Google engineer was suspended from his role for, in essence, claiming that one of their AI bots had become sentient. Claiming it had the sentience and intelligence of a young child, people were naturally worried about what was being said. Could we really have reached a level where AI sentience is not just a pipedream, but a reality?

The engineer suggested that the AI, LaMDA, was able to communicate that it had human-like emotions – including fear. Given it supposedly spoke about a fear of being turned off, sci-fi buffs will know where this usually leads to. LaMDA is a language model that has been developed to analyse the use of language.

This means that it can carry out cool tasks like predicting the next word, and even predicting full word sequences. Given that LaMDA is one of the few models to be trained on dialogue, not text, there are some growing concerns about what this actually means.

LaMDA is currently able to fully generate conversations in a manner that is not restrained. In the past, task-based responses would limit just how far the development could go. With LaMDA, though, that is not the case. This means that the topic can actually bounce around from topic to topic, just as it would if you were talking to another person.

Can LaMDA actually understand and converse, though?

Given all of the facts and details out there about LaMDA now, the burning question is also the simplest: can this actually talk?

In essence, it is trained to be able to understand whether or not its responses make sense within the context of the discussion. This means that it can keep up with a conversation and provide the sensation – if not the reality – that it is listening and responding to the conversation in front of it. It is, though, still based on a three-tier algorithm that focuses on the safety, the quality, and the grounded nature of the responses being given.

Given it was developed using human examples and rating systems, then, it makes sense that LaMDA can create a human-ish conversation. it also used a search engine to try and add more authenticity to the topics it can converse on and the things that it can bring up. That is very interesting. However, LaMDA is not sentient – there is no existing proof that this is actually alive.

It might be able to go beyond the level of conversation one might expect from an AI in 2022, but it is not sentient. There is enough research information out there about LaMDA to dismiss this theory, as exciting as it might sound.

So, we can stand down for now – we are not, it appears, on the brink of creating truly sentient AI. LaMDA is impressive, but it is not a person.

AI System Creates Fake Documents to Fool Hackers

Future Security Comments Off

Jun 062021

Hacker Security

For years, the benefits of using technology has come with the threat of sophisticated hacking and attacks. However, developments are always underway to try to provide more protection from these potential problems. The recent development of a cybersecurity research team to create what is known as a “Canary Trap”, though, has been seen as a game-changer within the tech industry.

This “Canary Trap” system has been designed with the purpose of providing hackers with fake documentation. By using an AI system that can provide these “trap” documents, hackers can be quickly caught and found out. The new AI system has been developed to help ensure that fake documents are spread to help conceal a particular secret. These can be used to help work out where information leaks stem from, or even to help create distractions that can otherwise protect and disguise genuinely valuable details.

The data protection system is known as WE-FORGE and is being developed by the Department of Computer Science. This will be used to help utilise AI to make sure that anyone hacking in is provided with falsified details. The realism of these documents make them almost impossible to verify as false by hackers. They are close enough to real data to look real but filled with fake data that immediately shows the data to be incorrect.

Similar trap programs have been in use for many years, used to help deliver decoys that can give an attacker a false impression of success. However, WE-FORGE has taken this old-school approach and transformed it entirely for the better. Now, it can use natural language processing systems to generate fake content to be shared.

It might look authentic, but the data within is going to be false thus making it useless to hackers.

Why is a Canary Trap a worthwhile cybersecurity system?

For one, it can waste valuable time. Hackers spend huge sums of time and even money trying to find a way into the back-end. Believing they have done so they are then shown-up to be mistaken when the data is proven to be false. This wastes time and resources, but also harms their reputation within hacking circles as they are shown to be providing fake data to their ‘clients’.

This also removes the opportunity to even begin hacking. If someone who is keen to hack-in to a system knows there is a high likelihood they are wasting their time, it can act as a wonderful deterrent. By having databases with genuine information protected by this wall-like design. It means that hackers will be far less confident of finding anything they can legitimately work with.

For years, hacking has often left cybersecurity firms chasing the tail of the hackers. Now, a tool like this could offer an ideal buffer to stop any potential cybersecurity mistakes from happening.

New Algorithms Enhance Quantum Computing

Future Computers Comments Off

May 052021

Qubit

Without doubt, the future of computing lies within the field of quantum computing. The promise of being able to utilize quantum mechanics in such a way is clearly an enticing prospect. However, the challenges in the creation of an operational system comes down to forming the foundations and the basics. Having a clear procedure to follow and a set of specific algorithms that work is essential to making quantum computing a reality.

However, thanks to the work of Prasanth Shyamsundar, a post-doctoral research associate at the Department of Energy’s Fermilab Quantum Institute, this has become a reality.

Shyamsundar worked on the development of a pair of algorithms that should build upon work already done in the field of quantum computing. This will help to add even more diversity around the kind of issues we could use quantum computing to solve. The development of algorithms that can factor a number might not sound like a huge leap forward, but it’s essential to progressing towards more complex solutions in future.

Noting that these algorithms are purely meant to be the start as opposed to the end goal, the hope is that these could be used in data collection and analysis. When trying to sift through data that isn’t properly organized, this could help improve the speed in which specific details and information can be sought.

In the example given by Shyamsundar, he suggested the comparison between trying to find a jazz record within a collection of 100 albums. He suggests that in a normal computer query, the number of queries – and the time it takes to parse each query – would be much longer. With quantum computing, though, all of the records can be analyzed at the same time – this is known as superposition.

This would allow for the number of queries being run to find the answer to a specific data question to be much smaller than they are at present. This would allow for easier storing, sorting, and understanding of information from so many different spheres.

While many still are unsure about just how important quantum computing will be in the future, most can agree it has vast and immense potential. Instead of having to break everything down to the binary value of 1s and 0s, quantum computing allows us to look at information that shares both values at once.

These factors might not sound like a great deal to the average computer user. In the years to come, though, these foundations are going to play a critical role in ensuring success and the growth of quantum computing in the most fundamentally important ways.

Citation

https://news.fnal.gov/2021/04/new-computing-algorithms-expand-the-boundaries-of-a-quantum-future/

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