Has the Singularity Arrived?

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

It was fifteen years ago tomorrow that I first mentioned the concept of the "Singularity" in this blog, a notion developed by people who study trends and advancements in technology.   The premise of the singularity is that by the year 2045 computer capabilities will be enhanced to the point that they be able to program and operate themselves and no longer require the assistance of humans.   Doomsayers promptly equated the arrival of the "Singularity" with the ultimate downfall and perhaps even the extinction of humanity.  Since that first posting which ran on February 12, 2011, I have posted three subsequent pieces on the same topic in this blog, and guest blogger Ranger Bob, also took note of it on one occasion.  (All of those articles may be found and accessed by using the search bar at the top of this page.)

At 3:00 a.m. on January 4th of this year, the world's best known ketamine enthusiast, Elon Musk, posted a tweet on "X," a social media platform which he owns and controls, which said simply:

"We have entered the Singularity."

Musk, who like his buddy, Trump, uses social media to grab attention and stir controversy, was referring to the world's headlong rush into the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI), something in which he is deeply involved, and he did fan the fires of concern over this rapidly evolving field of endeavor.

Yesterday there was an opinion piece online in the news source, The Guardian, that was written by Samuel Woolley, a professor at the University of Pittsburg, which basically stood against Musk's notion that the singularity was already upon us.  While humanity and its computers are headed that direction,  Professor Woolley argues that the actual Singularity is still quite a ways into the future.  In discussing the AI bots that are springing up around the internet, which he refers to as "agents" of Artificial Intelligence, the professor, an expert on bots, said this:

"These so-called "agents" don't have agency the way people do, and they aren't intelligent in the way people are.  In fact, they are mostly reflections of people.  Like the social bots that came before them, they are encoded with human ideas and biases because they are trained on human data and designed by human engineers.  Most of them also operate via mundane automation, not actual AI (a term that continues to be rigorously disputed and debated by scientists)."

So, Professor Woolley's response to Elon Musk seems to be "go back to bed and try again when you are feeling better."

Elon may have jumped the gun in declaring that we are in the "Singularity," but we are certainly still headed in that direction and becoming more and more dependent on computers in managing and conducting our daily lives - and things are moving at a much faster pace than they were fifteen years ago.

The Singularity is still coming - fast - so buckle up, buttercup!