AI ft. Reality
& Mass Culture
“We are already a cyborg. Because we are so well integrated with our phones and our computers.” This is what Elon Musk recently said at The World AI Conference in Shanghai. His company Neuralink reportedly wants to connect the human brain with a computer interface. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly modifying every segment of our lives. It upgrades the society through science achievements (e.g. AI tools for cancer prevention and treatment), but it also can be used to manipulate the news and social media.
The rise of the virtual human
From the middle of the previous century (1958), when the world saw its first CGI animation, we’ve been through a lot. A thin line between a real video and realistic CGI became blurred during the last decade and then finally disappeared in the latest Hollywood movies and Netflix TV shows. Computer-generated Imagery (CGI) was used for various purposes — from creating impressive space environment and spacesuits in Gravity (2013), to the very realistic animals in Life of Pi (2012), The Lion King (2019), and monsters in The Witcher (2019). Modeling and animating human face is a much more complex achievement, but we have witnessed some great examples such as aging/de-aging in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) and recently in The Irishman (2019). Still, some film and audiovisual industry professionals keep criticizing CGI humans and animals, their ‘unnatural look’ or ‘move’, and their ‘absence of emotion’.
Animating realistic human or animal body moves is becoming achievable even without mapping, because of the relatively simple hierarchy system of joints and bones. However, we are still waiting for that to happen with a human face. It is consisted out of 43 muscles controlled by the seventh cranial nerve. Facial moves are very influenced by subconsciousness and they communicate a wide palette of emotional experiences compactly and clearly. The biggest muscles in the human body are predominantly used in accomplishing simpler actions such as walking, so it is much easier to define and reproduce these moves. When it comes to facial moves, there is a vast number of combinations and each facial expression reflects different emotional states, as relevant studies has shown.
Don’t push the button
The next phase in the rise of virtual humans could possibly be terrifying and bizarre. As we are already able to quantitatively define and model realistic bones, organs, muscles and the rest of the musculoskeletal system, somebody will eventually press that “Print All” button.
From 2013, when the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a first bionic eye, scientists kept innovating. Last year, the Berkeley researchers published an innovation that allows faster 3D printing of human body tissues — a parallel multiple-layer cryolithography device for the manufacture of biological material for tissue engineering. Bioprinting allows simultaneously printed tissue layers to be stacked layer-by-layer and form 3D structures.
Hopefully, the idea of bioprinted human organism is just a far future. The production of bionic cells, tissues and organs must progress to the perfectly coordinated and functional organ systems, and later to the organism itself. The biggest challenge for AI will be the human brain. Eventually, a bioprinted human may be able to move, process data and produce voice, as we have already seen in Ex Machina (2014) and Westworld (1973/2016). But will it be able to make a mathematical ‘mistakes’ based on morals, awareness, and emotions? Will it ever be able to transfer emotions through sweat as humans do? Humans can transfer abstract information through their moves, voices, hormonal system. E.g. rapid stress system drives the chemical transfer of fear from sender to receiver. Despite the scientists are making a progress in both — qualitative and quantitative analysis of emotions, published studies are still in the experimental phase. Machine Learning (ML) requires a big amount of relevant and precise data to be able to recognize patterns.
Data harvesting & deepfakes
Meanwhile in present, the US prepares for the new presidential election. Will the presidency be won by AI (again)? Leif Lundbaek, the CEO of XAIN assures that the time of misusing personal data of millions of people, for political advertising purposes is over. Machine Learning principles will be soon-enough regulated by governments to assure data privacy for end-users. But what if end-users misuse AI for creating and spreading fake news, ruining election integrity?
California recently made deepfakes illegal for creation and distribution. An American politician Marc Berman says that “deepfakes are a powerful and dangerous new technology that can be weaponized to sow misinformation.” Deepfake is an AI-based technology used to produce digital images/videos over another images/videos. It can also be described as a powerful 3D face rigging technology widely available. As it can be hardly recognizable, it makes a threat to real journalism. The blockchain technology can be a solution for assuring data integrity. To restrict the spreading of misinformation, tech giants such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Amazon have recently enacted policies against deepfakes and are working on improving detection methods. However, there are companies such as Snapchat and TikTok who are introducing this technology to their users as pure entertainment.
Good old Obi-Wan Kenobi would advise the following: “Your eyes can deceive you; don’t trust them.” Nowadays we can agree more than ever. Textual information was always highly dependable on a source, audio information is also easy to fake, but the video was the source we believe. Now we should validate first! YouTube (still) has plenty of funny deepfake videos. Some of the most popular is with Donald Trump in the controversial TLC TV show — Toddlers & Tiaras, or Keanu Reeves as The Witcher. I deliberately left out Nicolas Cage, so he can rest for a moment.
Superintelligence
Technological progress is so rapid, and with the mass-usage of quantum computing, it will become even faster and more obvious. Google has recently announced “quantum supremacy”, as their quantum computer solved a problem that would take the world’s fastest supercomputer 10,000 years in only 200 seconds. Quantum computing has a large potential to improve all kinds of AI appliance, cybersecurity, drug development, financial modeling, batteries, fertilization, traffic, weather forecasting, climate, etc. At this point, humanity is far from the Superintelligence era, when AI should achieve it’s full capacity, possessing all of the human cognitive abilities, including self-awareness, sentience, and consciousness. If believing in Elon Musk, it will possibly overtake the world. Until that eventually happens, let’s everyone assure we use AI for the best sake of humanity.
Digital products such as Netflix, Spotify, Airbnb, PayPal, Amazon Prime, and Uber indisputably shaped new global habits and customer behavior during the last decade. Still, our digital future is more than just entertainment and market demands. Smart Cities are becoming reliable sources of Big Data which will soon reveal various functional problems of the society. The fields of environmental care, energy consumption, and the public health system are becoming ready for innovative UX solutions. Our empathy can help to recognize emerging needs and to build a stable bridge to the more human future.
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