fat dreams | Opinion | fortbendstar.com

“See how men paint their faces and cry / (Like some girls) Like some girls, it makes you wonder why / City life sure is cool, but it cuts like a knife, it’s your life / So forget everything you see / It’s not reality, it’s just a fantasy.” – Aldo Nova, “Fantasy”

I have no idea why things turned out the way they did, but I’m increasingly turning to YouTube as a desirable entertainment destination. When I was a kid, I had three major TV channels to choose from and, if I was lucky, some obscure independent TV station that was only fuzzy when the wind was blowing. I’m surprised by the number of opportunities available to broadcast television originalists in this decade of digital decline. The huge selection of online trading has made everything that happens offline a risk below market risk. Yes, the world seems to be changing faster than a child just home from church.

And the newest thing I noticed is AI, artificial intelligence. This week, something caught my attention during my morning walk with a cup of coffee through the streets of YouTube. It was sponsored by an artist named Roberto Lopez Jr., a self-described “designer, architect, creative director, and professor of creativity and artificial intelligence.” His work on @roblop_experience caught my attention because it combined artificial intelligence (which I know nothing about) with The Beatles (which I am familiar with). If you’re over 40 and have only a limited, casual exposure to new technology, you may be as clueless as I am about AI. After all, when I first heard the term, I thought Tiramisu was a Puerto Rican folk dance. In fact, I was so convinced that other people were just as ignorant as I was that I initiated my own private survey. So last week I set up shop near my local Kroger and asked people passing by, “What is AI?

“It’s a computer that creates stories and other things,” William, 67, told me. “It’s like a search engine.”

“Oh man! This technology can confuse people,” said Lewis, a 28-year-old delivery boy.

“This is what is used to spread lies about people like Trump,” fears Linda, 38.

“Is there anything good in this?” – I asked.

“Probably not,” came the answer.

Even my own 29-year-old son foresees a possible technology-fueled uprising of the machines, like in The Terminator. On the other hand, I once had to explain to him the difference between butter and margarine at an age when I thought it was obvious.

Dictionary.com defines artificial intelligence as “the ability of a computer, robot, programmed device, or software application to perform operations and tasks analogous to learning and decision-making in humans, such as recognizing speech or answering questions.” What this definition does NOT include is the element of human fear. And, as always, I can’t help but wonder how much fear contributed to the experience.

A man named Geoffrey Hinton is considered the “godfather of artificial intelligence.” Hinton himself regretted his life’s work because, according to him, AI could become smarter than us. Last year, he left Google to devote himself full-time to warning the world. And, as I think we’ve already seen, many others share his concerns. The lack of transparency in how AI reaches its conclusions and how it uses any input data to create bias is kept under strict lock and key. Others predict job losses as AI replaces them with robots. And there is a perceived threat to privacy and technology. For example, facial recognition in China could collect enough data to monitor people’s attitudes and political views.

I don’t mean to be snarky, but I saw a whole new generation being born into the art world when I saw the work of Roberto Lopez Jr. the other day. It was a collection of very bold and moving images, with colors more vibrant than in the movies and a beautiful interpretation of The Beatles’ “A Day In The Life”. The angles and artificially created images of John, Paul, George and Ringo really amazed me.

So for me it came down to this. AI is a strange new cuisine with untested taste and uncertain consistency. It is full of both bad calories and good ones. The results of its nutrition can make some people healthier and some people sicker. I’m not sure this taste will sweep the world away or take our lives to new heights. In the meantime, this dish energizes us in unexpected and inexplicable ways. It will take time to see how this affects our overall digestion. In the meantime, consume at your own risk.

Garay can be reached at [email protected].