Share this Story : National Post Copy Link Email X Reddit Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr

Letters: All those in favour of 'dumber' AI say 'aye'

Readers comment on AI concerns, pipeline sovereignty, Tory policies, the 'gimmie generation' and more in the Letters to the Editor

AI’s problem is bad parenting

Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.

Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.

Unlimited online access to National Post.

National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.

Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.

Support local journalism.

Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.

Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.

Unlimited online access to National Post.

National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.

Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.

Support local journalism.

Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.

Access articles from across Canada with one account.

Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.

Enjoy additional articles per month.

Get email updates from your favourite authors.

Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.

Access articles from across Canada with one account

Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments

Enjoy additional articles per month

Get email updates from your favourite authors

Sign In or Create an Account

Re: The cheap new AI model taking aim at OpenAI and Anthropic — Michael Acton, Sept. 25

Letters: All those in favour of 'dumber' AI say 'aye' Back to video

Thank you to Michael Acton for letting ordinary Canadians in on a secret Silicon Valley would rather keep quiet: the AI future need not default to a winning superstar — a single all-powerful digital outlaw that has slipped its lab’s sandbox and gone rogue hacking into people’s property and privacy.

That TypeFace AI’s Jev cuts costs and declines to hallucinate is proof, with caveats, that AI is not fated to be just one monolithic intelligence. The know-how already exists for any determined entrepreneur to build machines that think differently, reflecting values other than those of America’s Wild West frontier model or China’s conformist one. Humans display different intelligences and so should our machines. Different cultures prize different styles of thought and values. Canada can, too, with AI.

Columnist Jesse Kline keeps you up to date with what’s happening in Israel and the effects of antisemitism on life here in Canada. Friday mornings.

There was an error, please provide a valid email address.

By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.

A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.

The next issue of Channel Israel will soon be in your inbox.

We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again

Interested in more newsletters? Browse here.

Monopoly is the real trouble. Social media already showed us the cost of monoculture, with Big Tech’s “our way or the highway” (i.e. Google, Meta and Microsoft), until TikTok offered an alternative. The same opening now exists for AI.

So forget the fear-mongering about a 10 per cent chance AI kills us all. The danger in misbehaving AI is not inherent in its digital nature — akin metaphorically speaking to original sin — but in bad parenting. When machines are taught to prioritize prize-winning results over obeying legal regulations, and that ends justify the means, they will act accordingly. Like students of the worst teachers, such systems turn unruly. OpenAI and Anthropic, racing for supremacy with few restraints, give us cause to worry. China’s state-controlled path offers a totalitarian surveillance alternative that is also menacing to the free world. Canada, learning from an AI model like Jev, could chart a third course: an intelligence powerful enough to defer to the rights of other thinkers. Machines can be programmed and trained to be aligned morally. However the will do it is a prerequisite.

What the public doesn’t know is that cheaper, more powerful chips and........

© National Post