This Saturday, with the publication of a review that I am preparing, will be the fourth time in the year that hablo of a program for Linux that integrates with a service powered by Artificial Intelligence. As far as I remember, Pablinux also contributed to it. Since titles are likely to continue to accumulate in the future, This is a good time to raise the debate. Should free software integrate Artificial Intelligence?
Beyond the very interesting and necessary debate on privacy There is the question of whether, like fast food or streaming, the side effects do not end up outweighing the benefits.
Natural (Un)Intelligence
It is curious how circumstances conspire for one to write an article. Last weekend I re-read 'Steel Vaults', a novel by Asimov that takes place in the midst of the conflict between space humans, who live only for their own pleasure and leave the work in the hands of robots, and the natives from Earth who long to go back to a pre-robotic time when there were no machines to do the job.
On Wednesday, I meet Twitter Argentina revolutionized by a tweet from the local chapter of the International Labor Organization (ILO) against child labor. You can see the screenshot below this paragraph.
This ILO tweet was repudiated by the majority of those who saw it.
This campaign could hardly generate repudiation unless, the vast majority of those who saw it thought that the ILO was opposed to children doing their part in the housework.
As soon as I saw the tweet I guessed what happened. That image is clearly a template from Canva or some other online graphic design service. They asked an intern to look for a photo of a child working, he chose the one that the search engine showed them, put together the image and published it automatically without leaving the page.
Hours later, the tweet was deleted and the OIT apologized.
This note begins with an illustration of a primate in front of a keyboard. Surely you have heard of of the theorem or seen the Simpson's joke on the subject. The question that I asked an artificial intelligence tool to generate the image for me and it refused because they have blocked the word "monkey" since it could generate offensive content.either. It is a term that in some countries is used to refer to people of African descent. They don't accept bouncers either.
After an exchange of tweets, Canva suggested that I try “primate and a typewriter”. I only got the result that is heading the article.
Now, imagine the very near future. Those of the ILO dispense with the interns and ask an AI tool «Generate a tweet where a child is seen working and a message based on it against child labor. Post it on social media.
Most AI translates into English first and works with the majority output, so you'll likely choose a photo of a kid doing homework. Everything is served so that messages against school tasks appear in the official ILO accounts.
Should free software integrate Artificial Intelligence?
I realize the contradiction of the question. Obviously, if the software is free, anyone could integrate it with the tools. What I am referring to is that there should be a debate on what conditions it is integrated into. And, not only, as I said before, thinking about privacy.
In AI-generated content a message should be added that requires the intervention of a human to remove it. That content should be inserted randomly to force careful review.
I have used Artificial Intelligence tools for topics I know and for topics I don't know. In my opinion they are more useful in the former. The better you know what to ask, the more useful the results are.
But, if you leave them in the hands of sorcerers' apprentices, it will most likely end in disaster at some point.
Hello. First time that I dare to make a comment on this type of articles. I am a regular reader of Linuxadictos and other similar pages and I thank the team for the work they do.
I have been an almost intermediate user of GNU Linux since 2016. When artificial intelligence began to be used, I also asked myself the question that appears in the title of this article.
I believe that this powerful tool should be taken advantage of especially to improve Free Software: Beginning by correcting Kernel errors, in improving the different Distros and their respective Desktop environments; essential applications such as office automation. In this field we have good options that have been improving, such as Libreoffice, Onlyoffice, etc., but they still lack tools to keep up with the Microsoft package.
Undoubtedly there should be some restrictions so that they do not violate the philosophy of Free Software and rather promote it. That among so many things to say... Greetings.