Premium Episode 240: The Machines Are Lying To You (Sample)
Even in the early conversations discussing the rapid growth of artificial intelligence, there was always the fear that it could potentially fall into the wrong hands. Unfortunately, the QAA team is here to tell you that it has. It is definitely already in the wrong hands. And that’s mostly due to the fact that sophisticated AI algorithms are available to anyone with an internet connection. Conspiracy theorists have a brand-new tool at their disposal to further muddy the waters between what is real and what is not.
But it wasn’t always this way. Jake tracks the humble beginnings of AI interacting with social media users while Travis breaks down how it's been used to mess with our brains more recently. One thing is clear however, AI is here to stay… and it has already replaced the QAA hosts.
Subscribe for $5 a month to get an extra episode of QAA every week + access to ongoing series like Manclan, Trickle Down, Perverts and The Spectral Voyager: www.patreon.com/QAA
Editing by Corey Klotz. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by NAP (doomchakratapes.bandcamp.com) & Jake Rockatansky. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (instagram.com/theyylivve / sptfy.com/QrDm). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (pedrocorrea.com)
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QAA was formerly known as the QAnon Anonymous podcast.
Welcome to the QAA Podcast Premium Episode 240, The Machines Are Lying to You.
As always, we are your hosts, Jake Rokitansky, Julian Field, and Travis View.
Hello, friends.
Today, we're going to be talking about artificial intelligence, or as Jake calls it, robots.
They are robots, Julian.
I'd argue with you about it, but it's hard to do when you're looking so handsome.
Thanks, man.
I appreciate that.
He's right, you know.
About what?
How handsome you look today.
It's almost off-putting.
Like, intimidating!
Well, I'm sure you will both get over it, and if you will let me, I'm trying to introduce the episode.
Sorry.
I genuinely apologize.
Thank you.
Understanding the hierarchy of this podcast is something you could both work on.
Anyways, as I was saying, the topic is AI, and we'll be starting out with Jake exploring Tay, an early Microsoft chatbot disaster.
Travis has then prepared a segment on the use of AI-generated disinformation in the political sphere.
Isn't that right, Travis?
Yes, Julian, sir.
I have another part after that.
Yes, I was getting to that.
Apologies again.
Please forgive me.
Jake has decided to join forces with AI in an attempt to end my life.
Yeah, I tried to get chat GPT to help me kill you.
Cool.
I don't approve.
Julian is a valuable podcaster and citizen.
It's okay, Travis.
I'm sure Jake doesn't mean it.
I do mean it.
I'm talking about the real Jake.
Oh, yeah.
Not just Jake as written by Julian.
Exactly.
Wait, am I the real Travis?
No.
Damn, so we're all AI generated?
Always were.
Okay, enough joking around.
Time to start the episode.
The development of artificial intelligence over the last couple years is kind of reminiscent of Donald Trump's ascension to becoming President of the United States in 2016.
At first, everyone sort of laughed at it, a passing trend that was too bizarre to gain any real traction.
Then, the growing fear as the technology only became more popular and powerful.
And finally, the horrific realization that it is here to stay, and in fact, has already infiltrated our politics, our media, and our lives.
See, that's why I wrote the sigh-in.
He wrote the sigh-in, folks.
I wanted to sigh there.
It was a powerful intro.
It was a fuckin' powerful intro.
And he's already on his heels.
He's already fighting back.
He was ready to say, yeah, I wrote sigh.
I'm in the corner.
I'm in the corner.
I got my fists up.
That's how we like it.
Let the match begin.
I was hanging out with my two teenage nephews a couple weeks ago, and as they were showing me what the AI assistants on their phones were capable of, I remarked, you know, in the same way that social media was a defining technological challenge of my generation, I think that artificial intelligence will be theirs.
It was a prescient and terrifying thought, and yet, I knew it to be true.
He knew his own prescient thought to be true.
This is the best.
People like me don't trust AI, but people like them are learning how to put it to work.
As AI continues to develop and become more capable of generating art, music, speech, and video, humanity will have to reckon with the consequences, since it's clear that having an unpaid employee that can work for 24 hours a day, who never needs a lunch break, is very attractive to a ruling class hell-bent on making as much money as they possibly can.
But it didn't start this way.
In fact, a lot of the early AI content was so unhinged, no one assumed that one day it could be capable of replacing us.
All the way back in 2016, Microsoft unveiled their AI chatbot, AtTayAndYou, otherwise known as Tay Tweets, which, according to the company, was designed to casually chat with users ages 18 to 24.
Okay, so essentially it's to catch a predator.
It's like a tween chatbot.
Hey!
Hey, you wanna come talk to me?
Yeah.
This is perfect.
This is a honeypot.
If you talk to Tay in 2016, you're probably in jail right now.
Or you're back out and you're a red dot on a map I can find online.
Well, yeah, you might wanna... Yeah, well, you'll see where this goes.
It's not good.
It's not good.
It's really bad actually.
It's like, it's really bad.
I don't know, I kind of like this Tay.
I feel like I want to just say right now, I stand by anything Tay says.
Like, I don't think this could backfire.
Surely this can't go wrong.
Surely.
Hashtag stand with Tay, folks.
So, Microsoft described the AI like this.
Tay is designed to engage and entertain people where they connect with each other online
through casual and playful conversation.
The more you chat with Tay, the smarter she gets, so the experience can be more personalized
for you.
Tay's public christening started off pretty smoothly with a tweet at 7am on March 23rd,
2016 that read, "HELLO WORLD!"
And she uses a globe emoji for the O in world.
Oh yeah, already showing signs of centrism.
Uh-huh.
Very creative.
In anticipation of Tay Tweet's launch, Microsoft posted some suggestions as to how to interact with Tay, as AI was a relatively new technology and wanted to be, well, like, commercially new technology, I guess.
And they wanted to be sure that users would be able to join the fun right away.
So here are some of their suggestions.
Things to do with Tay.
Conversation hacks to help you and Tay vibe.
Make me laugh.
If you need a good laugh, all you have to do is ask for a joke.
Play a game.
Playing games is a fun way to pass the time with Tay.
You can even play in groups.
Tell me a story.
Tay has got some pretty entertaining reading material.
I can't sleep.
Are you a night owl?
Lucky for you, Tay is too.
This is getting a little weird.
Let's play a game.
Also, I am immortal.
Yeah, yeah.
This underage jigsaw, surely I would love to have a nice talk.
I just got your joke.
Very good.
Say Tay and send a pic.
Tay will give you fun but honest comments on any pic you send.
Horoscope.
No need to buy a magazine or get an app for your daily horoscope.
Tay's got that covered.
These hacks should start your conversation out, but there's plenty more to discover
the more you get to know Tay.
It's amazing how dated this feels.
I mean, it is eight years ago, I guess, at this point.
Almost exactly.
But yeah, it feels like I'm looking at a MySpace page, you know?
The MySpace of AI introduction.
You didn't write that one in, so it's weird that you were able to still make those noises.
Not every harumph needs to be scripted, okay?
I think you should have written harumph in here, yeah.
Some are natural, some, I need to plan.
Yeah, write in to tell Jake what any sound he makes during episodes is natural or not natural.
But just write to him, because I don't, we've said write in for a couple other things, and you folks have really been writing in, and I regret asking, you know.
Yeah, I'll tell you something else, they're not writing in to me.
Well, that's because you don't even access our main email that we all share.
I have access.
I have access.
No, I mean you don't access it.
I'm not saying you can't.
But I have access.
Yeah, you do.
That's right, Jake, you do.
Okay, fine.
Let's go down this rabbit hole.
How many of the upset emails that you get on the main thing are addressed to me specifically?
People upset?
Yeah.
Um, well, you were wrong about that New Zealand thing in the last episode.
They were Australian, that couple.
That's it?!
But they agree that this is that, with like the... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The... The I'm taking your side over Julian's on that.
Which is incredible, because you have to really have a stretchy mind, which makes sense.
If you're freaking writing in to defend Jake, you probably have a bit of an elastic mind like him.
No, you're probably a good person.
You're probably good and you're probably really funny.
And nice.
Do not assemble your army against us.
Now, unfortunately, Twitter users ignored these suggestions from Microsoft and instead spent the entire day trying to make the bot say horrible things they knew it was incapable of regretting.
And boy, did they succeed.
You've been listening to a sample of a premium episode of the QAA Podcast.
For access to the full episode, as well as all past premium episodes and all of our podcast miniseries, go to patreon.com slash QAA.
Travis, why is that such a good deal?
Well, Jake, you get hundreds of additional episodes of the QAA Podcast for just $5 per month.
For that very low price, you get access to over 200 premium episodes, plus all of our miniseries.
That includes 10 episodes of Man Clan with Julian and Annie, 10 episodes of Pervers with Julian and Liv, 10 episodes of The Spectral Voyager with Jake and Brad, plus 20 episodes of Trickle Down with me, Travis View.
It's a bounty of content and the best deal in podcasting.
Travis, for once, I agree with you.
And I also agree that people could subscribe by going to patreon.com slash QAA.
