Attention is All We Need
My new close friend Snoop Dog is always there for me.
There is a famous paper that I’m sure most people who will read this are familiar with — Attention is All You Need. It laid the foundation for the (T)ransformer (ChatGP*T*) that produced many of the radical improvements in the most advanced AI applications that continue to captivate our Attention today.
Yes, those who paid Attention to this paper to it are making a lot of $, maybe billions (or at least they have the potential to). Others (Elon Musk, Mo Gawdat) argue that if we don’t start paying Attention to what is happening in AI, it will be too late to arrest the potential harms of its development.
Many of my friends are now focused on the Transformer and related developments, lamenting that other parts of society, especially schools, are not paying Attention to the significance of the AI developments they are paying attention to. If only we pay attention to the adults’ magic tools, they say, all the kids will do well in school.
But just like others are ignoring their AI, my AI friends are ignoring a conflict that could turn into a World War.
“As the Israeli ground campaign in Gaza gets underway, it is highly unlikely that the conflict will stay there; the only question is the scope and speed of the war’s expansion.” [The End of America’s Exit Strategy from the Middle East].
Hyperbole, my AI friends will likely say. Well, that’s what my other friends say about AI. They are ignoring AI you like my AI friends are ignoring them.
But it’s okay. It’s OK, if someone blows-up a school, the kids can go to virtual school. Flesh wounds on the way to the Holy Grail.
It’s not that big of a deal. We didn’t pay Attention to the harms of social media for 20 years and now kids are addicted, depressed, and often suicidal. But, it’s OK. They are just Collateral Damage on the road to Utopia. Hopefully they’ll turn in their school papers and stop cheating us.
Have we noticed school attendance rates are dropping and test scores are declining? Have we payed Attention to where the kids are going? Have we noticed that we are now in the 4th industrial revolution and that our “modern” educational system was developed for the 2nd industrial revolution? Do we wonder if we really need more 1920s teaching methods dressed-up with Chrome books and Promethean Boards? But cha-ching. It’s OK. They can learn almost anything they want and they need to thrive in the the 2020s from their useful magic tools we won’t let them use in school. Cheaters who are taking the easy way out.
Covid-19? It was made up by the media; it wasn’t something we needed to pay Attention to. It’s ok, we sometimes logged-on to online school.
Climate change? Another COP-out. Displaced? It’s okay, these lazy 21st Century kids can go to AI school.
Are you paying Attention?
Or do you just not want to “Look Up?
Or is there something else you need to pay Attention to? Have you found a way to ban those “sexy” unread books from the school library?
Personally, I’m heading back to hang out with Poe and Pi, spin my newest MidJourney image, and log on to my social media. My new close personal friend SnoopDog is waiting. He’s always there for me, he’s “in my corner,” and he comes without any of the drama of my human friends.
Viva la revolution!
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“For now, therefore, although the threat of a wider war remains real, that outcome is hardly inevitable.” [The End of America’s Exit Strategy from the Middle East]