“AI does not possess what we call common sense… An AI is not sentient.

It does not
know what it does not know.”
ERIC SCHMIDT, ex-CEO de Google

Engineers at Boeing created software algorithms to help prevent the new 737 MAX
from stalling during flight by automatically pointing the nose down. The software
was needed to counteract the tendency of the MAX aircraft’s nose to pitch upwards
during certain conditions, due to more powerful jet engines. Pilots at that time
did not know about the MCAS software, nor about its dependency on a single external
input. If that indicator sent false signals about the angle of attack, and the MCAS
software did not know about the faulty data, it did what it was designed to do:
point the plane’s nose downward. This was catastrophic in two cases, resulting in
crashes that killed 346 human beings.

In the end, AI is a software tool. All computer software operates on bits of

information, and those bit collections can represent whatever we want them to. But
we must always keep in mind that they are representations of reality, not reality
itself. The signals from the faulty angle-of-attack sensor on the 737 MAX
misrepresented reality. The pilots tried to correct the situation, but not knowing
about the software’s design, they apparently did not disable MCAS or at least not
soon enough, and it crashed those two planes.

MCAS did what it was programmed to do. MCAS felt no remorse about this human
tragedy. It did not even know.

This is Artificial Stupidity. Discovery to Earth: Who will be the astronaut to

disconnect HAL, the AI software run amok in Arthur C. Clarke’s novel (2001: A Space
Odyssey?)

Tools can be used for both good and bad purposes. I use a very good chef’s knife
daily, and I keep its blade sharp and honed regularly. It does a great job in
slicing and dicing vegetables. But it can cut flesh, when used carelessly. The tool
is not good or bad in itself. How it is used by humans can be good or bad.
Understanding how the chef knife is designed, and what it is capable of, is
extremely important in order to use it properly and safely.

Computers and the software they run (just bit patterns after all) are no different.
Lack of understanding these fundamentals can lead us to Artificial Stupidity. Let’s
hope it doesn’t destroy us as we learn what AI can do, especially when we don’t
understand what AI is doing and why. I keep remembering The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,
who used magic he did not understand (Walt Disney’s animation, based on Goethe’s
original poem of 1797). That magic spell resulted in a situation run amok. In that
fantasy, the wizard returned in time to stop the disaster from continuing.

Who will be the wizards for disconnecting AI when it runs amok? Sadly, it’s already
happening in our global social networks.