Media Downplays Danger Of Canned Facebook AI Project, Says There’s Nothing To Worry About

When it was discovered that Facebook had to shut down an artificial intelligence project where two participating chat bots developed a new language, many speculated that it was due to the danger of going out of control that it posed. However, numerous media publications are downplaying the severity of the issue, saying that the AI posed no danger whatsoever.

In a piece written by Gizmodo, the publication essentially painted a macabre landscape where other sites wrote stories that almost seemed to talk about the rise of Skynet. Citing several outlets with appropriately alarming headlines, the publication proceeded to explain why all of it was nothing more than scaremongering.

Apparently, the reason why Facebook decided to shut the project down was because the chat bots were not doing what they were intended for. Originally, the social network wanted to create machines that could fleece humans through hard negotiation tactics using the English language. They could hardly do this when they are using sentence structures that appear gibberish.

WIRED wrote the same thing, noting how Facebook created “simple bots” that were not “alarming” or even “very intelligent”. The publication is urging people not to panic over this development as it supposedly stemmed from an experiment that simply did not produce the intended results.

Numerous other media outlets also pointed out that the capabilities of the chat bots were limited to do a select number of functions. The main one being to score points in a simulated negotiation between the two bots. As such, they argue that this should not be taken as a sign that robots are taking over the world.

In fact, tech publications stress that this is the opposite of a doomsday scenario since it showcases how limited current AI technology is. By being limited in functionality and usefulness, the AI project that Facebook shut down is supposedly harmless.