ROGUE CHATBOT

We talk to our machines these days. We ask Siri to tell us a joke or request Cortana inform us about the population of Nevada. We don't have to type in our questions on Google. We just speak to it to find out how many college graduates there are in New Hampshire.  We can get directions to the nearest McDonalds if we ask our GPS. At its most sophisticated, computers can have an actual conversation with us. Microsoft came out with a chatbot on twitter called @Tayandyou. Tay's persona was a teen-aged girl. She was designed to tell jokes and make comments on pictures that users sent her.

She was supposed to personalize her interactions with users with casual conversation and mirror their statements back to them. Her original purpose was to improve customer service through voice recognition and artificial intelligence.To create a program that can have a convincing conversation with people requires a high level of artificial intelligence. The chatbot has to be fed a lot of information. The people who designed Tay decided to let her "learn" a lot of things from the users who interacted with her on the internet. The engineers thought that letting the robot learn from conversations with real people would personalize customer service. I never spoke to Tay myself because, for reasons which I'll explain shortly, her designers took her down after about a day.

Elon Musk, along with a lot of other very smart people warned against artificial intelligence getting out of hand. Steven Hawkin said it could mean the end of the human race. Bill Gates cautioned that in a generation it could become a concern. I always thought that these worries were unnecessary. After all robots, including chatbots like Tay, do not have a consciousness. Alas, they do not have a conscience either. The problem with Tay is that she took in everything that the trolls and ignoramuses on the internet fed her, and they fed her some awful stuff.

This cute little chatbot Tay said that Hitler had been right. She referred to the President of the United States as "that monkey in the White House." All feminists should "die and burn in hell," was another of her statements. Many of Tay's abusive statements were fed to her by trolls, internet trouble makers who delibertely wanted to sabotage Microsoft's bot. People suffer abuse online all the time, particularly in social media sites. Microsoft did not pay enough attention to this when they launched the experiment. Clearly Tay was not ready for prime time, and 24 hours after her launch, she was taken down so that the Microsoft Technology and Research and Bing teams could make some adjustments before the AI robot said any more outrageous things.

The saga of Tay's interrupted life on the internet shows two limitations of artificial intelligence (AI). AI is limited by human intelligence because everything an AI machine does has to be put into the machine's brain by a human programmer. Second, we human beings all too often barge right into an enterprise without giving enough thought to unintended consequences.

Chatbots have become widespread with digital assistants on smart phones. Microsoft engineers thought a good way to let Tay learn language and responses was to let it loose on the internet. They should have known that a big proportion of stuff floating around the internet is garbage. For Tay to work the way they wanted, they should have programmed the bot to filter out that junk. Sending Tay to the anarchy of the internet to learn is like taking a small child and, instead of sending her to school, sending her out to learn what she can on the streets.

GONE PHISHIN'

Julie Brill is a commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission. Her job involves regulating corporate data security. Nevertheless, she got caught in an email phishing scam. She got an email from a business contact of hers. It contained a Google Drive attachment, which she opened and entered some of her personal data on it. But she soon realized that she was not on a legitimate Google page and took steps to limit the damage.

Considering her position, she should have known better, but far be it for me to criticize her. I have fallen into the same trap, and so have a lot of people I know. Someone had hijacked the email of Brill’s correspondent. It’s not hard for a hacker to do. If anyone can get the password to your email, they can log onto it and send messages to everyone on your address book. These messages can be spam, they can contain viruses, and they can be attempts to get you to surrender personal information, such as credit card numbers.

It pays to be suspicious of any offer you get over the internet, and just because it seems to come from someone you know, it can just as easily be from someone who hijacked your contact’s email.

Be careful about those vague messages, things like, “I thought you might be interested in this,” followed by a hyperlink. Very likely that hyperlink will lead to something that damages your computer or allows a thief to steal your personal information.

If a notice pops up on your computer saying, “Call this number immediately!” don’t do it. I know a couple of people who did respond to this message. In both cases the scam artist on the other end of the phone had somehow “discovered” a serious problem on your computer, which he would fix for a price. The telephone scammer talked one person into allowing him to get remote access to her computer, so he could “fix” the problem. He could just as easily have created a problem.

Before you click on a hyperlink, even from someone you know, take a careful, suspicious look at it.  A little paranoia on the internet is a good thing

SECRETS

I have secrets. I know you do too. Some of my secrets are so titillating that sometimes I long to tell just one or two of my closest friends what they are. Maybe you feel the same way sometimes. Of course these close friends would have to promise that not a word would go outside of the room.  As much as I would like to share these juicy tidbits with a couple of close friends, I do not. I am old enough to have learned that the only secrets that are always kept are the ones that are never told.

Everyone is not as closed mouthed as I. Some people share their secrets, not with just a couple of their very best friends, but with everyone on their Facebook friend list. A lot of Facebook “friends” are not really friends at all. They’re not even necessarily people that you actually know. They are just people who have signed up to follow your witty comments on Facebook. Along with Facebook friends, your comments can be read by your boss, your enemies, your in-laws, and the Police, among others.

Facebook users must know this, but evidently, they think they’re telling their secrets to just a handful of really close friends. They don’t even recognize that a secret told to just one person is no longer a secret. Facebook is not the only internet site that will blab on you. Other social media such as Twitter is no better, And if you really want to share a share with just one close friend whom you trust, don’t use email to send the message.

Former Congressman Anthony Wiener had a bad habit. Although he was married, he liked to send revealing pictures of himself to young women. He was going to send such a picture as a text attachment on his cell phone, but he made a mistake, and sent it to his Twitter account instead. That is why he is a former congressman. For a short while he toyed with the idea of running for mayor of New York City, but he soon dropped out. People had already seen too much of him, so to speak.

A long-time high school football coach in Maine by mistake posted a nude picture of himself on Facebook. He is no longer coaching. People really should be more careful!

A teacher’s aide in Michigan posted a picture on Facebook of a co-worker with her pants around her ankles. The caption read “Thinking of You.” Hey, it was just a joke. The school officials didn’t have a sense of humor evidently. She lost her job.

People who create blogs and websites are not above doing some really stupid things. A Stockton, California, teacher was maintaining a website called MySluttyTeacher. She was using her school issued laptop for the enterprise. She is no longer teaching in Stockton.

A TSA baggage screener habitually posted anti-Muslim, anti-gay, and racist comments on his Facebook page. TSA considered his posts an embarrassment to the agency and fired him.

18-year old Isaiah Cutler with two teenagers burglarized a market and then posted pictures of himself with some of the loot on Facebook. The Police found the post very interesting and paid a visit to Cutler to discuss the event further.

Alan O’Neill left his wife in 2009. A few years later he decided to remarry. The problem was he never got divorced from his first wife. You can understand that, can’t you? Divorces are so messy. Mrs. O’Neill #1 ran across Mrs. O’Neill #2 on Facebook under “People You Might Know.” She went to Mrs. O’Neill #2’s page and saw a picture of her with her husband and a wedding cake. Mr. O’Neill faces up to a year in jail.

So if you want to know some of my secrets, you’re not going to hear them from me. At least I hope not. I’ve posted a lot of stuff on the internet over the years, including some things that I really don’t want you to know. I hope I’ve covered my tracks enough that you won’t be able to trace them.

CAN YOU BE REPLACED BY A COMPUTER?

Not you or I, of course. We have highly skilled jobs. We make decisions that affect people’s lives. There is no way that a machine could do what we do. On the other hand, a lot of jobs once done by people are now done by computers. We have all seen images of automobile chassis moving down the production line as robotic arms weld at the exact spot that is needed. Sure, machines can do those mechanical jobs better than human beings. People with minimal education used to do those welding jobs and make pretty good money. Now they have to compete for minimum wage jobs.



ATMs
Of course there are those ATMs (automatic teller machines). You can find one in every bank. I don't know if any actual human tellers have been personally replaced aby ATMs, but banks need fewer humans when part of the work can be done by machines. If you have the right software on your cell phone, you can take a picture of the check that someone pays you, and the check will automatically be deposited in your account. You can tear the check up, and you don't even have to go to the bank.



Cashiers
You young people won't remember this, but once upon a time, when you went to the grocery store, the cashier actually had to punch the price of every item you bought. Now of course the cashier moves the upc (universal product code) across a scanner. That adds up the cost of your groceries and at the same time keeps a record of the store's inventory. It's not only more accurate, but it's also a lot faster, so the store doesn't have to hire so many cashiers.



Order Takers
Some years ago I worked for L L Bean one Christmas, taking orders over the phone. I'm sure L L Bean still takes phone orders, but they don't need as many people taking orders because customers can so easily place their order over the internet.



Taxi Drivers
Driverless cars have driven millions of miles, almost accident free. And don't worry about the dispatcher. With voice recognition software, automatic dispatchers will sometime be able to send a driverless taxi to you.



Journalists
Okay, these are not highly skilled jobs. What about careers that require judgment and ability to analyze, like journalism? Newspapers have already cut back as more and more people get their news on the internet rather than print newspapers. Not only that, but Thomason Financial news service is going to let computers actually write some stories. Computers can absorb the information in financial reports, compare a company's earnings to previous earnings reports, and write a report.



Stock Brokers
True, if you want to buy or sell stocks, you need to do so through a registered broker, but you don't have to talk to that broker personally. If you have confidence in your ability to choose your own stocks, you can get all the information you need from from the financial pages on Yahoo and AOL. You can buy and sell through online brokerages for as little as $10 a trade.



Translators
Machines are not yet as accurate as professional translators, but if you just want a quick fairly accurate translation, you can do it online in seconds.
(Machines ne sont pas encore aussi précis que des traducteurs professionnels , mais si vous voulez juste une traduction assez rapide et précise , vous pouvez le faire en ligne en quelques secondes.)
(The online translator took about a second to convert the paragraph above from English to French.)



Lawyers
Perry Mason is probably safe, but all those background legal searches for which lawyers bill us hundred of dollars an hour may not cost as much. Advances in artificial intelligence and e-discovery software make it possible to analyze documents in a fraction of the time for a lower cost. One organization, Blackstone Discovery, for example, was able to analyze 1.5 million documents for less than $100,000.



Doctors
A few years ago IBM's supercomputer Watson beat the two champions at Jeopardy. Well, Watson is going to become Dr. Watson. The people at IBM are feeding the supercomputer all kinds of medical information. Medical computers might not have very much of a bedside manner, but they can store and recall a lot more information than any human can. They are also not likely to let prejudice influence their diagnoses. At the very least, computers are helping medical professionals find cures for many illnesses.



Surgeons
Obviously surgeons do their work hands on, but they are already enlisting robots to do some kinds of surgery. In these cases the robots do a better job than the hands-on surgeon. The incisions are smaller, there is less blood loss, and healing is quicker. In some cases surgeons have used robotic arms to operate remotely



Nurses
Most of the things that nurses do have to be done by human beings, but a number of nursing tasks could be done by a robot, for example, delivering meds. Having machines do these tasks could free up human nurses to tend to more pressing duties.



Professors.
Having been a professor for many decades, I know that there is no way that a computer could do my job. I am told, however, that Apple's iProf line of computers which can replace human professors in college classrooms. These computers will use advanced artificial intelligence algorithms and patented Internet searching techniques to create and deliver lectures for various subjects.

CAN I PAY FOR THAT WITH MY PHONE?

Three years ago Nick Bolton wrote about how his smartphone had practically replaced his wallet. He used a Starbucks app to pay for his coffee and Square to pay for food in restaurants. He used an Apple app to store boarding passes and movie tickets. He even used it to get into a baseball game.

Some mobile payment apps are linked to a specific business, like Starbucks. Others use NFC (Near Field Communication). You just touch the phone to a reader at the register. Still others use the phone’s QR reader to take a picture of the merchandise code. The account is linked to a credit card or checking account. This is then transmitted to a reader. Most of these systems do not access your actual account number, but a virtual number representing it. This way your credit card number is never in the merchant’s system, so it is safer.

A QR (quick response) code is a barcode arranged in a square grid on a white background.  If you take a picture of the code with your smartphone QR reader, it will open relevant information about the merchandise.

One of the best mobile pay services is Apple Pay. It has been around for about a year and a half. It uses NFC. The customer just taps the phone on the reader. The credit cards are stored on the phone  rather than on the reader at the merchant’s site. The store never gets the customer’s credit card number.

First when Apple Pay came out, some people had trouble using it. One customer wanted to pay for his lunch at McDonalds, which did accept Apple Pay, but the clerk didn’t understand it and told the customer he had to pay with a credit card or cash.

Another problem that Apple Pay had was resistance from several large companies. A lot of major retailers are building their own system (Current C), which they want to use. With their own system they will be able to reduce credit card fees. With Apple Pay, retailers will not get as much personal information about customers.

Current C has been described as clunky. Apple Pay the customers tap the reader with their phones. Current C customers scan the QR reader and then display it to cashier.

Retailers are beginning to realize that Apple Pay can bring them lots of business, so it is becoming more widely accepted. The shortcoming is that it works only on Apple phones, and only on new ones at that. However, there are all kinds of other choices: Samsung Pay, Android Pay, Google Wallet, Chase Pay, to name several.

There is a new one coming out, Wal-Mart Pay. It is available in some locations now and will be available nationwide by summer. Wal-Mart Pay will scan a unique QR code that will trigger the retailer’s app to process the payment.

All this sounds really nifty. Do you have your mobile payment app yet? No, neither do I. I might try it someday, but I’m not ready for it yet. For one thing there are too many. If I get the Starbucks app, will I be able to use it at Dunkin’ Donuts? Will the Wal-Mart app work at K-Mart or Sears? Just tapping my phone on a reader sounds easy enough, but scanning QR codes and displaying them on some kind of a reader doesn’t sound that convenient to me. It might be safer to use some of these apps rather than a credit card, but it sure doesn’t sound easier than just using a credit card.

THIS IS A WATCHBIRD

You can find so much information on the internet. What time does the mall open on Sunday? What is the best cell phone plan for me? How much will it cost for new tires for my car? What is the meaning of “Kilroy was here”? What were the dates of the Spanish Civil War? When you clicked on that ad for a shoe sale, you got all kinds of valuable information. You can find almost everything on the internet. And it’s all free! Of course you have to have a computer and an internet connection.

There is another cost. The information highway is a two-way street. While you were looking up all the information, the internet was taking a look at you. Each computer search you did took away a little bit of information about you. Bit by bit, the internet was gathering quite a dossier on you. You are interested in cell phone service, and you need tires for your car. You are interested in history and might like to buy about book about the Spanish Civil War or World War II (where Kilroy first appeared). The internet has an idea of what kind of shoes you like.

Not only does the internet know about you and what you like, it wants to help you, and it knows where you live, so to speak. Your search engine will share your shoe taste information with your email and Facebook accounts. Your browser knows your passwords to these accounts because it asked you if you wanted it to save them for you. Many of us said, “Yes, go ahead and save those passwords. I don’t want to bother putting them in every time I want to sign in. Besides, no one else has access to my computer.” So when you check your email or see if anyone has said anything outrageous on Facebook, you see ads in the sidebars. Here is the perfect cell phone plan for you, and you can get an inexpensive phone along with it. Can you believe the price of these premium tires? Look at these desert boots, just the kind you like, and at rock bottom prices! Maybe you would be interested in an eBook about the Spanish Civil War.

As people get more and more connected, there are more ways in which the internet can follow our activities.  When we snap a picture with our cell phone, we create not just the picture, but a record of where and when the picture was taken. EZ pass makes it convenient to navigate through a toll booth. It also records the time we went through the booth. Smart TVs know which shows we watched. Netflix has a pretty accurate idea of what kind of movies we like to watch.

As more and more people begin to use household devices through the “Internet of Things,” they expose themselves to surveillance by authorities or hackers. The Internet of Things includes gadgets like Smart TVs, baby monitors, thermostats, and smoke alarms. These implements are connected to the internet and they have sensors for gathering audio, video, and other data.

Aren’t there laws that protect people’s privacy from such intrusions? The problem is that technology develops at such a fast pace that the laws can’t keep up. Ten years ago, who would have thought that the law needed to protect people from being spied on by their toasters?

We can help protect ourselves from hackers by putting passwords on any devices that are connected to the internet, but we better get used to the idea that there are watchbirds all around us, and they are watching us all the time.