When should we trust AI?

Session 3 of 3

Tuesday Session 1: Is AI a Threat to Democracy?

Wednesday Session 2: How Can Generative AI Make New Things?

Jon Ippolito

Professor of New Media
Director, Digital Curation graduate program
The University of Maine
LearnWithAI.org

🐦/🧵 @jonippolito 🐘 @jonippolito@digipres.club 🦋 @jonippolito.bsky.social 🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonippolito

High v. low stakes as determinant

High v low stakes (as represented by poker chips)

The problem with high v. low stakes

x-ray AI-generated slack comment

Low stakes

Google Olympics Ai Fan Letter Ad

Oddities of probability

doctor_50%_chance_surgery_meme

Opportunistic solutions

birthday_party_south_portland
Chance of two people out of 23 having the same birthday: 50.7%
julius_caesar_last_breath_getty
Chance of your next breath containing a molecule of Julius Caesar's dying breath: 98.2%
Feature
Definition
Options
Example

📸 Snapshot

A sampling of possible solutions

Large or small

A lungful

🌨️ Density

The concentration of useful answers near the snapshot

Dense or sparse

Caesar's atoms near your lungs

🌡️ Temperature

The variety of possible answers in the snapshot

Hot or cold

Molecular mixing in the atmosphere

The two prerequisites for a "Caesar scenario"

Lungful of molecules

High density

Many possible solutions relative to the number in a snapshot

moving molecules

High temperature

Attempted solutions vary with each snapshot

Problem: insufficient density ("data voids")

verge_obituary_spam

Problem: temperature too low

Ai Covid Research Failure

Problem: temperature too high

Ai Law Court Citations Failure
Ai Density V Temperature Axes Only
Ai Density V Temperature Axes Only
Ai Density V Temperature Sample Tasks
Ai Density V Temperature Sample Tasks
Ai Density V Temperature Emoji
Ai Density V Temperature Emoji
Ai Density V Temperature All
Ai Density V Temperature All

Opportunistic v. prescriptive tasks in movies

cracking_a_safe
cracking_a_safe
cutting_bomb_wire
cutting_bomb_wire

Opportunistic v. prescriptive tasks in warfare

medieval_soldiers_breaching_fortress_alamy medieval_castle_aerial_drawing_carneycastle

Opportunistic v. prescriptive tasks in healthcare

Creativity v. trust

ai_replace_designers_handshake_meme
ai_replace_designers_handshake_meme

Graphing trustworthiness exercise

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