‘Nova’ explores ‘A.I. Revolution’
Sick of reading about the terrors of A.I.? Confused about its possibilities? Looking for certainty? What better place to turn than “NOVA” (9 p.m., PBS, TV-PG, check local listings).
In the special “A.I. Revolution,” correspondent Miles O’Brien assures us that people have been speculating and fearing artificial minds and robots for some time. In fact, “NOVA” presented a special on artificial intelligence decades ago.
The main fact that separates the science fiction of A.I. and contemporary excitement about A.I.’s possibilities is the arrival of massive computing power. Scientists dating back to Alan Turing and speculative writers like Arthur C. Clarke (“2001”) could envision man-made minds capable of surpassing their creators, but the computing horsepower just didn’t exist.
But it has been advancing at an exponential rate. “NOVA” recalls the trepidation at the end of the last century when IBM’s chess-playing program “Deep Blue” beat world chess champion Garry Kasparov. More recently, the program AlphaGo mastered the ancient game of Go, once considered far too complex for a machine.
These programs work because they can assess an infinite number of moves in a matter of seconds, come up with the best one and anticipate countless moves to come.
This ability to “game” out millions of possibilities transcends the field of play. O’Brien visits with a cancer specialist who uses A.I. to look at countless numbers of scans and tests to make predictive comparisons that have proven remarkably accurate. Similar work is being done by pharmaceutical researchers who use massive computational power to predict protein folds and structures that can be used in drugs and medicines, and do so at a fraction of the cost of old-fashioned research.
After a fairly lengthy prologue explaining the promise of A.I., this “NOVA” episode anticipates its possible perils. While doctored images are as old as photography itself, the arrival of “deepfakes” has already caused havoc. A faked picture of an explosion outside the Pentagon spread internet panic in a matter of moments and briefly cratered the stock market. One expert cautions that the arrival of such fakes at a time of societal divide and growing distrust might be like “throwing jet fuel on a dumpster fire.”
It’s worth noting that nearly every technological advance has been met with similar fears and frauds. As the 19th-century gaslight era ended, electric belts and devices were peddled as health cures by enterprising quacks. The arrival of radio spurred concern that radio waves could be used to alter the weather. The atomic power explored in the recent “Oppenheimer” film spawned decades of horror movies, from “Godzilla” to “The China Syndrome.”
The future of A.I. may be uncertain, but popular culture’s ability to turn the fear of the new into entertainment remains a certainty.