[Ailist] AI and Bullying

[Howard Ditkoff]

I realize the existence of psychopaths is deeply troubling for a philosophy 
like AI. But I urge you to actually look at the evidence - the work of 
people like Robert Hare and Martha Stout - on this issue before dismissing 
it simply because it challenges a worldview. Or else, I challenge those 
promoting AI to do their own studies and show that you can actually make a 
dent in those labeled psychopaths with AI. It's one thing to just have a 
type of faith that everyone can be changed with a well-intentioned 
methodology. It's another to show it.

If there is one problem in the AI community, in my view, it would be the 
denial of the existence of truly sadistic people in this world whose issues 
go far deeper than AI addresses.

AI is a fantastic methodology for many things. But if we start stretching 
its limits beyond what it is capable of, it is going to be a rude awakening.

Best,
Howard Ditkoff
Emergent Associates, LLC
http://www.emergentassociates.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mary Gergen" <gv4 at psu.edu>
To: "Howard Ditkoff" <howard at emergentassociates.com>; 
<ailist at lists.business.utah.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2008 11:39 AM
Subject: Re: [Ailist] AI and Bullying


> Hi,  Yes, probably most people want to have some status and power in the
> world, and act in ways that might help them to achieve this sense.  Yet, I
> hesitate to accept Howard Ditkoff's framing of this issue in terms of
> personality.  If we take seriously the idea that in various relationships 
> we
> come into being.. that we acquire an identity through the relational
> processes of which we are a part, based on our possibilities.. our
> repertoire of selves... then we do not have to agree that some people are
> "psychopaths" and "sadists" only.  Perhaps we might say that habitual ways
> of gaining power and status include the  behaviors associated with these
> labels.  I prefer the notion that we all have multiple capacities for
> "being" and what we might regard as preferable is to find ways of helping 
> to
> bring forth the positive potentials that people have or could acquire.
> Mary Gergen
>
> On 10/28/08 7:38 PM, "Howard Ditkoff" <howard at emergentassociates.com> 
> wrote:
>
>> My feeling is that some bullying cannot be addressed by AI. There are 
>> among
>> us psychopaths and sadists who enjoy causing pain and are not motivated 
>> at
>> all by the "positive" feelings that AI aims at fostering. They are
>> sociopathic and antisocial. Bullying involving people like that can only 
>> be
>> addressed by stopping those people from having power.
>>
>> But when it isn't involving someone like that, then perhaps AI can help 
>> find
>> leverage points for reconciliation.
>>
>> However, what I said in the first paragraph has massive implications that
>> limit AI's effectiveness on a large scale in our world. Personality
>> disorders are not amenable to AI.
>>
>> Best,
>> Howard Ditkoff
>> Emergent Associates, LLC
>> http://www.emergentassociates.com
>>
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