How an Online Game Taught Me About Cheating Computers and the Dangers of A.I

For several years, I’ve played an online backgammon game — I won’t say which one — to help me relax and briefly ‘get away from it all.’ I play against the computer at the so-called ‘hard’ level, and over the years, I’ve noticed something unusual: the computer cheats!

I started noticing something odd after playing a few dozen games. Rather, I noticed several oddities: one, in a game dependent on rolls of the dice — that is, pure chance — the computer somehow always gave itself several sets of two consecutive doubles each game (giving itself a big advantage), while I invariably never got two doubles in a row; and two, the computer would often give me doubles at the very last moment of the game — when I couldn’t fully utilize them.

Yet these last, unusable doubles would still technically count as ‘doubles’ if there was a tally of doubles. Very sneaky!

To me, that’s… incredibly weird. Computers are supposed to be fair and impartial, yet in this case, my computerized opponent was literally programmed to cheat and give itself unfair advantages.

I’m sorry, but that’s downright crazy — not to mention unethical. Of course, this is ‘just a game’ — but I’m aware of many other aspects of our lives that are affected or potentially damaged by such out-of-control computerized nonsense and/or mechanized cheating.

It’s a ‘brave new world’, alright — a world of machine-dominated, often untrustworthy bullshit.

Should we trust computer geeks and programmers?

It would be one thing if this bizarre programming was an anomaly, a total outlier. It isn’t. As our new world of lightning-speed computing keeps spreading and accelerating, we’d be wise to pause, take stock, and ascertain exactly where all this super-fast computing is leading us.

The example of this deviant online game is ridiculous, even absurd, on one level — it’s ‘only a game,’ after all — but it nevertheless raises some provocative and crucial questions.

For example, someone had to program that online game, and someone had to make that game cheat and sneakily give itself unfair advantages, right? This scenario proves the accuracy of the truism ‘a computer program is only as good as the programmer(s) who created it.’

And therein lies the problem — a vast and dangerous problem. As our technological wonderland has rapidly expanded, we laymen — that is, ordinary non-experts in computing and computer languages — have always taken it on faith that the hordes of computer programmers increasingly controlling our lives are scrupulous and have our best interests at heart.

In fact, we had to take it on faith. We had little choice.

But what if that’s sometimes, or even frequently, not true? What if some programmers are unscrupulous and want to use their programming to mislead, screw things up, steal, or cheat? What then?

The deeper dangers posed by A.I.

It would be wonderful if every person was kind, considerate, and ethical — but that’s not the world we live in. As the past few decades and especially the last nine years, have shown us, many human beings are not above cheating, lying, bullying, and abusing others. In fact, cheating and bullying are enjoying a major renaissance as lying, cheating ‘strong man’ Donald Trump consolidates his power and ‘Trumpism’ dominates American politics.

This brings us to another major trend in America and around the world over the past decade: the rapid rise of Artificial Intelligence, or A.I.

I’ve read quite a bit, pro and con, about all the supposed benefits and dangers of A.I., but in the end they may all boil down to a simple question: Do we really want to entrust our lives and our world to computers and software — even highly ‘advanced’ ones — that are programmed by fallible, sometimes careless or unethical human beings?

No matter how ‘advanced’ A.I. becomes, and no matter how well it ‘learns’ or how ‘independent’ it’s supposed to be from its original programming… there’s simply no way that erroneous or fallible human programming will somehow ‘disappear’ and be replaced by always accurate, super-reliable computerized ‘thought’ and information.

We’ve already seen this problem taking shape — horrifically — in the form of A.I. developing ‘hallucinations,’ spewing out gobbledygook, confidently presenting totally erroneous information or images, and sometimes even cursing at the user!

A.I. ‘true believers’ poo-poo these problems (of course!) and insist it will all get worked out and A.I. will soon be totally reliable and accurate, as well as incredibly fast.

All I can say is: promises, and more (empty) promises. Um, no thanks!

Photo by Waldemar on Unsplash

Our belief in ‘technological salvation’ is delusional

The deeper and truly terrifying issue/phenomenon here is our pathetic belief in ‘technological salvation.’ One of the dominant features of modern civilization is our fervent belief that, somehow, technology holds ‘the answers’ and will ultimately save us.

Save us from what, you might ask? Clearly, it’s supposed to save us from our own stupidity, greed, folly, and fallibility and guide us onward into that stupendous ‘brave new world’ we all (supposedly) long for.

But there’s a major problem with this ‘logic’ and this deluded belief: True human advancement and human ‘progress’ depend far more on humans actually progressing, learning, and growing than on developing advanced machines. There are countless examples of industrially and technologically advanced societies that have been savage, brutal, and deeply UNcivilized.

To me, it’s crystal clear that true civilization depends on cultivating and ‘growing’ more aware, caring, and empathetic human beings. Without such a primary emphasis, all other efforts are mere diversions — or worse, dangerous dead ends.

Without shifting our primary emphasis to better education and training and deeper, fuller human growth, healing, and maturation, no amount of technological progress will ever suffice.

Sorry, folks — but even advanced technologies will never, ever ‘save us.’ We’d have to do that ourselves, for ourselves.

Immature, cocky, and… unethical?

Put differently, I’d say that the problems posed by our ‘advanced’ technologies spring directly from our inattention to — even active avoidance of — human growth and healthy development and maturation. Plus, such avoidance and over-reliance on technology end up amplifying these issues — arrogance, immaturity, denial, delusion, etc. — big time.

Under these conditions, we easily morph into technologically advanced, needy, morally backward ‘infantile barbarians.’

In general, the problems posed by the character, ethics, belief systems, and (im)maturity level of the programmers programming our computers are not often addressed. In fact, they’re never addressed in ‘polite’ society.

We just assume that these folks are trustworthy, reliable, etc. — but I’m sure you know that old witticism ‘To assume just makes an ass of you and me.’

By now, it should be apparent that not all computer programs are created equal, and not all are trustworthy, accurate, or helpful. If conniving, unethical, or manipulative programmers get hold of sensitive or vitally important computer programs, there’s no limit to the damage they can do — while the rest of us remain blissfully unaware.

That is, we’d remain unaware until major glitches and widespread problems start showing up and intensifying throughout our society — as is already starting to happen.

A.I. is just as fallible — and dangerous — as its human creators

My experience with this online gaming platform provides a tiny glimpse into the vast and intractable problems underlying the global ‘tech revolution.’ I’m not sure if, or how, we can rectify these issues, since they spring directly from human nature, human limitations, and some humans’ bad, unwise, or unethical decisions.

But I’d say putting our trust, our lives, and our society’s well-being totally at the mercy of all-too-human programmers and ‘artificial intelligence’ is a disaster waiting to happen. The entire world of computing and programming is just as fallible as its human creators.

And by the way — the programming of this online backgammon is SO lousy and inconsistent (it also undermines its own game at times) that, despite the computer giving itself several unfair advantages, I approach it all as an interesting challenge… and usually beat the crap out of it anyway!

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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.

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