Tuesday 6 March 2018
"Zach": AI Fraud In Christchurch
David Farrier's story is amazing. Go and read it.
I have no doubt whatsoever that this is all a ridiculous fraud. Apart from the implausibility of it all, the purported technical details make no sense. Serious AI outfits use racks of cheap servers, not expensive supercomputers like the Cray XC50. The XC50 is cooled with water, not liquid nitrogen. Training an AI by sending it emails in English would only work if it has already achieved human-level intelligence, in which case a) impressive effort by Albi Whale, purported "boy genius" b) why bother taking the time of medical professionals to train it, when you could be learning much faster from Wikipedia and other resources on the Internet c) why are you applying the pinnacle of mankind's technological achievement to transcribing medical records in Christchurch?
David Whale's emails to Farrier are full of bluster, someone who doesn't know much about computers trying to impress someone whom he thinks also doesn't know much. He's not telling the truth. Robert Seddon-Smith and John Pickering are either active fraudsters or victims.
Most concerning is that it sounds like government health boards are either on the verge of funneling funds to this fraud, or are already doing so. That needs to be stopped.
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