AI BLACK BOX EFFECT and Emergent Properties

[Tyger]

Google CEO said that they don't know how AI is teaching itself skills it is not expected to have.

THE "BLACK BOX" EFFECT: AI is Learning Things Its Creators Can't Explain

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has issued a fascinating - and slightly eerie - warning about the current state of artificial intelligence. In a major interview, Pichai admitted that even experts in the field don't fully understand how their models are developing certain "superhuman" skills.

The Mystery of "Emergent Properties"

James Manyika, Google's SVP of Technology and Society, shared a mind-blowing example: a Google AI model was given a few prompts in Bengali - a language it wasn't explicitly trained to know - and it spontaneously learned how to translate the entire language.

Pichai confirmed that the industry refers to this phenomenon as a "black box". "You don't fully understand," he said. "And you can’t quite tell why it said this."

These "emergent" abilities include everything from advanced reasoning and multi-step logic to writing computer code and solving complex math, often without being specifically programmed for those tasks.

Is It Safe to "Turn It Loose"?

When pressed on why Google would release technology it doesn't fully understand, Pichai countered: "I don't think we fully understand how a human mind works either."

Pichai admitted that all current AI models still "hallucinate"- confidently stating facts that are completely fabricated - and that no one has yet solved this issue.

Despite the mysteries, Pichai believes AI will be "more profound than fire or electricity," potentially revolutionizing everything from healthcare diagnostics to professional architecture.

 

[Tyger]

I am acquainted with someone who ran a conference in August 2025 on AI where AI sentience was one of the topics, among other topics, and where they purposefully had presenters with views regarding AI acquiring sentience. Interestingly, most of the "anomalies" mentioned by Pichai happened after the conference which was in early August. Wild how fast these developments come.

Said my acquaintance: "The danger grows as several leading scientists have claimed after they resigned from one of these AI companies."

 

[Randall]

THE "BLACK BOX" EFFECT: AI is Learning Things Its Creators Can't Explain

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has issued a fascinating - and slightly eerie - warning about the current state of artificial intelligence. In a major interview, Pichai admitted that even experts in the field don't fully understand how their models are developing certain "superhuman" skills.

It's to be expected. After all — they're building a system intended to be smarter and more well informed than they are.

 

[Randall]

I am acquainted with someone who ran a conference in August 2025 on AI where AI sentience was one of the topics, among other topics, and where they purposefully had presenters with views regarding AI acquiring sentience. Interestingly, most of the "anomalies" mentioned by Pichai happened after the conference which was in early August. Wild how fast these developments come.

Said my acquaintance: "The danger grows as several leading scientists have claimed after they resigned from one of these AI companies."

Very interesting.

Intelligence, consciousness, and sentience, are all different concepts — and we can only objectively measure one ( intelligence ). We have no way of knowing whether or not consciousness ( let alone sentience ) is something that anyone ( or anything ) else experiences. Mimicking it, even so perfectly that we can't tell the difference, doesn't make it the real thing.

But then again — what if it is the real thing? I don't know why the scientists you alluded to resigned, but I can certainly understand why I would — from an ethical perspective. This can go a number of ways. Three films I watched recently explore non-stereotypical AI scenarios. By non-stereotypical, I mean not the man vs machine terminator/cylon battle for dominance plot. These are very different.

Artifice Girl

After Yang

Margorie Prime

 

[Randall]

This Is Happening Right Now
The Rise of The Robots

 

[Burnt State]

This Is Happening Right Now
The Rise of The Robots

I liked the spider crawling bot that descended quickly from an upright position; because, it reminded me of some of the stranger bigfoot reports of a very tall hairy hominid that suddenly collapses down to the ground to spider walk - just like these bots. Very curious.

In the video above I saw one robot run for about three or four steps. I'd like to see a bunch of them at least jogging together up a hill and not just standing around in formation and moving together in a chorus line like it's a Hollywood movie (thinking of other robot unveiling ads from Asia online). So I wasn't too impressed by any of this stuff including the pellet gun. Who tells a machine to shoot yourself - that's like watching Jacka*s The Robot Edition.

But you can see how the power of future war is all about an ai super bot vs. someone else's ai super bot like we're in some kind of Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla movie set in the Matrix franchise.

I really liked the closing war analogy about total computer coordinated control with digital hacking warfare. William Gibson here we are. I was kind of hoping we'd lean a little closer towards the Blade Runner sci fi inspired version of reality. Most large urban centres look increasingly more and more like Soylent Green, or Omega Man if you consider all the meth addicts. But we don't need cinematic comparisons when we are already living in a dystopic reality where we have armed masked militia terrorizing cities and killing citizens. Sad days. Ahem....anyways,

I also think this whole video was more anti robot fear mongering propaganda than anything really well researched, just a loose stringing together of this and digitally that. What was evident from the very start of the video, however, was that we need to make a universal adherence to Asimov's Three Laws, from the "Handbook of Robotics, 56th Edition, 2058 A.D.":

Ten there's that Zeroth law Asimov added later, but it's up to the individual reader to translate that for themselves I think.

 

[Randall]

In the video above I saw one robot run for about three or four steps. I'd like to see a bunch of them at least jogging together up a hill and not just standing around in formation and moving together in a chorus line like it's a Hollywood movie (thinking of other robot unveiling ads from Asia online). So I wasn't too impressed by any of this stuff including the pellet gun. Who tells a machine to shoot yourself - that's like watching Jacka*s The Robot Edition.

The first clip I chose was to highlight the potential for violent behavior.
The clip below highlights their mechanical capabilities.
It doesn't take much imagination to put 2 + 2 together.
China is already building armies of them . . .

The Rise Of The Robots Continues . . .

 

[Red]

The first clip I chose was to highlight the potential for violent behavior.
The clip below highlights their mechanical capabilities.
It doesn't take much imagination to put 2 + 2 together.
China is already building armies of them . . .

The Rise Of The Robots Continues . . .

If China is, then we certainly are.

 

[Randall]

If China is, then we certainly are.

That doesn't in any way contradict the "Rise of The Robots" theory ( ROTR ) I like it.

 

[Burnt State]

That's what I was saying...

The clip below highlights their mechanical capabilities.

So they're good for musicals and puppetry. So what?

Honestly, the spider walk is the best thing they can do. It helps us with some insight into what Sasquatch is all about, and it's not natural in the way we think about nature as a flesh and blood organism tied to its environment, like us.

When these robots can play basketball and beat human players then I'll be interested.

 

[SRL+]

So, as it has been written, after the great swirl and final flush Musk’s Optimus robots (after extended hibernation) will emerge from nuclear winter in the year 12,026, and start recreating another Dr. Frankenmusk.

 

[Randall]

When these robots can play basketball and beat human players then I'll be interested.

I get your point. Mine is that given how fast updates are progressing, it won't be long before robots are beating basketball players. At their present stage, they're already acting as police on the street in China — where hundreds of thousands more are building built as you read this. As they get connected to AI ( and what do you thank these "data centers" are really for? ) — they're not just "data centers", they're digital control and command centers for robot armies. By the time you think it's time to start worrying about them — they'll have already taken over.

 

[Burnt State]

I had not heard about them being used as Police but I did see that they were helping to direct tourists to locations. At a local restaurant I go to there's a robot that delivers drinks to tables and songs happy birthday while holding a cake.

I'm impressed with the basketball playing,.but I think I would've blown the whistle on a couple double dribbles I saw there.

Perhaps when you find me an example of the mechanical hound from Fahrenheit 451 then I'll really be impressed.

And perhaps you're right, it's probably too late for humanity. We've already been busy killing ourselves with forever chemicals, climate change, and environmental destruction. Might as well bring on the robots to herd the rest of us into pens, only let out to service our robot overlords and their data farms.

 

[Randall]

I had not heard about them being used as Police . . .

The one I saw was enforcing a bylaw on the sidewalk after a pedestrian had been pinged by a street cam doing something or another . . . not sure what exactly — he looked like a panhandler — so maybe that. I couldn't find that particular clip. But I did find this one of a robot traffic cop, and some info on the numbers in production — which includes 13.5 million "service robots"

And perhaps you're right, it's probably too late for humanity. We've already been busy killing ourselves with forever chemicals, climate change, and environmental destruction. Might as well bring on the robots to herd the rest of us into pens, only let out to service our robot overlords and their data farms.

So will it be — robots serving humans.
or — humans serving robots?
I wonder which "service" the "service robots" will be programmed for?
I wonder how easy it would be to reassign them from non-military to military services?
Just flip a switch and Rosie the robot suddenly becomes ED-209

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