We have a cohort of septuagenarians and one vote for 80s since I last checked. Almost 1 in 10 from us self-selected Forum users.
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I attended the Ambassador program talk as I could for certain easily be an iNaturalist Ambassador, but I still have looming questions and concerns surrounding the addition of GenAI to iNaturalist.
The thing I found most interesting is that a core iNaturalistās Mission and Value in the Code of Conduct is
Emphasize that iNaturalist data should be accurate and relevant since it is used for science
We have already shown in this thread how GenAI gets ID information wrong, how it falsely attributes statements to users who did not say what it says they said, and more. Using GenAI to create ID tips will create falsehoods, and thus, goes against the supposed iNaturalist Code of Conduct.
In addition, OpenAI just released their own research which confirms our statements that these āHallucinationsā are actually a structural property inherent to these machines.
Thus, according to iNaturalistās own stated ethics in their own Code of Conduct, as a future ambassador looking to maintain the scientific integrity of iNaturalist in alliance with their Code of Conduct, I am hereby requesting that iNaturalist immediately cease and desist all use of GenAI and do not now or ever deploy it on any of their products, programs, sites, aps, or architecture.
I look forward to your formal and publicly announced and posted reply as to the status of your GenAI project.
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Yeah, if this goes through Iām cancelling my recurring donation.
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Humans also āget ID information wrong, falsely attribute statements to usersā, etc. If sometimes making mistakes and misattributions renders one unfit to contribute to iNat, then we should all be kicked off. The question isnāt whether AI generated ID tips will be infallible; the question is whether their inclusion will ultimately lead to users making more correct IDs or more incorrect IDs, compared to the system currently in place where no ID pointers are present. Would the benefit of ID pointers that are mostly correct outweigh the potential harm of some incorrect ones showing up? Iāve made 362,371 IDs, but only 356,094 of them are still active. Thatās a 1.7% change-my-mind rate on my part! I ācreate falsehoods, and thus, go against the supposed iNaturalist Code of Conductā. Plus as an American I have a huge carbon footprint. I might be worse than AIā¦
If iNat staff is still investigating the pros and cons of various versions of implementation of these āID pointersā, I definitely donāt want them coming out and saying they will ānot now or ever deploy [AI] on any of their products, programs, sites, aps, or architectureā. Nor do I want them rushing in and deploying it without careful consideration. I want them to spend all the time they need comparing all possible avenues. If itās going to cause more harm than good, then scrap it.
And from an environmental energy use standpoint- Iāve seen students use iNat to try to identify things. Guess what they do when iNat wonāt give them a solid answer: they ask Gemini or ChatGTP. If anything, using an LLM one time āin houseā to provide the info right here might ultimately lead to less AI use overall, since users donāt have to go ask their favorite AI for help every time theyāre stuck between two species. How much energy is used every year by hundreds of people typing āNorthern vs. Southern Catalpaā into Google and regenerating an automated AI summary each time because the information isnāt available right here on iNat? How accurate are the Google results that people get when they make these searches?
There are so many factors at play here, and science is a long, slow process. My current take is that the relevant data to make an informed decision on this issue does not yet exist. Thus my only opinion is that Iām against the āwe want answers now!!ā take, which unfortunately seems to be a popular one.
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A user who is posting hallucinations and is influencing thereby a handful of other users can be taught to improve. Even if he/she does not, the damage is limited, and ultimately, this person could be ākicked off.ā
A system with an inherent AI engine that does the same cannot be easily influenced. It influences ALL observers and IDers. And it cannot be ākicked off,ā as it is inherently part of the process and system.
About the risk, take the risk attributed to a single hallucinating human user and multiply it by the number of active observers and IDers in INat.
Thatās why people go crazy about the idea having AI as a super-influencer.
Why should somebody care about peoplesā hallucinations in future if the system is accepting AI hallucinations?
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Thank you for not giving up acting against this decay!
I also thought about the Ambassador program. Being now abstinent since some weeks, I decided that for me itās either too early or too late, pending the outcome of this story.
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To be honest I still donāt really understand how an iNat AI experiment with funding from Google is practically different in any way from the iNat AI experiment with funding from Microsoft which was done in early 2024 and made barely a ripple in the iNat community. The proposed experiment I guess will be moderately more generative but itās still presumably going to only exist in a similar restricted experimental environment.
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That really was an āexperimentā. That functionality ended up not really being used in the main site and is just an as is interesting thing you can play with. It still is a demo.
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The generative AI is not even a demo yet. Wait for it to come and then we will deal with it.
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Weāre now half way between when this was announced and the end of the year. Could you give any updates on the general timeline?
Iām also interested in an update or any additional info you can provide on the Q&A session. When it was announced, it seemed to be like it was meant to address the questions around the grant. I may have misunderstood its purpose. When is it supposed to take place? Is it relative to the release of this experiment/feature? What is it going to cover (assuming it isnāt about the grant as I had thought)?
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