Patton Oswalt & Conan Discuss The Future Of A.I. | Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend

you've had this great bit you did on the. show Once where you talked about. TiVo and it was when TiVo was fairly new. and it was a line that I just loved. you'll obviously remember the bit much. better than I can but it was the problem. with Tivo is that sometimes it would it. would try to anticipate what you wanted. based on what you've been watching and. oh boy yeah and it was a sign and and it. was TiVo grabbing things that you didn't. want and sometimes it's embarrassing and. just went oh TiVo no oh no let's take a.

little little kid picking up a gun. no. TiVo yeah it was yeah because you would. you would get I had a Tebow and I. recorded a couple of westerns and I woke. up the next day and there were 30 shows. on my TiVo and I realized oh no they all. have horses in him he thought well. no. but you like horses like he was so angry. but it's so weird how that's the infancy.

of AI and now if I walk into like if my. phone's in my pocket and I walk. somewhere and then I go home and use my. computer there are ads for the places I. visited that day that are like now it's. it's just second nature okay so this is. something we should really I mean. because. you have you have such a agile mind and. I'm thinking oh wait Patton's Gonna Know. he's going to understand because in my. thinking AI has been in the conversation.

like 35 or 36 on the list of things that. we need to be worried about and then in. the last. three months it went right to the top of. the list and now it's all anybody's. talking about well because it's all. these people that again like anything I. forget who said this but any new. invention has practical use accidental. harm and then. um premeditated harm so like an ax you. can cut well with it to build a fire and. warm yourself you can also drop it and.

cut your foot off or you can murder. someone with it but when the ax first. show to people like this is great what a. great tool and then it takes a while for. people to then run the other scenario so. I'm sure that AI was looked at as wow. what a cool thing and it's a learning. computer and now they're just starting. to realize the accidental part of it and. then the malevolent part of it but. here's the other thing which uh needs to. enhance the analogy because the one way. it doesn't hold is an ax doesn't get. smarter right this is so in the time.

that you and I are talking about AI yes. it's listening to us talking exactly and. it's anticipating things and it's. growing and you think are we sometimes I. think am I like three months away from. there being a really accurate porno that. I'm in and I'm only saying this because. I did some porno and I'm trying to cover. it I'm trying to cover my tracks you're. trying to put plant a seed that it's a. deep fake well it's a total Depot I. mentioned it on my podcast okay well.

okay here's something that's going to be. really weird and because I'm I listen to. a lot of podcasts and there have been. some podcasts where they warn about Ai. and they've had experts on so in a year. from now well suddenly certain podcasts. that have been warning about AI suddenly. be gone or like if that starts happening. then yeah these guys were right that's. that roku's basilisk thing that talks. about if you are anywhere on record at. any time in human history against AI. there will be a culling and that like. Singularity and Skynet and all that well.

you know what's interesting is that in. the old but in the I'm not saying that I. believe that no but in the old science. fiction it was the computer actually. comes to life yeah and You Know It uh. Macintosh comes through the wall and. starts punching you with its buttons. you're like okay that's stupid but. um but the idea that it would just. create confusion with something was. something that I never anticipated which. is suddenly you know because think of. all the. thousands of hours of footage there are.

a view patent and then it can it can. know your voice it can create different. images and suddenly hey there's footage. here of Patton getting this horrible. crime let's get it yeah there's all. these weird um and also it could be. what I'm worried about is a computer uh. or an AI that does something that it. thinks is being benign in other words if. you let's say you were to task it to. solve world hunger and in a benign way. it'll go well one way to solve world.

hunger is to get rid of this chunk of. the population right and then other. people will have enough to eat like and. thinking what a good job I'm doing right. now like it thinking it's running its. own programming right the one scary. thing I've heard and it was a guy trying. to reassure me was this is how how into. the weeds we are I was talking to a guy. that that works with AI and does. computer systems like you know the ones. that regulate the water and the power. grid and I said well you know I read. this review of a as a book by Ted copper. called blackout about what happens when.

the grid goes down what skills you're. going to need and I just I'm worried. because I don't really have any. practical skills and then he said to. reassure me he goes oh we're way past. the point of being able to shut the grid. down it it is self-repairing enough that. you could only ever shut done a very. tiny part of it there are backups for. backups some of which it can now build. itself that so in other words it can't. ever be totally unplugged right this. whole scenario about what happens when. the grid goes down grid can't go down.

anymore not totally I mean part of it. can but not totally. because it can self-repair again not. reassuring at all yeah that's and also. we don't need a computer to become fully. intelligent and sentient to do damage if. right only partial Intel in fact it's. even more dangerous if it has the. intelligence of a five or six year old. but is wired in to our nuclear arsenals. to our power grid to the uh the the grid.

that's that's supplying hospitals or. whatever if it has that mentality we. could be in a lot of. trouble well maybe the thing is are we. going to be looking back on these. conversations about AI the way you can. look back at on my show and in the media. in 1999 we were all talking about. when it flips over to the year 2000 the. coding you know so I remembered everyone. was saying ATMs won't work everything's. going to crash right uh and and there's.

this essential bug in the way they coded. it because no one ever anticipated the. uh the internet they never thought about. this problem that the years is going to. change from 1999 to 2000. exactly and so. now we all find that quaint can you. believe we were worried about that it. was so yeah like those were our worries. well the numbers can't switch over they. didn't but now it's like we're beyond. the numbers it's how fast is this thing. learning and again everything that we're. making fun of now when when writers make. fun of chat GPT and look how bad this. writing is it's in its infancy right now.

yeah it's in its interesting and it's. growing exponentially we will get to a. point where we won't be able to. distinguish anymore and that's going to. be terrifying so I'm thinking that if it. knows the tone of my voice and there's. lots of lots and lots and lots of. footage of my voice coralie's voice. sona's voice your voice yeah um. maybe there's an upside where it just. keeps coming out with new episodes that. you don't have to do but we still we we. still get uh you know a little paycheck.

but we're not doing it and it's us or do. you get a paycheck and Matt and I just. don't get a paycheck you get a paycheck. it doesn't look anything like my page. chat gbt AI if you're listening do Sona. and I get a paycheck and maybe Kona. doesn't oh because he seems very deaf. about AI where we we're all in I just. suggested hey AI I just suggested that. you could regularly take over this. podcast and so um I just gave you your. big break in Show Business pal wait a. minute think hang on let's think about.

this the way an AI would think of it. though what's the essential component is. it the people programming the MacBook or. is it like the MacBook itself is shiny. people want to buy it but at that it's. nothing without the programmers so would. it look at on-air Talent as well that's. just the the frame it doesn't matter. what that is and if anything it'll just. create some you've seen all the pictures. of the of just all these random people. and it's like these were all created on. a computer and they just look like. random photos of people out in the world. that's weird yeah a new Max Headroom.

yeah as long as it kept my hairstyle I'd. be fine with that that's kind of Mac's. headroomy you kind of anticipated it. yeah I did I did look into it I've. already had people sending me there's. one uh Conan O'Brien eats fried chicken. and then crashes in a car and it's like. this kind of Frankenstein Monster. version of me right now now yeah it is. but like they can it's gonna get to the. point where they can go Conan O'Brien. um at the side of the at the at the um.

Conan O'Brien side stage at uh Baruch. assault 1995 and it will look like an. archival perfect footage of you just. standing watching like it'll be able to. create that right it's like oh he was at. that show here's a photo later and look. some of the some of the deep fakes like. I've seen on Instagram people that put. like Arnold Schwarzenegger's face on. people and some of them are kind of. goofy and there's one it was um the. animals singing House of the Rising Sun. they put his face on that broadcast from.

the 60s and I could not it looked like a. young Arnold singing House of the Rising. Sun for all I could tell there was no. seems nothing for every janky one for. every 10 janky ones there's one where. you're like oh that'll be the one they. build on to get to the next level of. realism well then you start really. scared I mean I've seen already some. photos that are completely Ai and you. think why would someone hire a. supermodel again. exactly they're stunning these these. photos that they put out are absolutely. stunning and this almost makes me happy.

that I didn't become a supermodel that I. took the left path not the right path. right because. I chose okay. um but I but I but why although okay. here's here's the thing though last. night I got to go to the premiere of um. Spider-Man into the spider-verse oh yeah. I have that kind of pull so um and. Spider-Man into the spider-verse is so. over the top cartoony that it actually. is it connects even more emotionally.

whereas a lot of motion capture and a. lot of making it look very human for. some reason you don't link to it but. because these are humans creating yes. through ART the way that humans act and. talk to each other it was weird there. were there were scenes where I was. almost crying but it's so emotional even. though these are very stylized cartoons. but they actually connect so maybe maybe. there will always need to be some kind. of human element behind it however. um but I also mean there doesn't need to.

be that many humans behind it there. won't be that many jobs left and they. can just Harvest our brains and jars. anyway. I'm a lot more optimistic I don't know I. I just don't think they could I don't. think I don't know maybe I'm being just. naive but I just don't think machines. can get like human Nuance the way humans. can like a machine's never going to. write succession it's never going to. write friends no you're in the office no. don't you think there'll be a merger at. some point though and that's just.

Evolution happening with a natural force. that then is the next step and. but even the people that are saying well. what if chat GPT is just there to. supplement your writing like if you. can't think of a good transition chat. gbt will spit out 20 minutes like I want. I still want the humanity of like there. are scenes in Jaws they don't quite end. right. um it's still a brilliant movie because. it's Steven Spielberg and it's his it's. a young guy making a movie and you feel. it happening yeah and you're drawn in.

and if he had had like well maybe. transition this way here's five other. options dude like it wouldn't be the. movie that it is well I think this is. this is something that I can think can. lead us back into. our various crafts which is I mean back. into hope. I heard you talk about this once before. and we haven't had a chance to talk. about it but how. great limits are yeah that's why I mean. again I I think a lot of a lot of uh you. should you should be able to say. absolutely anything you want in code no.

no have some restrictions there so you. can find clever ways around them because. then that makes what you're doing more. shocking if there's no limits then. nothing shocking and nothing startling. but but when you know that there are. certain things how do you get around. that yeah you're right and same with. music and same with look if you if. you're shooting a movie but you can just. do it all on a computer and you can. create any landscape that you want then. there doesn't have it's not that urgency. of like we've got a day on this location. and this actor's having a nervous. breakdown and there's a cloud over the.

Sun how do we make this work what do we. do we gotta and so many great memorable. moments and movies came because stuff. wasn't working well it's like it's the. classic thing you said in Jaws you. mentioned jaws and the shark Bruce. wasn't working correctly so you don't. see the shark nearly as much as they. wanted you to see it for a lot of the. movie that turns out to be brilliant it. makes what makes the movie It's. terrifying because you don't really get. a good look at this thing yeah and it's. it's to this day when I watch that movie.

it's electrifying yeah but had. uh greater technology been around or. more money it would have ruined it it. would have ruined the movie that's why. the the first Evil Dead movie I read. this interview with Sam Ramey was like. we want this evil force to be floating. through the woods and you see it from. the evil forces point of view and he. goes here's here's our process to get. that effect how would you do that well. uh you build an anti-gravity disc well. there aren't any anti-gravity discs. what's the next thing we can do we could. get a huge board and uh fasten the.

camera to the middle of the board so it. wobbles a little bit let's do that so. they're literally running through the. woods with this wobbly board and it. created this weird look that you'd never. seen on camera before and it was. teenagers out in the midwest with their. wobbly piece of wood basically creating. a new thing in cinema that's now used. all the time but it was so it's so Eerie. watching that first film because it's so. handmade that it actually feels real but. that's why I agree with you Sona I have. hope because I do think that human.

creativity is this crazy unyielding. force people just have to now there are. a lot of things that I would worry about. but. um I'm not that worried about me being. in a porno. I am. going to this whole room we're very. worried about that I'm worried I'm not. very very worried yeah yeah it's gonna. be a cross between me and John Tesh just. really going at it.