How today’s eclipse in England led me to test Zuckerberg’s promise of personal AI

Two days after Mark Zuckerberg published his vision of personal super intelligence, AI that would understand our goals, protect our private information and place more power in our hands, an AI invented a reason for me to disclose personal information.

It asked for permission. I said yes. That sounds like the safety system worked. But it didn’t.

Today, as England experiences its deepest partial solar eclipse in decades, I was asking my AI, which I have been using consistently for well over a year now, about my combined astrology and Astro cartography; that seemingly harmless conversation became a real-time test of Zuckerberg’s promise.

The problem the AI created for me

My previously purchased Astro cartography report contained my personal birth information used to calculate the chart and it identified me as a Leo Ascendant. The AI told me that result was wrong. It calculated instead an Aquarius Ascendant. After questioning it then offered me a detailed explanation involving degrees and historical time-zone conversions.

It sounded technical, precise and confident. But it was also, wrong.

The AI had selected the opposite point on the horizon and labelled my Descendant as my Ascendant. My original report was actually correct. 

There was no contradiction until the AI created one.

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