Unless you’ve lived under a rock for the past couple of years (and who could blame you), you have most likely heard of artificial intelligence and how it impacts everything we do. From the websites you read to the YouTube scripts being pumped out faster than babies on a rabbit farm, it seems like the world has embraced AI everywhere you look. We need to be asking whether or not that is a good thing.
Let’s get some quick details out of the way first. At its root idea, AI is simply blending computing power with information databases to solve problems. These software apps cannot necessarily problem-solve on their own. We have to program them first. However, they are capable of seeing things our brains are not focused to see. We have to think about friends, family, politics, and whether we left the stove on at home while on vacation. AI doesn’t.
The most popular AI right now is ChatGPT. This is a natural language processing (NLP) tool backed by AI to generate content of all kinds. In the simplest terms, some geniuses created a massive database of information from the internet, then trained a program to act like a writer and spit out everything from social media posts to legal briefs.
You’d think such an advancement would be beneficial. In many ways, tools like ChatGPT have improved operations. Whenever we can automate things, we tend to see an uptick in production. This is like when Excel was first introduced, and all the accountants feared they’d lose their jobs when the program created more jobs than ever before.
Great, so we should all just sit back and watch Netflix like zombies as AI takes over, right? Wrong! AI is poised to seriously damage our society if left unchecked. The most well-known case of AI ruining current infrastructure was a legal case in New York, USA. There, a lawyer tried to use ChatGPT for their research. When they presented it to a judge, he asked about the origin of the referenced legal cases. It turns out all the precedents being used were 100% made up by AI and never really happened.
Over 44% of private sector companies plan to invest in AI systems. Right now, more than 35% of companies are already using these tools as part of their production. Remember that lovely little Live Chat features you use for customer support or getting a vacation reservation for a hotel? Yup, you are most likely speaking to an AI and not a human being.
Then there is the “minor issue” of misinformation. Most AIs are built using outdated or incorrect data. They create new content in all forms (written, visual, audio, etc.) based on whatever was created before. These are like brainless parrots speaking back information that could be based on whatever washed-up Gen Z’er is living in his mom’s basement and building a blog post with no actual references.
It doesn’t stop there. AI can be used to dig into your personal information and create profiles on your impulse buys via Big Tech databases. Or we can use Deepfake technology combined with AI to generate attack ads by political opponents with no basis in reality. Just imagine Joe Biden and Donald Trump in a no holds barred wrestling match with political speeches as they trade blows. It can look so realistic that you wouldn’t believe your eyes. Even when these are proven to be fake, the damage will be done.
Even the OpenAI (the team behind ChatGPT) CEO has visited the U.S. Congress and spoken in world forums for the regulation of AI technology. More and more people behind this tech are saying that if we do not regulate these innovative tools soon, we risk the destruction of our information systems. That will have massive ramifications for our financial, supportive, and military sectors.
The fear is AI is moving too fast. It is like compound interest in a hedge fund manager’s back pocket, growing more quickly than the public can see. Without some form of regulation and oversight by human auditors, we risk being overrun by AI and having it integrated into everything we do. Pretty soon, you’ll ask an AI to ensure no pickles on your burger at your local fries shop or convince an AI on the phone that your tires need rotating and not a new engine placement on your car.
If we work together and find a way to regulate such systems, we will be in far better shape going into the new era of humanity. The genie is well out of the bottle already. It is up to calmer, more experienced minds to offer guidance so we avoid repeating the same mistakes of history. Hopefully, that will mean we can leverage these tools for good instead of risking our privacy, autonomy, and creativity.