“You shouldn’t fear immigrants taking your job; you should fear robots.” – Sead Fadilpasic.
Advances in AI are all the talk of the town. And for good reason. Programs such as Midjourney and ChatGPT are very impressive at creating art and text, respectfully. It’s premature to declare these AI programs “sentient.” Sentience requires a general understanding of the world and can function in various areas. Instead, AI programs are currently limited to addressing specific functions, such as writing or art, but not anything outside their specialty.
While the ethical questions about future developments in Artificial Intelligence are interesting, and I want to explore that later, the more pressing problem is the real-world impact of the current level of AI on human affairs.
AI does have the potential to aid humanity. AI is expected to help streamline processes, and it’s expected to aid in research and scientific studies. All of these may result in not only saving time and money but may also help save lives.
However, the picture of AI isn’t all positive. There’s evidence that the source material used to teach AI has included inappropriate use of copyrighted material. More importantly, AI will replace people’s jobs. Automation has long been known to be a significant player in the loss of jobs, as much or more so than outsourcing. Another concern is that programs like ChatGPT could be used to spread fake news and misinformation. Journalists with news organizations such as The Guardian and USAToday have found that ChatGPT makes up nonexistent sources for studies with incorrect claims.
Whether we like it or not, AI is here to stay. Pandora’s box has been opened, and it’s impossible to return its contents. What’s necessary is societal oversight in the form of governmental regulation to mitigate its toxic elements.
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