AI Friend or Foe?
Lately Artificial Intelligence has been top of topic with exciting new publicly available AI-driven tools like ChatGPT, Dall-E, a new version of Microsoft’s Bing search engine etc. Even a person with the most basic computer skills is now able to create anything from an elaborately written article to an intricate and realistic looking image. However, is this good for society? Today we will take a look at some of the pros and cons of AI.
Artificial intelligence defined, as per the National Artificial Intelligence Act of 2020, means a machine-based system that can make predictions, recommendations or decisions influencing real environments using a given set of human-defined objectives.
Benefits
One of the biggest benefits of AI is the ability to analyze large sums of data, making it a very useful tool for the banking and investment sector in particular. If you have ever experienced fraudulent activity on one of your bank accounts, and was notified by your bank, chances are pretty good that it was caught by an AI tool. But that is just the tip of the iceberg. AI applications are also used to review large data sets looking for patterns that could help healthcare, or to analyze data for climate changes, or to find the most efficient distribution network, just to give a few examples. You will find AI models in industries such as telecommunications, retail, manufacturing, technology as well as the financial and banking sectors. And while AIs can take hours, weeks, months, even years off your workload, there are certain drawbacks and concerns using artificial intelligence.
Drawbacks
There is no denying that AI has major benefits, however, it’s important to proceed with care. Stephen Hawking once shared his worries about self-developing AI systems. He stated, “I fear that AI may replace humans altogether. If people design computer viruses, someone will design AI that replicates itself. This will be a new form of life that will outperform humans.” The concept Hawkings is referencing is called “The Singularity”; a theory that states there will be a potential time in the future, where computers will become better at building themselves than humans, thus allowing them to upgrade and improve until they eventually are far smarter than humans. Hopefully these theories will remain fiction, however, there are already issues with some AI tools.
Some AI-assisted chat systems have displayed activities of concern that can be used in villainous ways. One such AI tool is CHATGPT. The chatbot was released last year and was trained with a plethora of data, from books and articles to conversations. The chatbot can understand a variety of topics and contexts. While it is a great tool for those writing and creating content, it has already been declared “code red” by Google's Management team due to concerns about the impact this tool will have on education and other industries. The academic world in particular has mixed reviews of the software, as high school students have been found using it to cheat on essays, while others feel it can be an excellent teaching aid. CHATGPT is also used by cyber criminals to create phishing emails. One student took matters into hand and released GPTZero, a tool that can detect whether a piece of writing was generated by CHATGPT or the student. Interestingly this counter tool saw over 30,000 users within the first week of its release date.
Whether we like it or not, AI is here to stay, and with every new revolutionary tool there are drawbacks. The key to success is to stay ahead of the game, or in this case Artificial Intelligence.