Thoughts on AI
In the past year there has been an increase in conversations about AI and its use. A lot of these have mentioned the ethical uses of AI.
I have heard snippets of conversations where the Terminator has been mentioned. The machines taking over scenario has been discussed, skynet is live. It’s time to find John Connor. That sort of thing. From everything I’ve observed AI is here to stay, we can either use it to our advantage or get left behind. Learning how is works is essential, due to the development of new skills, and employability.
I also want to point out what we have already been using AI but on a small scale. Think of the automated responses from chats, Duolingo, Siri, and Alexa. The quick development and progression of AI this past year has caused some alarm, but I think people forget that technology moves very fast. Progressions and developments are always being made. This didn’t happen overnight. It was probably happening for a while, behind closed doors. People in tech companies are very careful to reveal their developments / ideas. Mostly due to the competitive nature, stealing of ideas, and patens. After all who doesn’t want to be known for creating a technology that will make history?
These conversations of AI remind me of the things that were said about the internet. People were worried. Oh what’s going to happen? Is it safe to use this? As humans we don’t like uncertainty. We like to have some sort of stability. And as we have discovered there have been positive and negative things that have emerged from the internet. Similar things will occur with AI. Maybe we can learn from this? We can prepare.
I’m curious about the following things:
- What happens to the data being input into it? How safe is it to input personal data? How is data going to be protected?
- How much of the information being generated by the AI is accurate?
- How much of a bias does it have? Algorithms are programmed by humans and as humans we all have an internal bias/ biases. This one I’m particularly interested in.
- Original content. Can you tell what’s generated by AI? How do you know? What will be done to prevent plagiarism?
- What measures will be put into place to ensure that people aren’t using AI for criminal activities?
- Will it learn to sound more human? This one is the one that seems to be worrying most people.
- How will change the way we use language?
Again these are questions I’m curious about and I want to explore in more detail. So far I’ve just been observing, and it’s been very interesting to hear both sides of an argument. I’m keen to learn more about this.
