Are your concerns with AI valid?

Content Authenticity Statement: This article was written solely by me with no assistance from AI. Research from other AI organisations and ongoing data collection supported my points. Opinions are formed from ongoing research.?

What’s on my mind this month?

AI has been shouted from the rooftops for a long time now. The boom of ChatGPT really brought the commercialisation factor into play, but AI has been around for a very long time. This ‘boom’ has made a lot of people concerned with how it will change their lives (whether good or bad)… but I’m getting ahead of myself. To look forward, let’s first look back.?

The days of Ex Machina and I, Robot

We all remember these 2014 and 2004 classics. Great movies - huge fan. However, when watching them it spurred a lot of unsettling emotions. People were concerned that something like this would come to fruition; that robots would eventually take over and gain sentience. For sure I was one of these people, also zombies - terrified of zombies. Speed up to 2017 and Sophia the first AI Humanoid Robot was announced and everyone went wild. This was too close for comfort, (and in my theory) spurring the unsettling emotions tied to the long backlog of movies and media we have previously consumed that tell us ‘Hey, this is how it starts’.?

Are they right? My thoughts, unlikely.?

What are some common fears around AI??

No one likes change right? Remember when the internet got announced - me neither. But people were reluctant, they didn’t want change, and they were scared of what they didn’t know (I want you to remember that sentence, it’s important later). In my opinion, the fears are on a spectrum. It ranges from fear of change and disruption of day-to-day already learnt tasks all the way to robots taking over and this is the end.?

The fears around day-to-day disruption, are absolutely valid. AI will and is disrupting the status quo. It’s important to accept that it’s changing, and you change with it or you get left behind. Change happens, technology advances and we move with it. But, what can you do to cope with the change? My thoughts are that the more you understand it, the easier it is to change with it.?

Change isn’t always bad

I mean, it’s scary, right? Not doing things how you used to, having to learn new methods when yours works fine as it is - it’s almost a feeling of ‘why fix what’s not broken?’ I have to admit, a bit of my ego comes into it as well. I thought ‘I am more reliable than this platform that I don’t know’ - so I went out of my way to learn it. Now I think ‘Yes, I’m reliable but I can use this to make me even MORE reliable’.?

How I like to explain ChatGPT is like this:?

It’s an LLM (Large Language Model). If you visualise this brain (like the giant brains from Futurama), it needs information and data to make smarter choices and give you smarter responses. At the moment, ChatGPT4 is based off of public data (how reliable is that, right?). The more you feed it, the better it gets as it bases its responses on probability. What’s the likelihood the words ‘happy’ ‘as’ ‘a’ ‘clam’ appear together? High. Therefore it’s an appropriate answer.?

That’s the most simple version of it, if you’re interested in the finite details, buy me a coffee. There’s a lot more to go into like;

• Programs like Perspective and Jigsaw that moderate hate crime?
• The ethical considerations of ‘probable’ answers discriminating against particular groups/communities?
• The consideration of ‘fake news’ trumping ‘real news’?
• (My future prediction) People potentially cheating the system by creating mass content that hacks probability and gives an answer they want others to get (now that’s scary)

In terms of processes for LLMs, it eats the data, right? But then there is a stage of moderation to make it suitable for the public. For example, particular topics and questions can’t be asked as they are immoral - assuming this is based on deontological ethics? LLMs are fundamentally amoral - they can’t tell right from wrong, they’re a machine - machines go based on numbers, numbers that are probabilities (as above).

It’s actually really interesting to understand it on a deeper level. I’m still learning, and so are the developers of the thing. So it’s ever-evolving - and that’s okay. Linking back to what I said above, the more you understand the less fear you will feel, I hope.?

So, if you’re ever looking for a chat about AI - I’m always down for one. It’s a topic I continuously learn and strive to understand.?

That’s all folks!