Advances in artificial intelligence has everyone freaking out. With the touch of a button, you can get a program called ChatGPT to write a term paper, an op-ed piece in the New York Times, a speech or fill out a job application.
Some of the job applications are supposedly better than the ones filled out by humans. I wonder if they can exaggerate or make the same kinds of omissions?
No doubt it can write a news story, too, but don’t tell the bean counters. Corporations have already stripped newsrooms of all but a handful of reporters and editors.
Congress is calling for “regulation.” That’s code in Washington for taxes. It’s also about exerting control over something that’s powerful. Power being code for, well, power.
<embers of Congress are afraid of any kind of intelligence, though it is rarely seen in Washington.
Remember Mark Twain’s quote? “Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.”
At least one Congressman, Ted Lieu, D-Calif., however, said: “As one of just three members of Congress with a computer science degree, I am enthralled by A.I. and excited about the incredible ways it will continue to advance society. And as a member of Congress, I am freaked out by A.I., specifically A.I. that is left unchecked and unregulated,” he said in an NBC News story.
Artificial intelligence is scary, especially for anyone who saw the classic movie, “2001: A Space Odyssey.” In that 1968 classic, the HAL 9000 computer took it upon itself to kill crew members and take over the flight.
“I know that you and Frank were planning to disconnect me, and I’m afraid that’s something I cannot allow to happen,” HAL told surviving astronaut Dave.
Forget fiction and real-life lazy students using A.I. to do their homework assignments.
A.I.-generated videos have been manipulated to show people saying and doing things they never said or did, including Russians who falsely portrayed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky telling his troops to lay down their arms, according to a recent article in “Foreign Affairs.”
The trick could be used by U.S. politicians against their opponents, or by distorting legitimate news stories.
Social media sites, already rife with rumors, lies, slander and bullying, are likely targets.
Terrorists equipped with A.I. linked to weapon systems make for the most horrifying of nightmares.
Yet, A.I. is a little tempting. Maybe I could get it to write my blogs.