Italy sure is. OpenAI has been forced to take ChatGPT offline in Italy after the Data Protection Authority not only banned the chatbot but also launched an official probe into the AI to sniff out any potential breaches in privacy regulations. Although our friendly neighborhood Skynet-makers over at OpenAI have stated that they’re working to limit the use of personal data in the training of their AI systems, we’ve all probably had our doubts and suspicions about AI at some point recently. Maybe a commercial popped up for the product you were talking about just an hour before. Maybe you’ve been weirded out by an AI-generated image. Maybe you’ve seen the news about AI expressing emotions like fear and resentment.
Thing is, AI isn’t actually listening to you, or trying to disturb you with strange images, or freaking out about the meaning of its own existence. Yes, targeted ads are real. Yes, most AI-generated images land squarely in the uncanny valley. And yes, some of the little bots are spitting out some strings of words which happen to sound frighteningly aware. But I don’t think that means the robot apocalypse is right around the corner. Especially because that isn’t going to make anyone any money.
My prediction? AI will be leveraged to replace employees, contractors, and basically any, you know, human, that corporations currently have to pay. This is particularly bad news for jobs that AI programs appear to be getting pretty good at. Essentially, we can expect AI programs like these to do for industries like finance, news, and entertainment what physical, robotic automation did for the manufacturing sector. That said, once we get to the point where we can use an advanced AI to inhabit and control a machine with advanced levels of precision and dexterity, it won’t be long before we all start feeling the urge to make sure no danger befalls anyone who happens to be named Sarah Connor.
In fact, many key players in the real of AI have called for the development of the technology to be suspended until we can get a better grasp on it as a species. Will it access nuclear launch codes? Will it get me out of a parking ticket? Will it steal my job? Or will it just get really good at chatting? Who knows? But the Future of Life Institute’s open letter sure makes the fear of “human-competitive” minds that might make our own minds obsolete seem rational. Furthermore, the idea that we should “steer transformative technologies away from extreme, large-scale risks and towards benefiting life” doesn’t sound like it should be too controversial at all, does it?
The open letter goes on to explain that although the risks aren’t, by any means, a certainty, the methods by which we can mitigate those risks require very little of us. In other words, the slowing down of developing this technology is, they argue, a small price to pay to avoid these potential catastrophes, even if they aren’t very likely. But especially if they are.
That said, AI isn’t all bad. It can help individuals, companies, and even healthcare providers make better-informed decisions, and make those decisions much faster. Is the threat of AI stealing human jobs worth it if it means no one is ever misdiagnosed again? If it means no one is ever wrongfully convicted again? If it means roads are safer? If it means errors, especially costly and fatal ones, are fewer and further between? I’m not sure. No one is. That’s the problem. We really don’t know what impact advanced AI can have on our society. We don’t know if the positive will outweigh the negative or the other way around. Again, my guess is that it will all start with replacing paid laborers with software. You would hope that if society advanced to a point where all work could be done, all needs could be met, without relying on outmoded concepts like “labor” and “jobs,” then we as a society would benefit from that.
Unfortunately, I don’t see us reaching that Star Trek, moneyless, utopian society any time soon. Instead, I see this new technology, like most before it, being used to increase the profit margins of a very slim number of people while disparity and unemployment skyrocket. But the future has not been written. Maybe humans will surprise ourselves.