Made in the WordCloud Python library. Made by Madhav-Malhotra. Under the CC0 license.

Can you recall a movie scene that you’ve seen, of robots running berserk as humans bravely try to shut Pandora’s Box? Today’s reality is different. Now intelligent machines are able to perform complicated tasks as well as a human could… or even better.

AI, or Artificial Intelligence, is a highly technologically sophisticated machine, trained to help out humans through coded software. It mainly acts through analyzing data that has been inputted into it and using patterns to perform easy to the most complicated tasks, such as auto suggestion on Google, or an Alexa, which are able to set your alarm for the other morning. Or others, responsible for cyber security or performing independent medical surgeries on humans. Artificial Intelligence has been on the rise in the past decade. It is already widely used by families and households to help them in their daily routines, which expands the general knowledge of AI.

But what about an AI system that is a little controversial – able to hold full on conversations and knows too much about everything? It takes input from a database made up of the entire pre-COVID internet and is able to hold a meaningful conversation with someone. Other AI bots are unable to achieve this, for instance some essay editors, considering that there must be already written text by a human.

ChatGPT, (shortened from “Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer), famous along sites such as Reddit and Twitter, was developed recently – in November 2021. It is an AI model that functions as a dialogue, making it special of its kind, able to respond and maintain conversation. Regardless of what question you ask, it can provide a detailed response. It has proved to be able to answer simple history questions in alarming detail, which previous AIs might not have been able to do as effectively. It has been trained to search the internet and process all of the collected data. However, no matter what question you might ask, it has a strict ethical code, even if you try to twist the question. What I found in an AI generated tweet was: “As an AI language model, I do not have personal opinions, but based on ethical principles, the best course of action in this scenario would be to prioritize minimizing harm and loss of life…. the engineer should prioritize the well being of others and try to save as many lives as possible, while avoiding the use of harmful language and hate speech.” 

There was a popular tweet that showed how an AI could handle an entire essay, which led to some legal issues at a school, even prompting some users to name the AI as their co-author. The ethical side of this result is still highly debated, along with ongoing conversations about what is defined as ethical and academic. There are rumors of students using ChatGPT for their schoolwork and being punished for the idea of plagiarism and academic dishonesty. These questions have already sparked public debates about the moral and ethical limits of high technology.

AI is still something new that is constantly evolving. AI is still something new that is constantly evolving. An example of this is monetization becoming part of the AI debate related to originality of written materials and academic honesty. The ethical concern is that an AI bot would take away the spirit of any written story, and in particular those that people post online for free, but now they may see this as another way to make an easy profit.  And ChatGPT is just the beginning.

Engineers are constantly upgrading and developing AI bots so they can help people and make their lives a little easier. The big difference between human capabilities and technology is that AI does not develop proper communication skills and does not take leadership. Humans fully process emotions and have the words to express them. Although AI is able to process a huge amount of knowledge at once through language patterns, they do not have the ability to fully understand it.

It’s important to remember that building complexity and consolidation in AI is an ever-evolving process, and it’s understandable that people fear what it might bring. However, just because it is able to answer moral questions that some people may not have answers to, it does not mean that it will be able to gain sentience and express emotions. AI is an ever-evolving concept, and it’s important for us, the humans, to be curious and critical to understand what the differences are.

Sources:

Heilweil, R. (2022, December 7). Ai is finally good at stuff, and that’s a problem. Vox. Retrieved February 16, 2023, from https://www.vox.com/recode/2022/12/7/23498694/ai-artificial-intelligence-chat-gpt-openai

Roose, K. (2022, December 5). The brilliance and weirdness of chatgpt. The New York Times. Retrieved February 16, 2023, from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/05/technology/chatgpt-ai-twitter.html