The media is buzzing with talk of “Artificial Intelligence,” and about every pundit is weighing in with their opinion.
Of all the things I write about, this is probably the one subject area where I have legitimate credentials and can be considered expert. I’ve written code that incorporates AI, and it’s worked successfully for a number of organizations. The experience opened my eyes to the upside potential and the pitfalls of this exciting new technology.
I’ve read things submitted by esteemed members of academic communities to which I belong that were clearly written by AI. Articles that were a decent read but were held out as their authors’ original thought and work.
I’m proud to serve my alma mater, Ashland University, as an alumni board member. At our last meeting, we were reviewing applications for new board members, and it became painfully obvious that far too many of them were either completely generated by artificial intelligence or heavily augmented with AI material.
In one case, an acquaintance who is a generation younger than I published some prose that was generated by AI. It included references that he’s way too young to have experienced and would sort of work for a retiree from the UK, not a young guy from California. A clear AI “gotcha.” He didn’t like being called on it but later owned up to it privately.
Another is an acquaintance who is well educated, and a retired attorney. When I shared his work with my son Trey, he immediately picked up on the fact that it was AI generated. What’s remarkable is that I went online to the three most popular AI implementations, and after carefully framing the question, was presented with something nearly identical to what my acquaintance has published.
My son is a professor at the University of Miami and is leery of traditional writing assignments because they can be completely generated by AI, and as of yet there is no accurate test to determine the origin of the work. Artificial intelligence is what you use when you don’t have the real thing.
AI is nascent, and the rate of mainstream adoption is breathtaking. Its capabilities are astounding, even with today’s early implementation. It holds great promise for all of humanity if it does not dumb us down first.
The academic community is already acutely aware of AI’s influence, and they are finding ways to assess their students’ performance on the subject at hand, as opposed to assessing the students ability to manipulate AI. Our institutions of higher learning should be encouraging critical thought, and should avoid the trap of allowing students to “phone it in” via Artificial Intelligence.
There are technologies that have created fundamental changes for society – photography, the telephone, electric light, aircraft, radio, television, splitting the atom, computers and the internet. All of these things have made life better, and changed our culture. With the upside comes the possibility of using the new technology for great harm.
Science and technology have been and will continue to be a cultural force.
AI is also perfectly suited for Zoomers (Generation Z), who are maturing in an environment where the value of time has been depreciated, and where intellectual property is either nonexistent or included with the purchase of a physical product. Artificial intelligence will force changes in society, and the point of its inflection is now.
The Luddites won’t like it. This is going to affect all of our jobs and careers. There will be missteps and miscues. Many sacred cows will be slain as technology moves forward.
Some are already asking if AI will create a dystopian future as portrayed in the “Terminator” franchise or will lock us out like the HAL 9000 did in “2001 a Space Odyssey”. Make no mistake, artificial intelligence is truly a game changer. It’s not going away and legislating it will not stunt its growth. It will affect nearly every aspect of every human endeavor.
After a few bumps in the road, it will be commonplace and will remain under the control of mankind. We will master it as we mastered electricity, and moving humans quickly across the country by putting them into aluminum tubes with explosive liquid.
All human progress has required us to take risks. Artificial intelligence is a manageable risk.
With AI, we need to remember that we are its master and keep it suitably under our control.
So says the guy whose home network is named “SKYNET”.
