I know theSync’s head honcho, Will Mapp, is a big booster of AI technology, but Elon Musk might be right for once.
I’m no luddite, but AI-abuse could lead to a breakdown in society. Only because humans are lazy and are quick to accept shortcuts. We already accept things the computer says as final without AI. Anyone who has dealt with an account representative or support agent and heard, “that’s what the computer says,” knows what I’m talking about. We already have to fight for what’s right when the machine is wrong.
The Washington Post has a great article highlighting how ChatGPT invented a fake sexual harassment scandal and cited the Washington Post as its source. (Subscription needed)
A California lawyer asked ChatGPT for a list of legal scholars who had sexually harassed someone. ChatGPT listed George Washington University’s Shapiro Chair of Public Interest Law professor, Jonathan Turley, falsely, as a legal scholar who had sexually harassed someone.
It gets worse. ChatGPT said Turley harassed a student while on a class trip to Alaska citing a March 2018 Washington Post article. WTF!
No March 2018, Washington Post article exists. No class trip to Alaska ever happened. Jonathan Turley has never been accused of harassing any students. Ever.
ChatGPT is a large language model. This means it can be asked questions or told to complete a task in plain English. Because ChatGPT has such a large amount of information it can generate answers to questions, or make s&*t up!
AI is an unregulated area. These new technologies can do many wonderful things, but they can also be rampantly abused. Technologies, like our very own publisher, often spend their nights and weekends inventing things and dreaming up ways their inventions can serve the public. But the real focus (and real money) is often spent on stuff that’s a net drain on society.
There are too many examples of trolls and bots spreading misinformation to unwitting consumers and these same trolls and bots have a new toy to spread their ill.
In the wrong forum, Jonathan Turley could have found himself in a quagmire of cancel culture and criminal investigations.
Elon Musk has been a complete ass on the Internet lately, but in this case I’m agreeing with him. This stuff needs to be regulated before it’s too late. The average people consumes information without knowing the veracity of its content nor the provenance of its sources. We can’t let trolls and other abusers already disrupt a fragile society.
I don’t really blame Italy for banning ChatGPT.
-MJ