Can someone explain AI and why it’s set to change the world?

[Cheekyfuckerry]

So sorry to ask what is probably a ridiculous question but can someone explain what it is? How can it replace humans? What is chatGPT? (I may not have that phrase correct by the way)

I keep seeing threads about how our lives will change, how it will take over all our jobs etc, I can understand that maybe it will be able to answer phones and queries like the way bots on live chat / phones do now but what else is it able to do?

How can it change the world?

Hi OP. Im a sociologist who studies digital media and technology. Just posting to bookmark because this needs a long answer and I'm on mobile rn. I'll write you a proper answer in a few hours as this is v much something I want to talk about

James O'B was discussing this the other day. It's already changing the world - one guy called in to say that he was actively replacing employees with AI tech. The leading scientists are really worried that it could cause the end of humanity (haven't got to grips with the whys and how's, i'm assuming something similar to the Terminator movies...).

There's a lot of hyperbole around AI at the moment. Most of which will probably come to nothing. In reality, a lot of AI is being used already, you just don't see it. Banks, for example, use it in some of their controls to monitor accounts for fraud.

I think the end of humanity thing is based on the idea that if we invent something omniscient and omnipotent which is entirely based on logic, it is quickly going to see that humans are ridiculous and get rid of us.

The latest Diary of a CEO podcast is about this.

People will give better explanations but here’s mine. ChatGPT and others like it are like Google but on super steroids. Type in a question and it gives a response, and you can keep refining the questions too. People are using AI engines to write code so some IT developers are worried. I’ve seen tons of marketing people use it to write content, develop customer personas, even strategy documents - all things that would normally be time consuming can be done in seconds and don’t need the skills of a human to do any more. You can create fake photos and videos by just describing what you want. I’ve seen someone upload a transcript of an interview and have it analyse the personality of the interviewee based on language. Most web based content will soon be AI. It can analyse data and produce data visualisation. Already being used in recruitment for CV screening but imagine that also being the case with interviews etc. where your response is analysed by an AI bot and you don’t even meet a human in the process. Just imagine the number of jobs not needed, that’s one concern.

AI is already used in lots of areas. It’s being resisted generally in the medical field but that is another area where you could feed it a set of symptoms and blood results and get a diagnosis, say.

The danger comes by the fact these tools are machine learning meaning they become more intelligent over time. It’s not a case of Google which is just searching the web for an answer, there’s a far richer intelligence behind it. It’s also not an algorithm like Google, no one will fully know how it works as it’s not ‘programmed’.

I do think there’s cause for concern. Look at social media that wasn’t regulated in any way, no one knows how the content recommendation algorithms works (AI) and we have people being served up all sorts of content with no checks in place. Imagine that x 100000000.

There is a difference between AI and AGI (general intelligence). No doubt someone (or something) with more brain power than me will come along soon and explain it all.

The point of tech is it can do things better than humans. Robot surgery is better than human hands for the most intricate, delicate surgery as it eliminates human hand-tremors, for example, and can be programmed to degrees of millimetres in a way that humans simply cannot work. Robots in car factories build cars quicker and more effectively than the men who used to do the work did.

But these systems currently still rely on human brains to programme them and oversee the work. The danger of AI is it will ultimately be cleverer and more efficient than human brains (totally logical, no bias or emotion swaying its decision making, able to do complex calculations and predictions, never gets tired or stressed or bored or distracted….). Combine that with machines which are already stronger, faster, and more powerful than humans - as we’ve built them that way - and AI has the potential to outsmart us and destroy us as a species. The best sci-fi has a grain of truth in it, and this is something writers have been describing for years.

A simple example: as a teacher I asked chatGTP to generate a worksheet on a particular objective. I was then able to say ‘how do 3 different levels, now write some word problems on that object, now work out the answers’. A worksheet that would have taken me as a teacher or a company selling teaching resources an hour or so to create, took about 30 seconds. Obviously the potential impact here is a loss of jobs for people who create content like this.

i also had a go at getting it to write report comments and give written response to a child’s story they’d written, both were very usable though I haven’t actually used these for real yet 😂

the impact on my workload if tasks like this took seconds not hours would be huge.

⬆️ clearly I could have used it to spell/sense check the above post and didn’t 😂🤦‍♀️

I'd like to know how it's supposed to end humanity? What is the specific threat? Will it press the button for all the nukes in one go? Or will it be like black mirror with robots armed with guns? Or will all the surgery kill us, cars and planes crash , or will it poison the air/water? What are we supposed to be scared of? It won't take long for it to realise humans are the problem, but how will it deal with us?

I agree and also find this incomprehensible that we all seem to have the self awareness that humans are ridiculous and destructive etc but we never change . I find it fascinating.

My dc are learning the same things I was taught in the 80s about pollution and saving the planet, environmental issues. Being kind to others and yet as a race we continue to destroy the planet and each other.
The potential of AI to wipe us out is terrifying but ultimately I do think is that a bad thing I’m really conflicted.

Maybe it won’t be so dramatic. AI will just take over and we will be left with nothing to do and destroy ourselves. A bit like the film wall-e where all the humans are morbidly obese, unable to walk far and in poor health . We will just slowly fizzle out , AI will basically give us enough rope….

I suppose this is a hard one to predict as we cannot conceive of its intelligence and we’ve known nothing else, ever, other than being the most intelligent species on the planet. Pigs could have no comprehension of our intention to put them in pens and raise them for meat, as it’s so outside the scope of their brains (despite being a relatively intelligent species). If we could predict what AI might do, we could prevent it. But what if it’s just too smart for us to understand?

It will change forums like this, at the moment the posts are quite obvious but there will be any more of them

Isn't that "machine learning" though rather than AI? I think AI is on a completely different level.

There was something in the news this morning about AI causing a drone on an attack mission to kill its operator when the operator tried to abort the mission.
It was a simulation so no one was really killed, but the AI had been instructed to destroy all enemies that tried to interfere with its mission and included the operator in that definition of enemy when the operator tried to change the instructions.
Simulation - but gives one pause for thought as to what might happen in the real world.

Watch/read 'Terminator' OP

😎

Have you seen Westworld......

I read this only this morning https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/01/us-military-drone-ai-killed-operator-simulated-test

Actually, thinkkng about it, all it would need to do is turn off the electricity. No internet would cause chaos, no way of us communicating and organising to fight back/ defend ourselves. No electricity means no heating in cold countries, no air con in hot countries (yesterday's thread about 40 plus temps in Egypt was a bit frightening). No life saving equipment, no medicines, no mass food production, no clean water. The vast majority of people would be wiped out in a year or two. The Bear Grylls types among us might last a few decades as long as the machines don't actively target them. The planet might recover at least

what is chat gpt and how is AI going to change the world?

Chatbot GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is an advanced language model developed by OpenAI. It's designed to generate human-like text responses based on the given input and context. GPT models are trained on vast amounts of text data, allowing them to understand and generate coherent and contextually relevant responses.
AI has the potential to bring about significant changes in various aspects of our lives. Here are a few ways AI is expected to impact the world:

1. Automation and Efficiency: AI can automate repetitive and mundane tasks, freeing up human workers to focus on more complex and creative activities. This can lead to increased productivity and efficiency in industries such as manufacturing, logistics, customer service, and more.
2. Healthcare: AI can revolutionize healthcare by assisting in diagnosis, drug discovery, and personalized medicine. AI-powered systems can analyze medical data, identify patterns, and provide insights to healthcare professionals, leading to more accurate diagnoses and better treatment plans.
3. Transportation: AI is playing a crucial role in the development of autonomous vehicles. Self-driving cars can potentially improve road safety, reduce traffic congestion, and enhance transportation accessibility for people with disabilities or limited mobility.
4. Education: AI has the potential to transform education by providing personalized and adaptive learning experiences. Intelligent tutoring systems can analyze individual student performance and provide tailored feedback and guidance. AI can also facilitate distance learning and provide access to educational resources for learners worldwide.
5. Natural Language Processing: Language models like GPT can enhance communication and interaction between humans and machines. They can be used in chatbots, virtual assistants, and customer support systems to provide efficient and human-like responses, improving user experiences.
6. Climate Change and Sustainability: AI can contribute to addressing environmental challenges. It can optimize energy consumption, manage resources more efficiently, predict weather patterns, and help develop sustainable solutions.
7. Creativity and Art: AI is being used to generate music, art, and literature. AI-powered tools can assist artists, composers, and writers by providing inspiration, generating ideas, and even creating original content.

It's important to note that while AI has the potential for significant positive impacts, it also raises ethical concerns and challenges. It's crucial to ensure responsible and ethical development, deployment, and use of AI systems to maximize the benefits while mitigating potential risks.

(the above is ChatGPT's answer to the question in bold)

Yes I often think that we need electricity for everything - recently my house phone went to ?broadband from old lines. When the electricity failed I could use an old phone to call out to report failure. Can't now but obviously have our iphones - but how long will the battery last with 0 electricity after the apcolypse ?

There is already fear that ?Russia will tamper with the cables bringing windpower onshore from offshore farms. Imagine also a few bombs on main substations - would be fixed easily..

Sorry, what does Al stand for please?

wouldn't be fixed easily