This article was also posted to the PunchLine Gloucester business magazine: https://www.punchline-gloucester.com/businessexperts/artificial-intelligence-should-we-be-scared-alex-walford-of-infrastar-cheltenham
Introduction
The rise of AI has left many people
feeling conflicted, leading to mass misunderstandings and lack of awareness of
the dangers and benefits of new technology.
For humanity to progress, become more
productive, safer and greener we need to adopt new technologies to help improve
the unique situations we now find ourselves in.
Unfortunately, many people fear artificial
intelligence, you may be one of these people; but you're missing out on the
forefront of innovation and ultimately; the future.
Why do people fear AI?
AI takes many different forms, some of
which can be perceived as being more terrifying than others. Under the most
recent developments, AI video has been one of the most unique but realistic
forms of AI art that is taking over the internet.
Other such technologies like Chat GPT, a
large language model (AI chat bot) is rapidly improving and can often be quite
alarming to those who are not in frequent contact with these systems.
These new AI tools can also be used in malicious
ways to effect everyday people, through automated email scams to fake AI
generated images that draw in crowds of people.
With such a numerous number of scams
possible, it is no surprise that people fear these new systems.
Should I fear AI?
This is the big question that has a lot of
controversy attached to it, people that have an enhanced understanding of AI
and machine learning typically do not fear its current capabilities to the same
extent that popular media such as movies and newspapers may portray it.
We should move away from the science
fiction anxiety that plagues us and understand the real-world use case of these
systems.
To conclude my own opinion to this topic,
I would argue that we need to remove the stigma associated with AI and
encourage the use of it in modern day society; this is already happening, and
AI is a large part of how the World works in 2024 yet there are still some
people that fear it.
What about the online petitions?
It is certainly no secret that various
campaigners have attempted to sign petitions to shut down or "freeze"
these AI companies to stunt their growth or restrict their capabilities.
Again, there is plenty of scientific
dispute when it comes to the validity of these petitions and many scare mongers
and people that lack understanding will typically promote or sign them.
However, there is certainly some validity
in these claims and there are certainly some things we should not necessarily
be scared of but should certainly keep a close eye on.
Then what should I care about?
Putting it simply, we all need to be aware
of the potential hazards of AI systems but should not fear them. There is
nothing we can do to stop their inevitable growth and our international dependence
on them.
What we should be more concerned about is
information and data privacy with these systems and how they are being used to
create unique scams or commit other crimes by malicious individuals.
With the forever-increasing number of
robots that now control and interact with the internet, we need to be aware and
actively avoid interacting with systems such as these.
Ultimately it is your decision on what you
wish to be concerned about and how you decide to protect yourself against AI or
its misuse.
Conclusion
To conclude our thoughts, we can state
that AI is a large part of our everyday lives and we will continue to depend on
it for the foreseeable future more and more.
Fearing new technology is nothing new but
I personally believe it should be embraced for the benefit of society.
To some extent, AI machine learning has
been around for much longer than most people realise; it's just that it's now
becoming much more advanced and useful to us.
If you're not already, consider using an AI system such as Chat GPT to improve the productivity of your work for light tasks such as creating lists or generating content that you would not otherwise be able to.
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