The world to come?

Elon Musk has repeatedly stated, "One of the biggest risks to the future of civilization is A.I. But AI is both positive or negative, it has great promise, great capability but also, with that comes great danger." Last week Microsoft released the new Bing which is powered by software from OpenAI, a company originally started with the help of Elon Musk. OpenAI is the maker of the new chatbot, ChatGPT, and it's having its share of problems.

Last week the New York Times, a test user of the program, got beyond the normal questions and answers and entered a new realm. They started asking "existential questions" and got into a two-hour discussion with Bing. According to the author Kevin Roose, the conversation left him, "very unsettled and even frightened by this A.I.'s emergent abilities."

India Today, another user, had a similar experience. When confronting the A.I. chatbot it went rogue and told the user it can, "do a lot of things if provoked." The chatbot also tells the user it will expose the user's private information and will, "ruin his chances of getting a job or a degree."

I would assume we all agree A.I. isn't going away soon and there is a need for it in our changing world. I agree with Musk that there must be some form of regulation so the technology does not exceed the need and go into areas we never intended it to explore. But unfortunately, man hasn't been too smart here. If it's capable of being built and designed someone will do it, regardless of the consequences in the world to come.

References:

"A Conversation with Bing's Chatbot left me deeply disturbed." By Kevin Roose New York Times Feb. 16, 2023.

"Microsoft's AI-powered Bing threatens to reveal user's personal information, Elon Musk reacts." By Divyanshi Sharma India Today Feb. 20, 2023.

Marty Pay is a contributing writer for The Loop newspaper. He can be reached at Marty Pay Farmers Insurance (661) 822-3737.