Nick’s Notes - Artificial Intelligence

There has been a steady increase in the discussions surrounding Artificial Intelligence (AI) lately and I have been noticing some positives and negatives from the recent developments of this technology. For a long time, AI has been seen as a “boogeyman” or hazardous creation. A glaring example of this is in sci-fi movies where the AI almost always turns deadly. Skynet from Terminator might be the most obvious example of this trope.

Although there may be some problems with the modern AI that has been developed, there is certainly no chance of an evil one emerging any time soon. That being said, artists have been very upset at the increasing number of AI programs being used to develop art. Some have pointed out the disingenuous nature of producing art based on inputs to a program and then claiming ownership of the work. There is also the increasing number of copyright infringement lawsuits against AI programs as artists claim they are “ripping off” their work.

Oddly, there is another AI program that is potentially being seen as a tool by professors. One such professor in B.C. said that ChatGPT could help students improve their writing and push institutions to develop better ways to teach that go beyond just getting students to regurgitate facts in a written essay. GPT stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer.

According to the Open AI website that hosts ChatGPT, they have “trained a model called ChatGPT which interacts in a conversational way. The dialogue format makes it possible for ChatGPT to answer followup questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises and reject inappropriate requests.”

Reactions from elsewhere in the education system have been mixed, with several school districts in the U.S. banning the artificial intelligence chatbot, concerned students will use the text generator to cheat or plagiarize.

Whether or not you are for or against the rise of Artificial Intelligence becoming a part of daily lives or not, it is something everyone will soon be hearing about as more of these programs are developed for a variety of purposes. Personally, I find the technology too new to truly take a stance on but I will continue watching it closely. Those interested in trying out ChatGPT for themselves can visit openai.com/blog/ chatgpt to ask the AI questions.