Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a modern innovation that started with Machine Learning in the 1940s, which at that time was used by the Allied Forces to decode encrypted messages from Nazi submarines. The Internet, incidentally, is also a product of the post-war conflict between two superpowers, Russia and the US. The Cold War accelerated their competition into space and at the same time, the science of computing. In the same way as the internet revolutionized or in the words of Thomas Friedman, flattened the world, AI is a technological revolution that can potentially change everything. Many white-collar jobs can be wiped out with superintelligence doing all the thinking for us.
Chat GPT (Generative Pre-Trained Transformer) is a revolutionary technology produced by OpenAI. OpenAI is partly financed by Microsoft. The company markets itself as an entity that seeks to promote the good of society or the quality of life through the use of (AI). How does Chat GPT function? Chat GPT functions in a conversational way. You lead it by asking questions. The question that you ask the platform is called a prompt. Chat GPT gives you answers based on its own guesses and predictions. It is different from a search engine. A search engine simply crawls into the different pages available on the web while a chatbot is trained to respond to questions or prompts based on datasets that are available in the internet.
What is the science behind AI? There is a basic difference between a neural network and the human brain. A neural network is a computer system that mimics or thinks like the human brain. One difference is that while a human being can be physically tired, a computer cannot be and so it can perform its functions exponentially without any biological limits. Imagine if thousands of computer systems are doing the thinking at the same time. By implication, this can have a big implication in the many facets of human life, both good and bad. The good can be expected in the field of software development that can help commerce and industries. But the point of the matter here is that AI is much, much bigger than that.
Artificial Intelligence will change the world. The futuristic world of robots and cyborgs that was predicted in the 70s by the likes of Michio Kaku is now here. What AI does not have yet have is machine autonomy. It hasn’t reached, at least not yet, the level of being conscious independent of the purpose designed for its user. The moment it attains that level, then robots will make decisions for us. Such level of consciousness is the highest form, which computers will be able to reach soon, according to software engineers and computer scientists.
What are the dangers? The danger comes from the harm it can do to people. Like I said, it can eliminate jobs, or even promote bias and disinformation, although its developers are doing what they can to prevent bad people from using it to promote hate and violence.
We also need to ask what are the implications of AI in the education sector. I think the main problem is that our education sector is not prepared. Huge human capabilities and technological competence are necessary. Relying on plagiarism detector programs would not be enough in the same way as there is no way of controlling or regulating the behavior of people online.
What should we do? I am against banning Chat GPT because it will only make the situation more problematic. Instead, what is needed is some form of regulation. Teachers and students should be trained on how to use Chat GPT as an assistive tool. It can help students and teachers alike in many ways to be more productive, as Sam Altman said.
The good part is there, like helping you understand complex topics, although the learning process is a much more complicated thing and nothing should replace the physical presence of the teacher in the classroom if we want to form better human beings. It is the only way for us to develop critically-minded humans who can fight injustice and make this world a better place to live in.
