AI as it currently stands, isn't good

I’ve been somewhat reticent about my feelings on AI because I believe that it doesn’t do any good to discredit something without first understanding it. But I have felt for a while that there is something deeply disturbing about the recent AI developments and all the hype. I’ve been digging around, looking at research, reading and watching pieces, and have come to some conclusions that I felt were important to highlight.

You can disagree with me or tell me I got things wrong. I also know people use AI for various reasons and I’m not looking shame anyone. I do believe AI is a useful tool, just not in the way it’s being promised to us.

• ChatGPT or Large Language Models (LLM) are not search engines

• LLMs use stolen work from writers and artists, creating existential risks to their job security

• We are vulnerable to believing LLM are sentient or correct because it can sound so coherent and that is a WAY bigger threat than robots taking over the world

• The term “AI” oversells the tech’s actual capabilities, resulting in bloated expectations with few ways to track results

• ChatGPT’s creators follow a doctrine of long-termism — a modern sci-fi belief that has its roots in Eugenics

• The letter that said we must stop AI work for 6 months is deeply flawed and may have been created to push long-termism beliefs and distract from today’s AI issues

• Filtering out content involving “child sexual abuse, bestiality, murder, suicide, torture, self-harm, and incest” in ChatGPT’s responses has required a massive amount of human underpaid labor

• Without regulation, LLMs can be used to contaminate the internet with non-content and spam making it a worse place to be and a worse place to find reliable and accurate information

• AI tools pose serious harm to marginalize communities (and the women who have been speaking up about it are all being shut down)

Obviously, this is all still super new, everything might change in six months but at this point, I just felt like it was important to list out these issues to fully come to terms with my icky feelings. Hopefully, this helps you too!

Also wanted to add two interviews from both sides that I think are best seen together:

Interview with the AI Ethicists who are calling out current issues with AI:

Interview with the CEO of OpenAI calling AI the equivalent of a “Nuclear Bomb” but also that he wants it to be “free and accessible to everyone.”