I have to confess...the last blog that I submitted was completely written by artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence is, at its simplest form, a formula which combines computer science and datasets to enable problem-solving. Another way of saying it is that it is a bunch of choices that lead to what is considered to be a logical outcome. Here is an example. Say I go to Bing chat (a common AI source) and ask it for a spicy chicken breast recipe. The AI looks at a data set and finds all the recipes that have chicken breasts. Then it might look for key words such as sugar which would not lead to a spicy chicken breast recipe and eliminates them. It also searches for recipes that use chicken breasts and includes ingredients that would be considered "spicy".
When I did this experiment, Bing Chat came up with this recipe.
On one level AI isn't much more than a search engine. The danger is that it can also compose as well as just search for items. For example, I asked AI to compose a couple paragraphs about the differences between how women were treated in Athens vs Sparta in ancient Greece. The answer I got was remarkably similar to about 2 dozen essays I had just read from my 6th grade students. The sentences were all in the same order with two or three words switched around just to make it less traceable as plagiarism. Then, just to see how easy it was, I asked AI to write the paragraph at different grade levels.
As you can easily see, this AI chat stuff can easily be used to cheat at school. But it can be used in far more dangerous ways. From stock manipulation to a tool for hacking AI can easily be seen as something that can spin out of control.
I guess just because humans can do something doesn't mean that they should. The next several years are shaping up to be very interesting. Let me just ask my AI chat what I should do about it.
You know, between the sun these last couple mornings, seen as an dull orange orb against a impenetrable gray Alberta wildfire smoke-filled sky permeating southern Manitoba and the borderlands here; the barrage of Marvel Comics videos of super heroes at world's end, and the threatening rise of AI as described in your blog this morning I think it may be just as good to go back to bed and try to awake from all this impending doom and gloom. As Chairman Joe often says, "Good grief!"
ReplyDeleteMy parents taught me not to swear.
DeleteAI can come up with a fine recipe. People will always be needed to add the love.
Mr. HCC - As a former teacher, my short term solution is simple: hand-written, in-class essays. Empower the people.
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