A few months ago my Dad borrowed my car and hit a sign in an underground parking. The sign got damaged, but my Dad said he didn't notice anything. The insurance company got involved and said there's a video to prove it. So I went to look at the video. Thanks to the installed security camera, we soon had clarity – yes, my dad had damaged the sign. Case closed.
A few days ago I talked to my good friend José, the philosopher from AHIMSA. We were wondering about possible effects of AI that we'll see in the not too distant future. Midjourney, Chat GPT, Observe, TensorFlow – are they just the latest fashion we can choose to wear, or are they gonna make everybody naked once and for all?
In this context, naked means that we become highly vulnerable. We are entering a field that might seem familiar, but in reality we have no idea where this journey will take us. Anything can happen. Artificial intelligence has the power to expose us by having already today more access to our data than we can or want imagine, and AI exposes us to risks and dangers – and opportunities! – we are still totally underestimating.
In the above example of a video proving my Dad’s guilt, I didn’t hesitate one second to accept the authenticity of the video. But in a year from now, or even much sooner, my question to the insurance company would be: How are you going to prove that this video isn’t made up? Because it’s becoming more and more impossible to distinguish reality from fiction.
You need a businessplan? Help with writing an email? A diagnosis? My daughter, who is a second year medical student, recently had to do a case study for homework. She was given the results from blood test, MRT scan, etc. and had to come up with a diagnosis and treatment plan. As an experiment, she put all information into Chat GPT and a few seconds later she had diagnosis and treatment plan perfectly written out. It would have taken her at least 1,5 hours to do it herself, and she told me she couldn’t have done it any better.
There are dark and sinister scenarios too. Imagine a greedy businessman wanting to harm his competitor so he comes up with a video of his competitor raping a woman in his office. How is the competitor going to prove that it's a deepfake?
Already today, professionals can make such videos. It's just a matter of time – currently they might still take one month to do it, but looking at the speed at which AI is evolving, in a year's time it won't need a professional working for one month, but instead anybody will be able to produce any film (song, text, image, plan) almost instantly!
If our consciousness was a little bit more evolved, okay, I might not be too worried. But all we need to do is look at what happened with nuclear energy. It carries a huge potential to make life easier, but now we have several superpowers threatening each other and boasting about who has the biggest rocket. It's like giving a child a loaded gun as a toy – is a child really ready for handling a gun?
The AI acceleration has only just begun. Are you ready?
Ultimately, it doesn't matter whether you are ready. Neither does it matter whether you like it or not. It's happening. Whatever that means.
PS: I put the above text into Chat GPT and asked it to write a poem about it. The programme started generating the verses one second later, and eight seconds later it was done. Here it is:
In a world of AI, we stand,
Naked and vulnerable, in demand.
Exposed to risks we cannot see,
In a journey that's uncertain and free.
An enemy with an axe to grind,
Can use AI to manipulate our mind.
Our data in the hands of machines,
Can be used to fulfill evil schemes.
The power of AI cannot be denied,
It's time we accept this truth with pride.
But are we ready for this ride?
In this journey, we must abide.
The future of AI is still unknown,
But we must embrace it and make it our own.
For only then can we truly thrive,
And keep our privacy and reputation alive.
PSS: The above image was generated in Deep Dream Generator based on this poem.
PSSS: Did I mention it's just the beginning?
PSSSS: I love you.
