Are you among those who believe the AI boom to be a plague descending humanity into an irreversible descent? Or is the icon pinned on the homepage of your phone and arguably your most used app?
Either way, you'll want to read this one — either for the satisfaction a good old 'I told you so!' will get you, or, because this might be the PSA you NEED. And it comes straight from the horse's mouth.
ChatGPT CEO Sam Altman spoke at the OpenAI Podcast earlier this month, and in no uncertain words, expressed genuine surprise at how much of their life people had tied into being dependent on the AI messenger.
"People have a very high degree of trust in ChatGPT, which is interesting, because AI hallucinates. It should be the tech that you don't trust that much", he said, matter-of-factly. That being said, it's been a trial and error process for the CEO himself too. Sharing a personal anecdote, Sam revealed how when he turned a new parent, he found himself a little too logistically woven into the ChatGPT nexus as he made sense of his new role: "It was always on, helping me decide everything from nap routines to what to do about diaper rash", he said.
"But I had to remind myself it doesn't always get it right", he added and that's what anybody who finds themselves on the same wavelength should ideally take note of.
As a parting shot, Sam articulated on how dependence on and in the real world, is very necessary in making sure that the power remains vested in us: "We need societal guardrails. We're at the start of something powerful, and if we're not careful, trust will outpace reliability", he said.
Running things through ChatGPT, asking it for help in maneuvering certain situations and other such instances are perfectly fine. However, it's best to take most of what comes up as suggestions and pointers instead of the final world. And just because it sounds human, doesn't in the least bit make it so. AI ethicist at the University of Toronto, Dr. Melissa Tran captures the dilemma well: "It speaks like a confident human. That alone makes people feel like it knows what it's talking about even when it doesn't".
So what's your stance on ChatGPT now?