It can write a poem on any topic in any language in a matter of seconds. It can write decent jokes, dispense relationship advice and prepare you for a job interview. It even passed an exam at the Wharton School of Business. It’s ChatGPT, the amazing AI chatbot that is taking the internet by storm. But many are pushing back. A group of tech heavyweights has expressed concern it’s all advancing too far too fast, and could eventually replace humans in the workforce. Straight Arrow News contributor Jordan Reid shares her concerns about what other AI surprises await us.

Apparently, hundreds of prominent AI experts, tech entrepreneurs and scientists have come together to sign an open letter, calling for a pause on the creation of technologies that go beyond the abilities of Open AI’s language model GPT-4. 

The letter focuses on the risks such technology poses to humanity, including, yes, the aforementioned job replacement, but also explores its ability to spread misinformation and raises the possibility — albeit a distant one — that AI could replace humans and start a new civilization.

So the people in charge of the AI are noticing that it’s making exponential leaps at a shocking pace and saying, let’s just hold off on this for a minute until we have a better understanding of its capabilities and thus clearer guidelines for regulation. But no, no, when money is on the table, regulations are not what big companies like to talk about. Microsoft has invested $10 billion into AI and now Google is rushing out a competitor to ChatGPT. All of this before researchers (forget about the public) have even had time to wrap their minds around the potential uses and misuses of the previous model’s technology. Do we really want this Wild West situation in the hands of big tech, which hasn’t traditionally demonstrated that the care for public welfare trumps the desire for profit?

I get that it’s exciting. I get that its possibilities can feel irresistible. My children already take AI for granted in like a “whatever mom, it’s the future” way.

But sometimes the stories we tell in the dark are prescient. Sometimes we can feel the danger on the way before we can see it, before we can touch it. And I think that this is one of those cases. We all know that something is off and I just don’t want it to be a surprise when we find out what that something is.