By Adam Pease
The Evolving Landscape of AI Risk
The media’s spotlight has been increasingly turning to cover the dangers and risks of generative AI.
This article discusses recent concerns about AI, both in government and media, and considers the implications for this growing sector.
A New AI Risk Report
Recently, TIME magazine obtained an American government-funded report that covered the risks of new generative AI systems. The report went as far as to compare the current race to artificial general intelligence to the Manhattan Project and the dangerous effects of nuclear weapons and energy.
Today, this parallel is invoked frequently to warn against the potential risks of AI, which range from misinformation to more extreme narratives about rogue AI systems disrupting human civilization. These concerns go hand in hand with attempts to seek regulation, and this new report suggests that the federal government may soon be turning its eye to regulate this emerging set of technologies.
AI Risk Today
Is generative AI inherently dangerous? Like many technologies, the risks posed by generative AI depend very much on the technology’s user. For bad actors, generative AI does present an opportunity to do anything from spreading misinformation online, to impersonating individuals and advanced methods of hacking.
While these concerns are serious, the ability of society to adapt to technological change by developing new norms, ways of thinking, and forms of organization, should not be underestimated. In the case of misinformation, for example, the proliferation of deepfakes may have a countervailing effect, causing people to become more critical and suspicious of the media they consume.
Bottom Line
While generative AI poses risks now, it’s unclear whether the path to dealing with these problems lies with government regulation, or perhaps with increased user literacy about the nature of AI and the dangers it can create.
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Since the launch of OpenAI’s GPT service, organizations have been scrambling to put out their own copilot service.
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