Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been making headlines in recent months, with chatbots like ChatGPT earning praise for their ability to produce human-like answers and ideas. However, according to a recent report by The New York Times, some researchers believe that these chatbots have moved beyond simply mimicking their underlying dataset. Microsoft researchers have observed that OpenAI’s ChatGPT has shown “sparks of artificial general intelligence” (AGI), which is the term for a machine that attains the resourcefulness of human brains. While not everyone agrees with this interpretation, Microsoft has reorganized parts of its research labs to explore this idea. Scientific American has also reported similar research outcomes, with one philosopher typing a program into ChatGPT to calculate a complex mathematical problem. The chatbot was able to solve the problem despite not being designed for multistep processes.
Developers continue to make advances with large language models (LLMs), with Google recently upgrading their Bard chatbot to the new PaLM 2 model. PaLM 2 uses almost five times as much training data as its predecessor, allowing it to perform more advanced coding, math, and creative writing tasks. OpenAI has also started to make plug-ins available for ChatGPT, including the ability to access the internet in real-time instead of relying solely on a dataset. Similarly, Anthropic has expanded the “context window” for their Claude chatbot, allowing it to have longer conversations and analyze more complex documents.
Concerns with Generative AI
While these advances in generative AI are impressive, they have also led to concerns about the technology. Some experts worry about the potential existential danger of AI, with fears that it could destroy democracy or humanity. Even the executives of leading AI companies, including Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI, have said they believe AI regulation is necessary to avoid potentially damaging outcomes. However, Axios reports that the likelihood of lawmakers in the US uniting and acting on AI regulation before the technology rapidly develops remains slim.
Some believe that these worries are overblown and that the fear of AI is a species of hype. Essayist and novelist Stephen Marche has dismissed the worry that AI is about to take over the world as anthropomorphizing and storytelling. He blames this in part on the fears of engineers who build the technology but who “simply have no idea how their inventions interact with the world.” However, there are also experts who view AI as a necessary human response to a global society and physical world of ever-increasing complexity. They see the positive impact of AI systems greatly outweighing their negative aspects if proper regulatory measures are taken.
Generative AI has made significant advances in recent months, with chatbots showing “sparks of artificial general intelligence” and developers making strides with large language models. However, these advances have also led to concerns about the potential existential dangers of AI. While some view these worries as overblown, others believe that proper regulatory measures must be taken to minimize the negative effects of AI. The hope is that society can learn to harness the benefits of AI while mitigating its dangers, much like we have done with fire.
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