When pioneers in the field of artificial intelligence start to worry about their creations, we should pay attention. But does humanity really have reason to fear, or is it just an age-old anxiety?
After sitting through two hours of testimony that Sam Altman and other artificial intelligence experts gave to the US Congress last month, Senator Josh Hawley took his turn at the microphone to summarise what he’d heard.
“So I’ve been keeping a little list here of potential downsides or harms or risks of generative AI, even in its current form,” the outspoken Republican senator for Missouri began. He was referring to the new breed of content-generating, or “generative” AI systems, like the ChatGPT chatbot that Altman’s company OpenAI had unleashed on the world last November.
John DavidsonColumnistJohn Davidson is an award-winning columnist, reviewer, and senior writer based in Sydney and in the Digital Life Laboratories, from where he writes about personal technology. Connect with John on Twitter. Email John at jdavidson@afr.com
