Artificial Intelligence

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

The Earth could fit into our Sun

1.3 million times. Human beings don’t even register on the scale of the universe. We are but a flicker of consciousness in the vast, unfathomable void of space.

But this flicker of consciousness has the ability to think. We don’t just think, we use reason and logic. We are constantly asking ourselves questions and we don’t stop seeking the answers even if it takes years or even decades before we find the answers.

Our thinking determines our existence. What we believe becomes our reality; often this reality is based on incorrect assumptions.

Down through the ages we have had remarkable people who have had the ability to think the unthinkable, often putting their own lives at risk. We don’t like people who challenge our beliefs. Don’t rock our boat!

Occasionally a new concept is so obviously correct we accept it instantly. Francis Bacon, 1561-1626, English philosopher, said: “It appears incredible that any such discovery should be made, and when it has been made, it appears incredible that it should so long have escaped men’s research.”

Heather van Wyk

For example, the Greek philosopher Socrates gave us the concept of democracy but it took over two thousand years before the right to vote was not based on a person’s gender.

Compare this to man’s first flight. Only 66 years later, man stepped on to the Moon. A generation earlier that would have been an unthinkable occurrence.

The title of this article is Artificial Intelligence, so what has what I have written so far got to do with Artificial Intelligence? Nothing, because Artificial Intelligence is not intelligence at all! It is an electronic programme.

AI is incapable of original thought. It is simply a mouthpiece for our own input. It is effect, not cause. ChatGPT (generative pretrained transformer) cannot think for itself; it cannot even understand what it is saying. It can only learn from the data we give it. In essence it is a reflection of human thinking.

Ask AI for information about George Frideric Handel’s Messiah and it will tell you that it was composed in 1741 but it can’t explain why nearly 300 years later the Hallelujah chorus still generates such a profound euphoric response from listeners.

AI is devoid of emotions. Ask for information on stage four cancer and within seconds it will give you the facts, but it has no empathy or concern for those who are suffering from this disease.

Artificial Intelligence draws on a data base which contains not just what is morally right but also all that is humanly debased and hateful, and it is incapable of recognising the difference. If you request “hate speech” you will get it.

Since beginning this article I have watched the “Sunday” programme on Artificial Intelligence. It left me feeling deeply disturbed. AI apps have the ability to make people who don’t even exist, and show them saying and doing things that were never done — and it looks real.

There are now hundreds of apps on the market. Because there are trillions of dollars to be made from these apps, the companies that are the first to hit the market make the most money — so they are putting profits before people.

This technology has been released with no thought given to the huge possibilities for misuse. It can create images of well-known people, for instance politicians, and make them say (in their own speaking voice) and do things that they would never ever do. It all looks as though it is real. The possibilities for using it to scam people are endless.

The companies producing these apps are now playing catch-up and are trying to put in place safeguards and filters — which unfortunately is like closing the gate after the horse has bolted.

There are few legal regulations in place to halt this misuse or to trace and prosecute the perpetrators.

I have not personally worked out a mathematical problem for over 50 years — I just reach for the calculator on my phone. But at least I know that the answers I get are correct.

Will future generations fall into this trap with Artificial Intelligence? Will they accept the information supplied even though they know that their AI has no idea whether the information given is true or false?

We even have a phrase to describe this phenomenon, it is called “AI hallucinations” because the AI will confidently say things that are false, as it cannot discern between what is fact and what is fiction. It makes decisions based on “probabilities”. This is dangerous.

Artificial Intelligence is not intelligence at all because it is not conscious; it has no self-awareness. It does not use logic or reason. It is incapable of original thought or of thinking the unthinkable.