Artificial Intelligence: The Genie Is Out of the Bottle

For a few years now I've been reading about the advancements of AI. I didn't think too much of it until scientists made the big leap forward by giving AI human mannerisms and speech. That was ChatGPT.

I didn't want to think of the repercussions. 

Despite my homesteading kind of life, I'm not opposed to technology. I just don't like it doing too much for me.

I think back to my grandparents with their cast iron stove and their outhouse. Killing and cooking their own animals for food. Making everything from scratch, from clothes to bread.

Over the decades our hands have become so removed from the work of everyday life that some people think hamburger had always come wrapped in plastic.

Back in the 70s it was a big motivation for me to (re)learn how to do things from scratch if for no other reason than to have that knowledge tucked away.

Now we have artificial intelligence so adaptive that it can literally mimic humans.

Some scientists have called for a pause in developing this technology. My skeptical side believes they only want to slow the others down so they can catch up.

Either way, the genie has escaped its bottle. We will never put it back again and I'm sad about that.

Already students are using ChatGPT to cheat on papers, asking it to write a paper for them. Schools often employ a sophisticated program to ferret out plagiarism, but it won't work with AI. 

ChatGPT, like its many clones, draws information from every source available on the web. It can piece and adapt information to fill whatever is required by the student. It doesn't plagiarize. It paraphrases and extrapolates.

Businesses are starting to use AI too. Instead of hiring writers to supply content, now they simply put in a request after giving the program the parameters it needs to fill.

My only condolence here is that at least there won't be any spelling or grammatical errors. Before AI, businesses outsourced much of their writing work but apparently they never hired editors. Content was often riddled with grammatical and spelling errors. It's enough to drive an editor to drink.

But AI isn't so flawed. And now there's a new generation of ChatGPT that's supposed to be even more sophisticated and human than its predecessor.

How long before it writes a novel worthy of print?

As for art, I think this is where AI is going to flourish. Why employ real artists when you can program details into this technology and it renders almost lifelike characters for you?

There's been talk for years that even Hollywood is this close to creating realistic AI "actors" for the big screen that are as believable as humans. They are very close even now.

I don't know how you feel about it, but I think it's another nail in our collective coffin. The worst of it is, there's no turning back. Other than people like me who like to create things from scratch, what person wouldn't take advantage of AI if it makes their lives easier or cheaper than hiring a human?

As it stands it can take all my posts and articles since the 1990s and recreate an AI Maria character. Think about that for a moment. The web has enough information on all of us that it doesn't need us to produce anything. They can simply cherry pick and create new posts and articles in our voice and style.

I'd say it's a conundrum worthy of a novel, but such stories have already been written, and we hardly ever turn out well in them.

I'm waiting for ChatGPT to turn out a novel in the same vein. Dollars to donuts, I'll bet the AI is the hero.

Where do you fall on artificial intelligence? Will the machines rise up and take over?

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