Is AI getting out of hand?

As it is, I'm finding it useful for weighing up decisions, for example about buying second-hand electric cars. It is certainly useful for multi searches, coming up with answers far quicker and broader than I could research. But I do find it worrying how very quickly I'm getting used to this simple Google service. There are always bad people about and always will be, that is the risk - yet so much good is already coming from this innovation.

Honestly? Google’s search engine AI doesn’t bother me much. That’s a fairly safe use for AI (except, it does run the risk of bias or inaccurate data, but you get the same problem with Google’s search algorithm in general anyways)

Okay, so one thing I think we’re getting mixed up with on the other thread is confusing the different roles that AI can play. I think a lot of us see the words “Artificial Intelligence” and immediately think of chatbots. So we’ve already covered some issues with commercial chatbots (ex. emotional manipulation, dependency, crafting non-consensual sexually explicit images, the possibility of encouraging dangerous activity, etc), but obviously chatbots aren’t directly an existential threat. It’s not like ChatGPT is going to suddenly go crazy because someone asks it to make paperclips and destroy the world because of it. The chatbots don’t have that kind of power behind them.

That’s not what we’re worried about. It’s the possibility of general AI agents that are scary.

You’re absolutely right that there have been wonderful applications of AI thus far. I totally agree. But yeah, even if we didn’t have bad people about, AI still has a chance to become the “bad people” itself regardless of how much moral training we give it.

Honestly? Google’s search engine AI doesn’t bother me much. That’s a fairly safe use for AI (except, it does run the risk of bias or inaccurate data, but you get the same problem with Google’s search algorithm in general anyways)

Okay, so one thing I think we’re getting mixed up with on the other thread is confusing the different roles that AI can play. I think a lot of us see the words “Artificial Intelligence” and immediately think of chatbots. So we’ve already covered some issues with commercial chatbots (ex. emotional manipulation, dependency, crafting non-consensual sexually explicit images, the possibility of encouraging dangerous activity, etc), but obviously chatbots aren’t directly an existential threat. It’s not like ChatGPT is going to suddenly go crazy because someone asks it to make paperclips and destroy the world because of it. The chatbots don’t have that kind of power behind them.

That’s not what we’re worried about. It’s the possibility of general AI agents that are scary.

You’re absolutely right that there have been wonderful applications of AI thus far. I totally agree. But yeah, even if we didn’t have bad people about, AI still has a chance to become the “bad people” itself regardless of how much moral training we give it.