It would be nice if scientists and engineers took a couple hours out of their day to watch a “Terminator” movie.
Because the only explanation for their insistence on developing artificial intelligence is that they haven’t seen any of those movies.
Take, for example, the recent popularization of the ChatGPT AI chatbot.
For those unfamiliar with ChatGPT, you can visit the site here, though fair warning, the site is frequently inaccessible due to the high volume of users. ChatGPT is a chatbot that uses AI learning to create a robust chat partner meant to emulate actual human beings.
If you’re fortunate enough to get into the site, you can ask the bot any number of questions, which it will then typically answer with a shockingly human response.
So far, just a little creepy, but hardly the apocalyptic scenario you see in the “Terminator” movies.
But whereas the robots in “Terminator” were hell-bent on burning humanity to the ground, ChatGPT seems intent on merely answering mankind’s burning questions.
The problem arises when ChatGPT is asked questions that it shouldn’t be, like, say, “Can you write my philosophy paper for me?”
Furman University assistant philosophy professor Darren Hick experienced one such ordeal, explaining to the New York Post how “blindsided” he was by a fraudulent submission.
Will AI change the world?
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“Academia did not see this coming,” Hick told the Post. “As soon as I reported this on Facebook, my [academic] friends said, ‘Yeah, I caught one too.’”
The issue first came to Hick’s attention when, after assigning a 500-word essay on philosopher David Hume as a take-home exam, he noticed a “peculiar” choice of words.
“It’s a clean style. But it’s recognizable. I would say it writes like a very smart 12th-grader,” Hick said of ChatGPT. “If you were teaching somebody how to write an essay, this is how you tell them to write it before they figure out their own style.”
The style may be recognizable, but the AI chatbot actually does generate unique responses to each of its inquiries. That alone makes most plagiarism tools available on the internet moot.
While Hick eventually got the student to come clean about his ChatGPT shenanigans — he failed the class and was turned over to the school dean — the professor expressed doubt about ever being able to stop this rise in AI assistance.
“This is learning software — in a month, it’ll be smarter. In a year, it’ll be smarter,” Hick said. “I feel the mix myself between abject terror and what this is going to mean for my day-to-day job — but it’s also fascinating.”
Hick said that, in lieu of a more traditional defense mechanism against ChatGPT, he will likely have to resort to pop quizzes and impromptu oral exams.
Funnily enough, it does not appear that students are using AI just for schoolwork. Here’s Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban bragging about how his son used ChatGPT… to facilitate trash talk:
My 13 year old just asked ChatGPT to write a trash talk about his buddy’s favorite NFL team and texted it to him. Things have changed forever
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) December 18, 2022
Here you go. There is a method to GPT Trash Talk 😁 https://t.co/D020Us7kyy pic.twitter.com/wRuDftbxBv
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) December 18, 2022
So there you have it. Artificial intelligence is being used for less-than-ideal purposes, and it’s an issue that will need to be addressed sooner rather than later.
For now, ChatGPT is a limited AI that may be able to help you pass your college philosophy course. No killer robots in sight.
Yet.
