Bill Gates, called by some the new Nostradamus, has very recently commented on the importance that AI will have for our lives. Gates assures that the development of this technology is “as fundamental as the creation of the microprocessor, the personal computer, the Internet or mobile phone”.
Bank of America says generative artificial intelligence will be the biggest technological revolution since electricity. Energy, weapons, medicine or spacecraft, all industries are already being transformed by a technology, they say, that in just seven years will contribute 15.7 trillion dollars to the world economy, more than the annual gross domestic product of the entire area. euro in 2022.
Other lesser-known experts but with proven knowledge in AI, such as Tom Graham, co-founder of Metaphysic, one of the leaders in the sector who has revolutionized Hollywood with the new technology that went viral with the fake Tom Cruise, affirms that we are in a moment in which everything Society — individuals, technologists, consumers and legislators — must take urgent action to prevent brutal damage to the public and democracies. Unfortunately, he states, and this for me is crucial, the laws are far behind what is being developed and will still take 10 to 15 years to arrive: “we are in a dangerous time.”
He states Times are speeding up exponentially. Investments in the metaverse are no longer of interest, now only the development of AI is of interest.
At some point in the near future, we will lose our ability to distinguish between fact and machine-created fiction, no matter how many forensic tools we can devise. This could happen according to some experts in the next 10 years, in this short time frame we will be able to create anything that a human being can imagine, with perfect visual quality in real time.
Gil Perry — CEO and co-founder of the Israeli company D-ID, is much more categorical “in one or two years, we will not be able to know what is true and what is a lie.” Generative AI technology will be able to change your face and even your environment in communication tools like Zoom in real time in a completely believable way in a few years.
Examples from the last week: Unless you have been living isolated these days, it is almost impossible not to have seen the photo of Donald Trump arrested by the police in the US, or the image of the Pope with that white down, so realistic that many people thought that were true. Right now, we can know it, but when will reality and creation become confused?
Who hasn’t heard of ChatGPT, which launched the Open AI foundation, which has put artificial intelligence at the center of the technology industry, pushing all the business giants to start a crazy race to dominate this revolution, a competition in which announcements no longer happen in weeks, but in days or even hours.
Everything we have seen from Google and others in recent weeks suggests that everyone was more prepared than it seemed and that they were waiting for someone to pick up the slack. And they have done it. The New GDocs and Gmail, the renewal of Microsoft Office. These are just some of the many new features that have been revealed recently. Also GPT-4, the new Open AI language model, a more human iteration of artificial intelligence.
Geoffrey Hinton, winner of the Turing Prize (the Nobel Prize in computing), has left Google at the end of April 2023. The “godfather of AI” explains that he has resigned from his job and tells us that “this technology works better than the human brain.” and no one has guarantees as to how it will be able to remain under its control.”
Needless to say, reading all these opinions reveals the inevitable two sides of the coin. The positive side, what AI, for example, can contribute to fields such as medicine, transportation or climate change and of course, the dark side of all this technology: its criminal application, this tool will also be extremely powerful to make the evil. A true atomic bomb within reach of anyone because, according to experts, the barrier to entry will be zero. It will not require any specialized knowledge or equipment.
Generative artificial intelligence, without being alarmist, is a force that will be completely uncontrollable in just a few years if we do not take some radical measures now. This is the role of Law and also that of ethics.
Lawmakers need to think about how to implement those laws as quickly as humanly possible to protect people from potential harm. In this sense, Europe has begun to work on a series of regulations on Data Protection, and by the end of the year they want to have the European Regulation that will regulate Artificial Intelligence completed.
Philosophers must be listened to in these moments where it is necessary to provide this technology with ethical content. How far can we go? What is the limit to AI? How much should humans influence machine learning? . Are we very close to an AI that thinks for itself? The HAL Computer in 2001 A Space Odyssey. Or in other words, could an Artificial Intelligence rise up?
That an AI begins to think for itself is one of the biggest fears when developing technology.
How to solve the problems that the substitution of human work for machines will cause in the world of work: The social security contributions of machines?
Research has recently been published on professions in danger of extinction due to generative artificial intelligence. The results indicate that approximately 80% of the workforce will be affected and some professions will disappear.
All this considering the problems that are already causing copyright in publications. movies, music, painting, in short in all the arts.
But not only a legal structure will be enough, the population will also have to be educated so that we can understand the scope of generative artificial intelligence. People must learn to be able to defend ourselves against all these new threats.
Finally, it is urgent that governments around the world must collaborate with the scientific community on urgent legislation that protects individual rights, establishing legal limits to try to stop the illegal use of this technology; also by states An example that some countries are already using: biometric facial identification systems in public spaces. To what extent will security curtail freedom?
Lisardo García Rodulfo