Two years ago, or even one year ago, I would scoff at the suggestion artificial intelligence (AI) was the next big technological innovation that would have an affect on us all.
Oh boy how things change!
I will admit now that I was wrong and was pretty ignorant towards AI.
I didn’t want AI to innovate because I didn’t understand it.
AI is massive and the rapid pace of its development and how it innovates the way we do things will be noticeable.
Google, Microsoft, Meta and industry darling OpenAI - who develops ChatGPT - are in the process of innovating and implementing AI into the services we use today.
Think web browsers, social networks, instant messaging and search engines.
None of these are new innovations on their own but the underlying technology which runs them is currently undergoing radical change.
All of these things we already use on a daily basis for work and play.
Search engines look set to become the biggest beneficiaries of AI.
No longer can we simply rely on one search engine for all answers.
Through deep integration of AI into Google and Bing search engines, and ChatGPT, there’s never been a better time in history to be a researcher.
The amount of information we have available to us is truly staggering.
Search engines are growing up and are no longer the services we’ve become accustomed to and taken for granted for decades.
AI will enable search engines to truly harness the information they have access to and this will require a change of consumer habit when it comes to internet search.
Whether you are aware of it or not, at some point you will be using services which have implemented AI.
It’s much like before cloud computing become mainstream.
Unlike my initial attitude towards AI, I embraced cloud computing from its earliest phase.
Primarily because I understood it as it was not exactly a new concept.
In fact, cloud computing is an old networking concept which existed before, it just never had a fancy name to it.
Critics suggested consumers would refuse to have their data put into “the cloud”.
Now, cloud computing is not just integrated into every aspect of the services we use, but the cloud computing sector has become influential to the industry as a whole, including the NASDAQ.
Most normies still don’t have any understanding of cloud computing and despite their resistance to understanding it, little do they realize their data is already in the cloud.
Cloud computing is less about consumers and more about industry.
It’s an indisputable fact that cloud computing has innovated the entire industry.
AI and machine learning will do the same.
There’s no point sitting on the sidelines complaining it’s taking over and will make us powerless, because it’s naive and doesn’t reflect how AI is being implemented and how consumers will ultimately benefit from it.
Legislators right across the globe are currently grappling with AI and how to regulate it.
Regulation may be a good thing but it must not be so tightly controlled that it stifles its innovation.
It’s a delicate balance.
It may take some time to get it right and I really don’t think anyone expects legislators to strike the right balance on their first attempt.
The internet has been accessible to consumers for decades, yet we are all still trying to strike the right balance with open information, privacy and national security as there are so many conflicting variables.
Regulation of AI will require the same kind of nurturing over the decades to come.
Some will always argue that AI is taking over and we must impede its rapid pace of development to allow us to get a grip on the technology.
We already have a grip on it but the real moral question is how far do we push the limits of its potential.
I argue as long as AI is still producing two entirely different solutions for the exact same problem, we’re reasonably safe and in control.
What I think is a definite gray area is training AI using copyrighted literature and other creative works, as is being done by Meta.
This is not something I’ve allocated too much in-depth thought to yet, so it’s difficult to form a view.
Copyright and rights of creators must always be protected, however is training AI using creative works really a violation of copyright?
Once trained, do we consider the output of the AI to be derivative of the source works, or does it become something entirely new?
Where is the line between something that is derivative and something that is new, and who is responsible for drawing the line?
These are really difficult questions.