Artificial intelligence has become the buzzword this year, with many AI products popping up in the market. The most popular of these is ChatGPT, which has started to change the face of AI technology. Even Google has jumped on the bandwagon by announcing its own AI software called Bard. BuzzFeed is not far behind, and it has recently announced that it will start using AI technology to actually produce content for its site and social media. Upon this announcement, BuzzFeed stock rose 150%, showing investor confidence in the technology. But is it really all that? Is it the new innovation in technology, or are there still bugs that need to be sorted out?
Understanding Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence isn’t really a new technology. It’s something that has existed for years, even decades, already. It’s even been in pop culture media, such as movies like Terminator and 2001 Space Odyssey. The idea that a computer can become smart enough to think for itself and learn from its environment is something many have dreamed about. Some of the brightest minds have tried and created some form of artificial intelligence. The difference is, none of these previous versions have seen such sophistication as the AI software today.
Artificial intelligence has been used in many software and technologies to determine people’s behaviors. Some AI software has been used to predict outcomes and even customer choices based on information or intelligence it has been fed. But today’s AI is different. ChatGPT, for example, is able to understand direct speech and context, allowing it to actually provide the most accurate answers based on questions it is asked by people. The more you ask, in fact, the more it is able to determine your behaviors and respond accordingly.
Today, you can even find AI technology to do almost every task. Want regular social media posts for your marketing campaign? There’s AI for that. Looking for a way to make presentations quicker but with a great design? You’ll find AI for that as well. There is almost nothing that AI cannot do. It can even produce art and designs.
Is AI Reliable?
With the rise of AI, it has had its fair share of detractors. Many of AI’s critics say that AI cannot truly grasp how a person thinks, acts, or, especially, feels. They say that AI-generated art or writing lacks the individuality and passion of a human being, let alone a seasoned artist or writer. This is mostly true. The current drawback to artificial intelligence technology today is that it can only work on the information it is given. So if you don’t feed it information, it cannot really learn and adapt. While the internet does exist and AI software can get information from the world wide web, it really lacks the depth and understanding that a human brain would have.
And all that access to the internet leads us to another problem. Fake information. There is so much fake and false information on the internet that the AI sometimes takes it to be true without much thought. AI is unable (at least at this moment’s level of technology) to discern what is good information and what is false. This can be problematic, especially for individuals or entities that may use these AIs to ask about information, and these people would be provided with unreliable information. Even a famous YouTube doctor recently tried ChatGPT, and while it provided the right information for the most part, it determined there was some information it provided that was either missing or wrong altogether. Imagine asking AI about a medical condition and having it misdiagnoses you. Even doctors who do their due diligence can misdiagnose a condition, what more can an untrained AI do?
How Then Should We Look at Artificial Intelligence?
The best approach to artificial intelligence, or AI, is really one of balance. Yes, use AI as a tool, but it should not be the be-all and end-all for your needs. For example, if you ask AI to write you a blog, expect that the blog article that it writes is not going to be perfect. You will still need to proofread what it produces, fact check the information the article provides, and, of course, edit as needed.
While having to go through all that may seem tedious, and you’ll be tempted to just submit articles as is, I can tell you that if you want to keep quality in check, then you need to make changes and edits. This is probably the best use of the technology, where the AI itself goes hand in hand with human intervention to produce some quality work while also cutting time in half.
Conclusion
While detractors of AI more often react to the fear of AI replacing the work they do, it is better to embrace the technology and use it to their own advantage. It can create new innovations, allow people to become more efficient in their work, and usher in a new way of doing things.
