There's been a lot of . It's both fascinating and troubling, so I've been watching developments with great interest.
I thought I'd give it a go.
Turns out most of us have been .
If you use a voice remote with your television, you're using AI to change channels. If you use traffic direction apps like Waze to get somewhere, you're using AI. If you ask Siri or Alexa a question or demand an action, you're using AI.
In recent years, however, many started using AI in a new way — after realizing its capabilities include rapid-fire research and writing.
School papers that once took humans days or weeks to complete can now be researched and written in minutes or even seconds.
That's scary.
So I jumped into the wild AI world to get a closer look. My application of choice was ChatGPT by OpenAI, which is the most popular AI tool at the moment. Others include , and .
I'm as excited about AI as I was when I moved from a manual Royal typewriter to an IBM Selectric, or when I moved from an Atex mainframe computer to a desktop and then to a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100 "portable." Each move was more useful for my specific needs.
Still, I wanted to proceed cautiously with AI. So, I asked ChatGPT a few basic questions about something I know a bit about: me.
"Who is Will Sutton?" I asked.
In part, the response was "Sutton is an accomplished journalist and educator, with a career spanning more than three decades. He has worked as a reporter, editor, and columnist for several newspapers, including The Sacramento Bee, The ƹϴý & Observer in Raleigh, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Sutton has also taught journalism at several universities, including Grambling State University, Louisiana Tech University, and the University of Louisiana at Monroe. He is a highly respected figure in the field of journalism and has received numerous awards and honors for his work, including induction into the NABJ Hall of Fame."
Ah, no.
Putting the adjectives and superlatives aside, ChatGPT got some of it right and some of it wrong.
I've visited and have friends at the Sacramento Bee and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, but I've never worked at either news organization. I've visited Louisiana Tech a bunch and taken classes at the University of Louisiana-Monroe, but I've not taught at either institution. I'm a longtime member of the National Association of Black Journalists and its past president, but I'm not in the NABJ Hall of Fame.
Clearly, ChatGPT doesn't know where I work now, and it doesn't know I worked in New Jersey, Philadelphia, Gary, Raleigh, Grambling and Monroe.
One recently reported that 35% of businesses are already using AI and another 42% are considering it. That means it's likely that most of us working stiffs will soon be using AI at work — or working near someone who's using it.
As excited as I am about AI generally, and AI writing in particular, I'm concerned about younger folk latching onto these new tools and losing the all-important skills of critical thinking, basic English and good writing.
More than 350 engineers, executives and researchers who work with AI are so concerned about what they see that they jointly issued a warning: "Mitigating the risk of extinction from A.I. should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks, such as pandemics and nuclear war,” the group, calling itself the Center for AI Safety, said in its May .
Extinction?!
That's heavy stuff.
I don't want to believe we'll lose our lives or our world because of AI. People predicted the end of radio when television came along, and some predicted traditional radio's demise when satellite radio came along. More predicted the end of movies when DVDs came along, and some predicted the end of cinema when streaming came along.
That said, new technologies always present new challenges.
Comedian Sarah Silverman and others recently filed a alleging copyright infringement. Silverman and authors Christopher Golden and Richard Kadreyclaim the app captured their intellectual property and used it without permission.
Wassup with that, ChatGPT?
FYI, I also asked ChatGPT to write my AI column. Don't worry — you're not reading it. Let's just say I don't think ChatGPT is ready to be me. You can see Artificial Will Sutton online.
Still, I think we need to heed the warnings and adopt guardrails to hold on to our ability to think, read and write — and to our lives.
