From threat to ally: how the perception of AI has changed
Binary Heart | Photo by Alexander Sinn on Unsplash
On November 30, 2022, OpenAI released ChatGPT to the public for free, fundamentally changing how people and businesses perceive AI. The original Turing test was passed and the technology amazed the world. Experts and the public, from small businesses to large corporations, exchanged opinions and emotions ranging from fear to excitement. Where are we now? How has the perception changed? Stay tuned to learn more!
The AI revolution
Although OpenAI was founded in December 2015, the general public, aside from experts and tech enthusiasts, was largely unaware of their work. The release of ChatGPT, a powerful chat application built on top of the GPT model, changed that. Everyone could experience the power of the new technology by simply chatting with it. Subjects ranged from the weather to advanced physics to the meaning of life; ChatGPT could provide meaningful answers and engage in conversation. We quickly realized that the Turing test had been surpassed, and some were terrified...
Intelligent or not?
Many people were afraid of the new technology. Pop culture, movies, comics, and science fiction books have been telling us for years what might come next if superintelligence is achieved. The heated discussion was additionally elevated by entrepreneurs like Elon Musk, who was warning us about the dangers of AI and the need to regulate it.
Generative AI, at least for the common people, became the synonym of AI. Its ability to generate human-like text, images, music, and even code was amazing as it mimicked human creativity. But was it truly intelligent? The answer is NO! Its complexity misled us into thinking it was more capable than it is because no single human could match its abilities. However, despite this apparent power, it isn't truly intelligent. It can only generate responses and conclusions based on the data it has been trained on, without genuine understanding or reasoning. Every sentence created, every image generated, and every piece of music composed is derived from existing human knowledge and creativity. The machine only verifies if what was generated is statistically correct and coherent.
Early issues related to hallucination and bias are slowly solved and the technology is becoming more and more reliable, nevertheless, at its core, it is still the same technology.
Having said it all, why did Elon Musk try to pause the development of AI? It is simple - he understood what was said above from the start and wanted to win some time for xAI.
Infoshare
In May 2024 I had the pleasure to attend Infoshare in Gdańsk, Poland. It is one of the biggest tech conferences in the region where technology meets business. During the event, I had the opportunity to listen to the top voices in the industry talking about the future of AI and its application. All of them have agreed upon one thing - AI is changing the business and the way we work. Companies must start to adapt or otherwise would be disrupted by their competitors.
There will be no single AI that will have all the superpowers to solve all problems. Instead, the future is in the collaboration of multiple AI systems, each specialized in a different domain. The technology will be commoditized and available to everyone. Wherever they live and whatever problems they are facing, there will be intelligent tools available that they will be able to choose from and use.
Michał Sadowski of Brand24, a social media monitoring company, shared his experience in using AI in his business. In his presentation, he showed at least ten different tools they use to automate their processes and improve the quality of their services. And this is just the beginning!
Professor Aleksandra Przegalińska openly talked about GPTs (dedicated instances of specialized ChatGPT) that helped her write her latest book by being her creative partners, editors, and critics. Even if she had to add the secret sauce to the final version, the AI was able to do the less creative part of the job.
In the technical tracks, in my opinion, the discussions were not that interesting. Even though the technology is evolving, the problems are still the same. Grounding, RAG, performance, and relevance are still the main topics. The only difference is that the technology is more mature and the solutions are more reliable. All big players are investing in the technology and the competition is fierce. Even those who were skeptical about the technology are now investing in it. The future is bright - the customers will have the best tools available to solve their problems.
Cosmicon
Upon an invitation from Michał Rostański, I was a panelist at Cosmicon - an event dedicated to the future, fantasy, science fiction, and cosplay. In the panel, we talked about the threads and opportunities AI brings among a group of speakers from different backgrounds:
- Jarosław Juszkiewicz (moderator) - radio speaker and journalist,
- Michał Kłosiński - professor interested in the intersection between philosophical hermeneutics, object-oriented ontology, utopian studies, and game studies,
- Kamil Muzyka - PhD in law, translator, educator, researcher, an expert in space and AI law,
- and myself as a representative of business and technology.
The discussion was heated, yet even though we had different backgrounds, we all agreed that AI is a tool for the people and not a threat in terms of extinction of us as a species or taking over our jobs. The biggest threat we all agreed to was rather related to the more subtle areas of our lives - privacy, manipulation, and the impact on our psyche (both individual and collective).
To my big surprise, nobody even mentioned the vision pop culture and Hollywood has been feeding us for decades. Everyone also agreed that AI, as we know it today, is still not intelligent in its broader meaning - not able to plan, reason, and ask questions that might be answered. All that needs to be done by humans, and AI is just a tool to help us in the process.
Conclusions
The perception of AI has changed. As a society, we've learned that it is inevitable and will (or rather has) become an important part of our lives.
Instead of being afraid of this particular technology, we need to find ways to leverage it and use it to our advantage. The campaign by Fiverr in which they made a statement - "AI took my job - to the next level" aged very well.
It seems that the corporate business is also understanding it well and is ready for the change. Garnter's AI Opportunity Radar is the best evidence of how they see the transformation - AI is becoming a commodity that will be available to everyone.
What are your thoughts? Share your opinion in the comments below!