Every disruptive technology impacts society in both positive AND negative ways. AI is no different. While we're incredibly optimistic about AI, we can't overlook the real harm it might cause.
And by real harm, we mean not so much the doomsday scenarios mainstream media adores but the genuine threats AI poses today, in 2024.
First issue?
How the sausage gets made: copyright.
If you were paying attention earlier this week, you’d recall that AI models get smart by learning from a bunch of data. Data that, in most cases, was created by people. And AI models often eat this data without a clear bon appetite from its creators.
As you might expect, this has sparked a barrage of copyright beef and IP headaches.That’s why you see The NYT suing OpenAI and artists suing Midjourney.TBH, it’s a tough situation, and there’s no clear precedent to make things easier.
There are clear cases where AI infringes on a creator’s IP—that’s just flat-out wrong. But should we allow an AI model to eat publicly available data and produce something completely new?IDK, and neither do the courts (yet).
Issue #2: Deepfakes.
AI has gotten really darn good at creating things that seem human-made: articles, images, voices, you name it. This can be super useful (think work emails), but it can also become a tool for making people believe something is real when it’s not.
Like, throwback to when some guy used AI to mimic Joe Biden’s voice and tell New Hampshire voters to stay home? AI tools that enable deepfakes need stricter rules about who and what is off-limits for cloning, plus social media platforms need to figure out how to tag AI-generated content ASAP.
Issue #3: Automation.
Aka AI gunning for your job. Well, all of our jobs. The logic is: if AI can perform human tasks, won’t companies opt for an AI that’s cheaper, more diligent, and less likely to complain than a human?
The reality is it depends. AI has fully automated some people’s jobs in areas like customer support, but in most sectors, it simply helps perform individual tasks.
So it’s more of a TBD… AI won’t replace most of you, but someone who uses AI might.
That’s why we urge all our readers to experiment with AI and discover how it can benefit them at work.
We’ll dive deeper into how to actually do this tomorrow.
Keep calm and meow on,
Noah
