Chat GPT could definitely be described as a breakthrough. In less than a year it is already known through multiple generations. You can ask your parents about it, they would probably say they’ve heard something on the TV or that they have a friend that uses it at work. They can even be using it themselves!
It is a tool that step by step has been gaining both popularity and fear. Most people are frightened of the unknown, of what they have seen in movies and books through the years. Artificial Intelligence is supposed to be the evil that will destroy our planet, or so they say. You can see it in Star Wars where robots control the population, or in videogames like Detroit Become Human, where androids literally become human by developing feelings and thoughts on their own. We have always thought that neuronal links are the reason that makes us human, as Descartes once said, we think, and then we exist.
My little sister, who is only ten years old, and does not even have a phone, knows about its existence. According to her, ‘It is like a friend who is always there to help you’. Indeed, it could be described as a personal assistant, at the other end of the screen all the time. It is able to do your homework, do an individual training routine, make a food schedule, whatever you need. However, it is risky to trust a program to do those things when we can easily do them by ourselves. It can help sometimes, but it is still an algorithm, and we should not have to depend on it for such basic things as making an email, for example. Because then, we become instruments that cannot think by themselves.
Nevertheless, how can we be afraid of AI if our main ‘evil suspect’ is Chat GPT, which half of the time is wrong with its answers. It cannot do complex physics equations or even programme without any mistakes. Basically, it is just a text generative AI. It has been trained to read patterns and answer with the next one that would be the most probable. It is just statistics. But it helps, of course, with small problems, checking errors and developing ambiguous solutions.
Innovation is in the palm of our hands, even if Chat GPT only represents one part of the AI realm, it is definitely the beginning of a new era, of a change. Men were afraid of the Industrial Revolution , machines were supposed to take their jobs away. Instead, it brought new opportunities,their work was lightened, as a consequence, they did not need to work as hard for as many hours in order to make the same result.
The digital era is still a future. Sci-fi is milestones away from reality. Society needs to comprehend that Chat GPT is no monster to fear, it is, though, an impactful skill that when used correctly and to our advantage can make us step out, and be useful. We need to know how to control AI, and with that, we will be fearsome.
