https://mises.org/mises-wire/artificial-intelligence-and-irrational-fears
Where’s Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead? Seriously, what list of the greatest rock guitarists of all time would not—could not—include him? Sure, I know the internet article was just some teaser to get me to mindlessly click through an ad-laden list. But still, no Garcia. I object: Who wrote this article?
And that is the question of the day: “Who wrote this article?” Was it really written by the suspicious name on the byline—as if the author is the protagonist in some cheap novel, such as Ima Riter? Or, as happens more frequently these days, were the words the product of a large language model (LLM), a class of artificial intelligence (AI) models and a sibling of the seemingly ubiquitous ChatGPT, though under the byline of Ima Riter?
As far as jobs being lost, sure, many jobs will be lost to the new technology. But will Al make human efforts redundant? Will we all end up unemployed? Never.
Keep in mind an AI-generated list of guitarists is a synthesis of lists and writings already found on the web—the AI, in essence, employed the same search you would have used. The AI added no new information or no new analysis. It simply provided a probabilistic response to the language prompt: rank the best rock guitarists of all time. However, and this is key, the AI relied on words previously written by humans. It simply responded with a summarized version of all those opinions, a summary that may have more hallucinations than half the audience dancing at a 1980s Grateful Dead concert.
So, yes, AI will be used to generate meaningless lists that occasionally steal minutes from your day. But these synthesized strings of sentences are nothing new, just a rehashing of web articles written by warm, breathing writers. And, yes, many jobs creating similar types of lists, summaries, etc., will be lost, as will many other jobs in various fields and endeavors, just like jobs were previously made redundant by emerging technologies—with new, unrealized jobs created to replace them.
Nevertheless, original ideas—the beauty of humanity—will forever remain the product of acting men and women. And without human hands continually authoring original texts, those supposedly dangerous AIs will summarize nothing and respond with nothing.
Our lives and futures are safe.
Where’s Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead? Seriously, what list of the greatest rock guitarists of all time would not—could not—include him? Sure, I know the internet article was just some teaser to get me to mindlessly click through an ad-laden list. But still, no Garcia. I object: Who wrote this article?
And that is the question of the day: “Who wrote this article?” Was it really written by the suspicious name on the byline—as if the author is the protagonist in some cheap novel, such as Ima Riter? Or, as happens more frequently these days, were the words the product of a large language model (LLM), a class of artificial intelligence (AI) models and a sibling of the seemingly ubiquitous ChatGPT, though under the byline of Ima Riter?
As far as jobs being lost, sure, many jobs will be lost to the new technology. But will Al make human efforts redundant? Will we all end up unemployed? Never.
Keep in mind an AI-generated list of guitarists is a synthesis of lists and writings already found on the web—the AI, in essence, employed the same search you would have used. The AI added no new information or no new analysis. It simply provided a probabilistic response to the language prompt: rank the best rock guitarists of all time. However, and this is key, the AI relied on words previously written by humans. It simply responded with a summarized version of all those opinions, a summary that may have more hallucinations than half the audience dancing at a 1980s Grateful Dead concert.
So, yes, AI will be used to generate meaningless lists that occasionally steal minutes from your day. But these synthesized strings of sentences are nothing new, just a rehashing of web articles written by warm, breathing writers. And, yes, many jobs creating similar types of lists, summaries, etc., will be lost, as will many other jobs in various fields and endeavors, just like jobs were previously made redundant by emerging technologies—with new, unrealized jobs created to replace them.
Nevertheless, original ideas—the beauty of humanity—will forever remain the product of acting men and women. And without human hands continually authoring original texts, those supposedly dangerous AIs will summarize nothing and respond with nothing.
Our lives and futures are safe.
