Former Google Engineer Blake Lemoine expressed his concerns regarding the risks that are associated with AI-driven chatbots. As per him, these AI bots that are being developed are the most powerful pieces of technology since the atomic bomb.
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This picture taken on January 23, 2023 in Toulouse, southwestern France, shows screens displaying the logos of Microsoft and OpenAI. - Microsoft extended on January 23 its partnership with with OpenAI, the research lab and creator of ChatGPT, a conversational artificial intelligence application software, in a "multiyear, multibillion dollar investment".
AI Chatbots' Power
Engineer Blake Lemoine was fired by Google after violating the company's confidentiality policy in July 2022. He claimed that artificial intelligence chat systems, including what Google is currently developing, were sentient. In an opinion article for Newsweek, he stated his concerns regarding the risks of AI chatbots as his fears are coming true.
According to Lemoine, the latest models are the most potent technological advancement since the atomic bomb. Through this powerful technology, it can change the course of history fundamentally. He expressed his concerns as he tested Microsoft's Bing AI chatbot. The word vindicated is not enough to capture how he felt in this situation.
"It's essentially impossible to run the same experiments on it that I did on Google's LaMDA. It bails to canned responses constantly," he wrote. This could be misused to distribute false information, political propaganda, or derogatory information about people's diverse backgrounds that could create potential problems.
He used a trainwreck as a metaphor to explain what he feels about this. Lemoine stated that predicting a train wreck even if people are telling you that there is no train wreck is just tragic, especially when he watches the incident happen in real time.
He also noted that he would like to see AI put through more testing before being released to the general public to avoid the potential misuse, risks, and the ability to manipulate consumers. This technology is still experimental, and he claimed that it is very dangerous as several companies started releasing it now.
Also Read: Microsoft Office ChatGPT-like Demo: Other Apps Receiving New AI Model
Business Insider reported that when Lemoine claimed that Google's AI become a sentient entity in June, a spokesperson from the company stated there is no evidence to support the former engineer's claims.
"Hundreds of researchers and engineers have conversed with LaMDA and we are not aware of anyone else making the wide-ranging assertions, or anthropomorphizing LaMDA, the way Blake has," the spokesperson noted. He was then fired by Google the following month for violating employment and data security policies.
Meanwhile, Google's Senior Vice President and Head of the Search Engine warned that AI could lead to hallucinations. He noted that relying on AI bots must only be kept to a minimum to reduce unwanted effects and experience these kinds of disadvantages.
AI Models are 'No Threat'
Meanwhile, Microsoft Co-Founder Bill Gates described AI models as a generation-old technology. Interesting Engineering reported that he sees it primarily because users have turned provocation into a game by trying to discover ways to trick the model's programming into doing wrong things.
He believes that AI models are no threat as it is not apparent who should be blamed if you provoked the system.
Related Article: Microsoft's Bing AI Chatbot Has a Name, 'Sydney,' Existing Since 2021 Before ChatGPT Integration
