What are the benefits and concerns of artificial intelligence? Bay Area experts weigh in

Dustin Dorsey Image
Tuesday, April 4, 2023
What are the benefits and concerns of artificial intelligence?
Italy announced that they are temporarily banning the latest version of Chat GPT from San Francisco-based company Open AI.

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- Italy announced that they are temporarily banning the latest version of Chat GPT from San Francisco-based company Open AI due to issues involving privacy.



This comes after an open letter from thousands of experts around the country shared other serious concerns with the new form of artificial intelligence.



However, experts in the field are split on the future of AI.



"We should embrace it," Aisera Co-Founder Muddu Sudhakar said. "My kids are using it, your kids are using it. Schools and Universities are going to use it. This is where the U.S. should run ahead, we already have the lead."



The latest versions of the AI chat-bot has trillions of pieces of data to pull from to do almost anything from taxes, app creation, logical reasoning and much more.



Sudhakar uses it to help his customers and believes it can benefit all.



"It's going to lift everybody," Sudhakar said. "It's going to lift people from poverty. If I'm in I.T. support, customer service, I don't have to do the mundane or futile tasks, it's going to create new forms of creativity for people to build applications. It will create new start-ups, new jobs, societies will improve."



MORE: What is ChatGPT? This AI chatbot is dominating social media with its frighteningly good essays



Powerful, so much power in fact, that even Open AI CEO Sam Altman shared with ABC News that he has his hesitations.



"People should be happy that we're a little bit scared of this," Altman said.



"You're a little bit scared? You personally?" ABC News Reporter Rebecca Jarvis asked.



"A little bit, yeah, of course," Altman said. "I think if I said I were not, you should either not trust me or be very unhappy I'm in this job."



But, this fear is not limited to him.



Italy will temporarily ban the latest version of Chat GPT over privacy concerns due to the software's ability to pull information without permission.



A Goldman Sachs survey recently said it will lead to the loss of 300 million jobs.



All this while Tech leaders voiced other worries about economic, social and mental issues with AI, saying companies developed "powerful digital minds that no one-not even their creators - can understand, predict, or reliably control.".



MORE: AI photography is taking over social media. Why are some concerned about privacy?



This was written in an open letter signed by dozens including Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak and San Jose State Engineering Professor Ahmed Banafa.



"This is just incredible to get to this stage where we're talking about where we are worried about the AI," Banafa said.



An expert and proponent of AI, Banafa says this artificial intelligence has surpassed that of the human mind and that's what makes it dangerous.



He and the other experts in the letter want AI companies to pause advancement of the technology for six months and create an independent committee to control its capabilities.



"We're not saying don't do it," Banafa said. "We're saying, slow it down, let's think about it. Because you're giving too much power to a machine, or an algorithm that starts picking the data itself. We know about the good part, but we don't know about the bad part of this wave of AI."



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