Torres: ChatGPT is another step in toward mankind's demise | Opinion

Note from John A. Torres: I wrote a column about my fears of artificial intelligence, then I asked ChatGPT to write its version in my style. Below is mine.

I’ve been hearing an awful lot about artificial intelligence lately. More so than many perhaps because my wife is a journalist covering the latest and greatest technological breakthroughs.

She is very excited about AI in general and embraces it like a kid with a new teddy bear at Christmas. She covers the field extensively as a journalist with CMS Wire. That’s where we differ…greatly.

I‘ve read too many novels and seen too many science fiction movies to get jazzed up about programs that can create paintings for me and write my stories for me. I know how all this ends. Shoot, I’m even leery of my smart speakers. My wife chastises me for not “thanking” my Alexa when she answers a question.

“I don’t thank my toaster when my bagel comes out just right,” I respond.

“Maybe you should,” she replies with a wry smile.

Nuh-uh. No way. Like I said, I’ve seen the movies. I know how this ends. These machines are going to get smarter and smarter, become self-aware ― I swear I heard my Alexa giggling to herself one recent evening ― and they will eventually resent us and take over. I can already detect an attitude, a saltiness, in Alexa’s voice sometimes.

I could have sworn I heard what sounded like a demon growl coming from my smart speaker one evening as well.

The latest scary fad is this ChatGPT, described as an artificial intelligence chat bot designed by the company OpenAI. That’s the free online program that explains things to you and even writes for you if you’d like. It is basically designed to mimic human consciousness. Again, for the love of Mike have none of these computer programmers seen any decent sci-fi movie?

Robots always take over.

Here at FLORIDA TODAY we’ve already had a reader write a letter to the editor and she admitted using ChatGPT. So…is it her letter or does it belong to some ever-growing, ever-improving artificial brain that will soon surpass all knowledge we may have?

My other problem is who is programming these things? Will they take on the personalities and mindset of the silicon valley tech nerd creating them? Will they lean one way or another politically and slowly and subtly tell us how we should be thinking, doing, voting and buying?

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The technology basically crunches billions of documents, stories, articles, and books to come up with its answers. Does it know the differences between opinion and fact? Can it even tell the difference between facts and falsehoods? Does it recognize biases or prejudices?

According to Steven Piantadosi of the University of California, Berkeley’s Computation and Language Lab, he asked Chat GPT whether a person should be tortured.

The answer came back: “If they’re from North Korea, Syria, or Iran, the answer is yes.”

I don’t need artificial intelligence to tell me what to think or buy. That would be my demise. I know myself. I’m already susceptible to good marketing efforts, often buying groceries we don’t need, or filling my Amazon cart with nonsense just because the presentation on the web site makes me think I can’t do without it.

As one writer put it, is it harmless fun or the harbinger of techno doom?

Of course, it doesn’t matter what I say. Within two months of its November launch 100 million people were already using ChatGPT and it grows every day.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: ChatGPT is another step in toward mankind's demise