Is AI a “tool” or a “living thing”?
Characteristics of living things
Whimsical OpenAI CEO Sam Altman interviewed defenderAnd it's worth reading in its entirety. But the most fascinating moment in his technical work was when a publication asked Altman about his biggest misconceptions about AI.
Altman used this opportunity to explain what he thinks is the biggest example. This is interesting because many people are confused about whether AI is a “living thing” or a “tool.” In his words:
I think the biggest misconception about AI is that there is confusion about whether it is thought of as a tool or as a living thing. For example, a creature from a science fiction movie would make for a better movie plot. If you use ChatGPT, it's clearly a tool.
Of course, there are still risks with the tools, but the shapes and profiles of the tools are different. And I think the common misconception that AI is science fiction is very different from people who have been using AI as a tool for many years.
By the way, I think it's great that what we're building is like a tool. Because when you give humans better tools, they do amazing things that surprise you, and that builds new value for all of us. .
tool age
The more you read this passage, the harder it becomes to parse out exactly what Altman is saying. Although he hasn't actually said outright that AI in general falls into the category of tools, he has specifically said that he considers ChatGPT, OpenAI's flagship consumer product, to be one. states. But then he said that “what we're building” is more generally a tool, hinting that his vision for the company's technology isn't about the living aspect.
And in a strict sense, that's probably fair. For now, AI is a collection of data and mathematics that produces statistically probable outputs, not the novel organisms that the word “living” implies.
But the truth is, this is a convenient narrative at a time when there is increasing concern about whether OpenAI and the larger AI industry are ready to replace jobs. Thinking of AI as a tool that helps people do their jobs better, like a personal computer, is much less scary than thinking of AI as an autonomous being that can do a job. Instead your.
However, that wasn't always the story he was telling. Just a few months ago, Altman predicted that AI could soon replace the median human workforce, resulting in massive job losses. In fact, he couldn't help but hype up a perfect example in this article. advocateFollow-up question: Personalized AI-powered tutoring.
This technique often also has a “living” feel. OpenAI's breakthrough product, ChatGPT, is explicitly designed to behave like a conversational interlocutor, a strategy widely imitated by competitors. For better or worse, many people have developed parasocial relationships with AI. And there's been a lot of talk about AI “agents” that can act relatively autonomously, and in many cases there will no doubt be projects that leverage OpenAI technology.
Are these kinds of applications living things or tools, to use Altman's terminology? It's hard to say, but if there's one thing we know about Altman, it's that we That he will bring a new paradigm before he has properly addressed the old one.
More about Altman: Sam Altman faces SEC investigation for potentially misleading investors