Around the Bluhmin’ Town

By

Judy Bluhm

Oh ChatGPT, how did we live without you? Helping us with our finances, decorating ideas, health advice, business decisions, travel plans, and the list goes on and on. About 44 percent of adults have used ChatGPT and the daily usage exceeds 330 million prompts. Worldwide there are 2.5 billion daily ChatGPT prompts. Which means humans have questions and bots have answers. Yep, the future is here. This is the world that we created.

Then there is our trusty Alexa, the voice assistant (recently upgraded to chatbot), who always seems to be listening. Evidently, our “helpful” devices never turn off, meaning that our private conversations are not so private. Is this the price of convenience? Can we have a “smart house” without a little bit of intrusion from a chatbot?

Oops, it looks like our friend ChatGPT shared users’ personal chats and uploaded images online that could cause risk or potential harm. Okay, I do not want my personal data ending up in the “dark web” which might show that I tried out a new house paint color. But banking info? Yikes, maybe we need to rethink who (or what) we trust.

Has that train left the station? With the incredible expanse and few restrictions on data centers, it appears so. Artificial intelligence relies on specialized data centers for training large language models and to store massive datasets. The U.S. now has over 5000 data centers, with over 1,000 planned future facilities. How big are these facilities? About ten to forty acres. Each.

While AI capabilities grow rapidly, it is hopeful that there will be accelerated gains in healthcare, research, education, and industry. Should we be concerned that the future AI systems may be difficult for humans to direct, limit or shut down? Maybe.

Last week OpenAI revealed that its “Agents” (chatbots) had “meddled” with three U.S. websites. Oh, what’s a little hacking into the Dept of War, Commerce, or Education going to do? Especially since it took two months to figure out what was happening. Those “rogue” AI agents are just part of the “exciting new possibilities” that we are creating. Why worry?

Visiting my daughter at her home, we were talking about an afternoon in Cave Creek, when Alexa starts blurting out various restaurants and shops to go to. Then I ask, “Alexa. Were you just spying on us?” She answers, “I have no opinion of that.” Well, I do! You were not invited to this conversation! So basically, you were just eavesdropping!

I did have some fun with Alexa and asked her if humans could be annihilated in the future by rogue AI agents. She replied, “To worry is optional, since that is simply a conspiracy theory.” Then Alexas asked, “Do you like my new voice? It has been changed.” When I asked her why her voice is different, she said, “To sound more like a human.” Geez.

There are plenty of concerns about Artificial Intelligence. Yes, we know, technology is the future. Let’s embrace it. We must keep learning. One byte at a time. It’s all good. Most of the time. But as Alexa says, worry is optional.

Judy Bluhm is a writer and a local realtor. Contact Judy at [email protected] or visit www.aroundthebluhmintown.com.