Artificial intelligence (AI) has been a topic of discussion for years, and it's attracting more attention as technology advances at an unprecedented pace.
Google CEO, Sundar Pichai, has recently issued a warning about the impact of AI on society, stating that we are not adequately prepared for its consequences.
In an interview with “60 Minutes,” Pichai argued that companies couldn't regulate the progression of AI alone and urged society to brace itself for the impact that this technology will have on every product of every company.
The Advancement of AI
Scott Pelley, from CBS News, recently visited Google to witness their advanced AI products in action. He saw robots playing soccer in DeepMind, which they learned by themselves, and another unit showed robots that recognized items on a countertop and fetched an apple when asked.
Bard, a chatbot created by Google, shocked reporter Pelley with its ability to create a story with characters and plot from a six-word prompt. When asked why it helps people, Bard simply replied "because it makes me happy," showing a level of thinking that surprised the journalist.
The Potential Consequences of AI
While AI technology is rapidly advancing, the CEO of Google warns of the potential consequences that come with it. Pichai notes that AI will disrupt the jobs of knowledge workers, and radiologists, for example, will have an AI collaborator to sort through cases in the future.
He also expresses concerns about the scale of disinformation, fake news, and images that could cause harm. While Google recently launched its AI chatbot Bard as an experimental product to the public, Pichai admits that "things will go wrong."
The fear of the consequences of this rapid progress has reached the public and critics, with calls for an immediate pause in training "experiments" connected to large language models.
The Need for Regulation
Google has launched a document outlining "recommendations for regulating AI," but Pichai believes that society must quickly adapt with regulation, laws to punish abuse, treaties among nations, and rules that "align with human values, including morality."
While Google CEO admits that there seems to be a mismatch between the pace at which technology is evolving and societal institutions' ability to think and adapt, he's optimistic because the number of people worrying about the implications did so early on.
Although, as AI continues to advance at an unprecedented pace, the potential consequences of this technology cannot be ignored. Google CEO Sundar Pichai's warning and call for regulation highlight the need for society to prepare for the impact of AI.
