by Maleeha Sofi
SRINAGAR: With Artificial Intelligence (AI) leaping to new frontiers on a daily basis, concern is mounting over the cost the human thinking capability will have to pay. Though the people having access to the prototypes are reporting an “easy life”, the honchos in the game are flagging the flip side of the technology.
According to a report by investment bank Goldman Sachs as published in BBC, AI could replace the equivalent of 300 million full-time jobs. There are speculations that AI will replace humans in various fields. Besides, replacing humans another threat is that of replacing the uniqueness humans have.
Several AI developers advertise their tools and claim to write, draw and create content for users. However, people do not realise that it does so, thereby barring humans from their ability to think uniquely and creatively.
Ishfaq Raazi, a 21-year-old poet who writes in Urdu, sees AI as a shortcut. “Artificial Intelligence is a short-cut way towards destination and it is human tendency to stay ahead in any race,” he said. He does not see any impact of AI on Urdu poetry, however, believes that it can be harmful to English creative writing. Poetry requires knowledge of various genres and metres which he thinks AI can never fulfil. With AI reaching new possibilities every day, it might be closer than we know.
“Those who are loyal to their art will never rely on any Artificial Intelligence for producing their work,” Razi said. “However people who are new in the field will be attracted towards these platforms to create an above par work of art that no one will be able to differentiate whether it is human written or AI-generated.”
Virtual learning platforms like Udemy offer courses to learn about Chat GPT. They sell the courses by offering, “Chat GPT for beginners’ course- Learn Chat GPT best practices, prompt writing, and explore common business use cases.” The learning platforms aim to invite more people towards the use of these tools.
“Creative Writing requires instigating and pondering over a subject, but Chat GPT has the capacity to snatch the passion and curiosity from humans,” Raazi said. “Evolution is the reality of humans. We are well aware of things that are beneficial or harmful for us and we continue to use those. So, we should be careful about our use of Artificial Intelligence, else we might end as puppets of AI.”
In a news report published in Business Insider, a copywriter Emily Hanley complained of losing her job to Chat GPT and ended up selling sparkling water at grocery stores. She lost her work because clients preferred Chat GPT over her due to better work and less cost.
“Clients were unwilling to pay for copywriting any longer unless that writer could also provide email management and a funnel-building system, most likely because of the newfound popularity of the Chat GPT,” Hanley wrote. “Most of my clients were small businesses, start-ups, and young brands, which are typically the first to adapt to new technology to cut costs.”
After a long period of unsuccessful attempts, she stumbled into a good-paying job as a copywriter to train an AI source for improving its human-like communication skill. “While I and countless other out-of-work copywriters are the first wave of AI collateral, the collapse of my profession is probably just the tip of the AI iceberg,” the report quoted her saying. “I naively assumed that artists and creatives would be safe from automation technology, because how could anything replace the wonder of the human mind and even if it could, why would we want it to? Hah! I now understand that in even the most creative industries, creativity never comes before the bottom line. If a robot can do your job for less, you better believe that’s exactly what’s going to happen.”
While many writers believe that the profession is under threat, many still have a firm belief that Artificial Intelligence can never replace the human mind completely.
“It is unlikely to replace humans as it lacks genuine emotions and empathy which are important prerequisites for creative writing,” short story writer, Rehana Shajar, said. She acknowledges that AI has exceptional capabilities that are continuously expanding and it will make remarkable progress in coming years. “One should be ready to embrace this new technology. It can perhaps be used as a tool by writers. In past too we have embraced other technologies for fine-tuning ourselves as a whole.”
A report in Press Gazette wrote about the ethical issue that can rise in the field of print journalism if chatbots are used. “The rise of generative AI in journalism has provided a powerful tool for creating news content but also raises complex ethical questions around transparency, bias, and the role of human journalists,” the report said. It quoted Professor Charlie Beckett, director of the Journalism AI project at LSE saying: “Trust, accuracy, accountability and bias continue to be the major ethical issues around AI despite new issues raised by the advent of generative AI such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and image generator DALL-E, and Google’s Bard.”
Editor of a reputed news organization, when asked about the possibility of replacing reporters with Chatbots said, “Artificial Intelligence has the capacity to replace all the reporters in a newsroom.” Newsrooms across the globe have already introduced their virtual news-casters for social media. They are on the margins, but eventually, they will be mainstream, the editor added.
In early July PayTm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma raised concern over a blog post by ChatGPT creator OpenAI. According to media reports, the OpenAI blog post said, “Superintelligence will be the most impactful technology humanity has ever invented and could help us solve many of the world’s most important problems. But the vast power of superintelligence could also be very dangerous and could lead to the disempowerment of humanity or even human extinction. While superintelligence seems far off now, we believe it could arrive this decade.”
