Artificial Intelligence

In early 2023, I like others was first introduced to ChatGPT. After playing around with it for a bit, I wrote it off as a novelty/curiosity and did not predict the overwhelming force it has become today.

Concerns / Criticisms

Ethical

The main ethical issue is AI companies are using synthesized information from people’s work and not properly crediting or compensating them. I realize legally it may fall under fair use. However, to build a product or service based off the work of others and marketing it as your own seems insincere.

Environmental

I think the environmental concerns are obvious. AI’s data centers are power hungry, and we are already struggling to produce enough green energy to support out current energy grid. On top of energy uses, it also requires a lot of water to cool the data centers. This raises concerns about how and what water will be used. I know there are answers to these questions, but I fear the need for rapid growth will supersede thoughtful regulation.

Societal

This concerns is less straight forward and more ambiguous. There are articles written that indicate people who rely heavily on AI experience less of a cognitive workload, which may cause brains to atrophy. Perhaps even more concerning is people turning to AI for emotional support. I know AI is not to blame for the loneliness epidemic or lack of accessible therapy. However, the solution that it provides these people in need is dubious.

How I use AI

Despite these concerns I believe there is a place and a benefit to this tool and it is simply to use it as a tool.

Assistant

This video was transformational about how the way I think about AI. I like how Andrej Karpathy likens AI to a tool like the Iron Man suit complete with Jarvis, it is something to extend your cognitive function and productivity not replace it. It led me to one of the primary ways I use AI as a search tool. The AI has access to documentation, chats, tickets, and emails. When I am working on something it is a super power to pull up all relevant notes on the subject with a simple natural language query. I will say that I have to check what the source material it is referencing actually says because it can misrepresent facts.

Additionally I use it for coding, it is remarkably easier to ask Copilot something in the side window than switch to a browser and find a helpful Stack Overflow article. I admit I am behind on agents, because I have not been able to give concise enough language to generate code I like.

Editor

On top of using AI as an assistant. I also like to use it as an editor. For example, if I want an email with a certain tone I’ll work back and forth with AI to craft a good email. I’ll also use to edit blog posts for proper grammar or phrasing. Finally, I’ll use it to review the code that I write to see if there was anything I missed.

Conclusion

I think AI can be a powerful too in your tool chest. I am less it is as revolutionary as the marketing hype will lead you to believe, but I have underestimated it before.