Benefits, risks of artificial intelligence

INTERNATIONAL polymath Stephen Wolfram has added the support of his computational software to Chat GPT4. This is a sign of his confidence in the “conversational” AI technology, which had previously already been experiential in its growth!

Benefits will come, but threats have been expressed!Russian President Vladimir Putin stated two years ago that “he who controls AI will control the world”.

The world’s richest person Elon Musk has announced, as a massive danger, his belief that within two years Artificial Intelligence will exceed that of human beings.

This has met with shrieks of denial and disapproval, but Musk’s detailed work with AI for vehicles has provided him with unique training in AI’s strengths and weaknesses and he is alarmed!

There is a danger that, as in other areas, Africa may be left behind. Here are some areas of importance.

Educational

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What would you expect your son or daughter’s teacher to do if receiving an excellent homework essay, compiled almost entirely by the use of Chat GPT4? The essay would contain no grammatical or spelling errors and would be well researched and logically constructed.

In normal circumstances it would blow the teachers mind due to its excellence. But if your daughter/son produced this without effort, and without much learning (as little would be necessary), what would be the benefit?

 Educational progress would be minimal, and the whole procedure would be something of a lie. This is a dilemma, not only for parents, but also for teachers who will quickly become aware of considerably improved, and questionable, standards of homework.

In the next few months one solution will be some sort of classroom check on students’ recall of the homework produced. Conceptual mastery would be a good sign, even if AI had helped, whereas ignorance of the contents would be evidence of“collusion” with Chat GPT4.

This is only a simple example of many of the ways in which Chat GPT4 will become involved in education.Of possible benefit might be the structure of learning sequences, and tests of progress, presentation of key concepts and illustrations thereof, and research work on the vast international literature, which would be available on almost any topic.

Wolfram/Alpha can be added to Chat GPT4 to introduce skills for the most complex of computational problems in mathematics, chemistry and physics.

However, again, as noted, avoidance of the effort oflearning is not necessarily an educational advantage. The same dilemma applies at university level, even in the research and compilation of PhD theses.Even without the capacity to calculate Chat GPT4 is able to pass the United States Bar Exam.

Medicine

In medicine a facility is developing whereby all physiological data submitted by the doctor will receive immediate turnaround of comprehensive diagnoses with recommendations of treatments.

Although minimal interaction between the patient and doctor might have taken place,would you prefer an accurate computerised diagnosis, in almost every case, by Chat GPT4, to the possibility of human error involved in the current system of doctors depending upon their capacities to review all relevant recent research and data and apply this information optimally for the patient’s benefit?

Industry

In industry’s production processes, the assistance of artificial intelligence in providing algorithms and models for design and construction would provide, in minutes, information far superior to the expensive work of human professionals over many hours of effort.

As in most cases the humans will be more prone to error and oversight, more difficult to control, and a managerial “headache” should any formal disciplinary procedure be introduced.

Often, the professional, with the collusion of his/her colleagues, can evade discipline and prosecution for incompetence through mutually developed defensiveness, which is very difficult and expensive for the non-professional managerial or board member to unravel.

Nutritional science

One area of massive benefit will be the introduction of much more rigorous scientific methodology to the study of the nutritional impacts of naturally produced versus processed foods in the unhealthy development of the metabolic syndrome, including cardiovascular problems and diabetes II.

These are areas of human activity, which have been predicted to produce levels of overweight/obesity, diabetes and other forms of ill-health, which will seriously challenge or break the economic capacities of most countries’ medical systems.

Food information is currently managed and controlled by “Big Food” and “Big Pharma”, who repress negative (bad news) research on processed foods, and are currently discouragingfarm and dairy produce.

At present artificial intelligence is orientated towards a conventional consensus of scientific research opinion and reportage, which may not be as challenging as anticipated.

For example, it has been well established by recent research that high levels of cholesterol in the diet and in the blood of persons over 70 are positively associated with longevity and not with early demise, as has been conventionally believed ever since the work of Keys in the 1970s and the subsequent collusion of the American Heart Association, the media and government.

A conventional response from Chat GPT4 to a query on nutritional guidelines will not contain due emphasis of the recent turn-around in research information on the wrongly assumed benefits of low cholesterol in the elderly. A delay can be expected for the recent pro-cholesterol evidence be picked up by AI and reported in the cynically managed mainstream of the media.

Summarising Chat GPT4 will enable improvements in education, save you time and money, reduce inefficiency, help employees and keep you abreast of international developments.

We cannot be left behind!

For a free package of introductory information, and a brochure for the forthcoming Chat GPT4 Conference onJuly 18 2023 at Rainbow Towers Hotel, Harare. Please contact the following: Human Resources (Pvt) Ltd Tel: (024) 2700643, 2700867

Harrison is managing director and senior consultant with Human Resources (Pvt) Ltd, internationally qualified psychologist, ex-professor and lecturer at University of Zimbabwe — hres263@gmail.com