By Sherman K. Newman, Contributing Writer
Artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to turn the internet into a veritable 21st century oracle. Is the future of work threatened? What is the potential of this technology to enhance human life?
AI is raising a lot of questions, and answers have been vague or non-existent. Let’s examine what AI is and how it can benefit the returning citizen.
What is AI anyway? According to Wikipedia:
“Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence exhibited by machines. In computer science, the field of AI research defines itself as the study of “intelligent agents;” any device that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of success at some goal.
“Colloquially, the term ‘artificial intelligence’ is applied when a machine mimics ‘cognitive’ functions that humans associate with other humans, such as “learning” and ‘problem solving’ (known as Machine Learning).
“Artificial intelligence is based on the assumption that the process of human thought can be mechanized.”
AI has been around since the 1950’s. Back then it seemed more futuristic, something sci-fi enthusiasts fantasized about.
According to Wikipedia, early pioneers had the idea that one day:
“Every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it.”
OpenAI is a San Francisco based technology startup that has deployed a useable, interactive model called chatGPT (GPT stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer). GPT-4 is the latest iteration of generative AI.
The GPT-4 Technical Report of March 2023 delineates the behavior of its large language model (LLM), chatGPT, GPT-3, GPT-3.5 and GPT-4. I will be quoting from it as we wade through the morass of AI technology.
A quote from the GTP-4 technical report introduction should whet our technical whistle:
“One of the main goals of developing such models is to improve their ability to understand and generate natural language text, particularly in more complex and nuanced scenarios.”
Basically, to respond as a human would.
Text and images can prompt GPT-4.
To paraphrase an excerpt from the GPT tech report:
GPT-4 accepts prompts consisting of both images and text, which — parallel to the text-only model (chatGPT) — lets the user specify any vision or language task. Specifically, the model generates text outputs given inputs consisting of arbitrary interlaced text and images.
What all of that means in plain English is that users can prompt with plain-text and images and the response should be text and images.
If you’re a returning citizen who has very little or no internet experience, you may be asking, how does this tool, GPT-4, help make acclimating to society easier for you?
For one thing, it can help you learn how to use the internet, which should be no problem, as millions of people know how; a few minutes of informal tutoring will have you swiftly navigating the internet in no time.
Learning how to download apps on your device, copying and pasting, etc. are basics of internet use. These are fundamental skills every returning citizen should have upon release.
The ability to enhance productivity and production are the paramount objectives of using this technology.
For example, an artist can prompt GPT-4 for assistance in creating ideas for a piece they are working on. Or you may be engrossed in figuring out a complicated math problem. Have writers block? Create a prompt for ideas that will help complete your thought.
A user should not rely completely on chatGPT and GPT- 4 for results: according to the tech report “it ‘hallucinates’ facts and makes reasoning errors.”
Still, it’s a viable tool to assist the user with ideas that can assist in creativity.
We will discuss aspects of AI literacy that are a bit more technical, such as large language models (LLM), natural language processing (NLP), and machine learning (ML) in a future column, Part 2 of Artificial Intelligence.
