SOCIETY HASN’T DECIDED YET
A headline story in May 2023 was that of a New York lawyer facing a ‘court hearing of his own’ after it was found that his firm had used ChatGPT for legal research. According to the BBC, the lawyer protested a collective naivety when it came to the
tool, ‘unaware that its content could be false.’ The reason the firm was found out in the first place was because its filing was found to reference example legal cases that did not exist. A pretty massive mess up on its end, granted.
However, the example does highlight a greater issue surrounding the tool – the dangerous combination of ignorance and a lack of understanding; which then causes a greater societal confusion concerning the ethics of technology. Think
of people’s fears about the invention of the telephone. Different countries around the world are taking decisions into their own hands. In April 2023, Italy was the first western country to block advanced ChatGPT, due to privacy concerns.
mysterious realm of AI art, where our designer worked in collaboration with the tool Midjourney to create one of our most exuberant covers to date. Now we have acknowledged my imminent career-end, let’s ask ChatGPT about some of the other societal impacts that come in tandem with the recent advancements in conversational AI. VERITY: Outline both the positive and negative societal impacts of ChatGPT.
ChatGPT: Positive societal impacts of ChatGPT:
y Access to information: ChatGPT provides users with access to a wide range of information. It can answer questions, provide explanations, and offer guidance on various topics. y Language learning: ChatGPT can assist in language learning by engaging in conversations and providing feedback on grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. y Customer support: Many companies and organizations use ChatGPT as part of their customer support systems. It can handle customer inquiries, provide basic troubleshooting assistance, and offer product or service information. y Mental health support: ChatGPT can serve as a supportive tool in mental health settings. It can provide a listening ear, offer coping strategies, and suggest resources for further assistance. Negative societal impacts of ChatGPT: y Misinformation and biases: ChatGPT may inadvertently provide incorrect or misleading information, as it generates responses based on patterns it has learned from training data. If the training data contains biases or inaccuracies, ChatGPT can reinforce those biases or perpetuate false information, potentially leading to the spread of misinformation. y Lack of accountability: As an AI language model, ChatGPT does not have a personal identity or responsibility. This can make it challenging to hold ChatGPT accountable for its actions or the consequences of its responses. It may not have a moral compass or ethical judgment, potentially leading to harmful or unethical advice or behaviour. y Dependency and reduced human interaction: Relying heavily on ChatGPT for information and communication may reduce human-to-human interaction. Excessive
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