A lot of times, people want a hard and fast line in the sand. There is one right way and one wrong way to do this, so do it the right way or there will be specific consequences to face. When it comes to AI, or Artificial Intelligence, this line is often blurred or not even there to begin with.
“I think what these tools are capable of doing is a little mind-blowing considering there’s a lot about these tools that we don’t know,” Chris Snider, an Associate Professor at Drake University said. “Not to have any sort of regulation on them quite yet is a little bit scary.”
That causes people to wonder just how much they can do, or get away with, by using AI. Everything from students using it to help create study questions to artists using it to create inspiration to companies using it to streamline their processes, the options are endless. One such company is Fidelity and Guaranty Life, who is currently working on putting together how they will utilize AI.
“Our accounting system has integrated an AI functionality with it,” Joe Strobel, an employee at F&G said. “We’re helping our accounting vendor build out that logic.”
On the other hand, some people worry about AI being used to take over people’s jobs, students using it to complete their homework for them, kids talking to chatbots instead of real people, AI programs stealing artist’s work and even journalists using it to write entire stories.
The journalism adviser at West Albany High School in Albany, Oregon, Michelle Balmeo, explains that AI is not going to do some massive overturn of jobs, as nothing it does will match the creativity and voice that humans put into their own work.
“AI, at least right now, where we’re at, is really good at giving you the norm, or the average,” Balmeo said.
No matter what, AI isn’t going away anytime soon. There may never be a clear line between right and wrong either. Now, it’s up to the next generation to take advantage of this new technology so they can adapt with it and don’t end up leaving AI, or themselves, behind.
“My advice would be to jump in and try these tools and try to understand how they work and what you can do with them,” Snider said. “I think that most companies out there move really slow, and so companies are not fully understanding what they can do with these new tools. It’s going to be the young people who understand them and come in and just suggest new ideas and new ways that these tools can be used.”
