Expert shuts down AI hype calling it a 'glorified tape recorder' and saying fears are overblown

Fears about what an AI can do are overblown according to a theoretical physicist who compared the technology to a 'glorified tape recorder'.

Artificial intelligence has made plenty of leaps forward in recent times but people's opinions on this emerging technology are quite divided.

On one hand, you've got folks using it for fun to bring their strange ideas to life, and some of these ideas are really strange.

Then you have people weighing in to warn that people are using AI for nefarious purposes and that our ability to distinguish what's real and what's fake is, if not gone, then at least less potent than it was.

More dangerous than what we're creating with AI is the impact it's having on the world around us with warnings that technology could make us worse or even pose us a serious threat.

However, those concerns might be a bit premature according to theoretical physicist Michio Kaku, who told CNN that many AI platforms are little more than 'glorified tape recorders'.

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He said: "It takes snippets of what's on the web created by a human, splices them together and passes it off as if it created these things.

"And people are saying, 'Oh my God, it’s a human, it’s humanlike.'"

And that's rather the crux of his issue with people's concerns about AI, while they can scour the internet for things people made or be taught by humans how to mimic people, they can't create from scratch for themselves.

Kaku also said he believes the next stage of computer technology is coming and that it will be quantum computing, where a computer uses vibrating waves instead of computer chips to function.

But back on the topic of AI, while Kaku said what they have to work with 'has to be put in by a human', there are people closely connected with the development of the technology who are seriously worried about what it could end up doing.

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One of the creators of ChatGPT has said AI poses an 'existential risk' to the human race even though he believes it can lead to a 'much better world' for people.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman estimated that within 10 years, AI would 'exceed expert skill level in most domains' and massively boost what we could do, but warned that it could lead to the creation of a 'super intelligence'.

He said that given the potential risk we were facing due to AI, governments would need to be proactive in figuring out where to draw the line in terms of safety and restrictions.