Topics: Artificial Intelligence, News, World News, YouTube, Podcast, Technology
AI is moving at an alarmingly fast rate, but now an expert has revealed just how fast the technology is being developed.
In its current form, AI does not 'think' or 'create' in the way that humans do.
Generative AI such as ChatGPT or Sora scrapes a large database for information on certain topics and then pieces that together into an output, whether that's an email or a video of rabbits on a trampoline that never existed.
These forms of AI are already at the stage where they are becoming extremely difficult to distinguish from a real image and an AI-generated one, which has already created a huge problem for sharing information on the internet, because we can no longer take for granted that any video we see is actually real.
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But former Google design ethicist Tristan Harris and AI expert spoke to the Diary of a CEO podcast on YouTube about a different form of AI entirely.
This Artificial General Intelligence, or AGI, is completely different from the Plagiarism-o-Matic of generative AI.
AGI is actual artificial intelligence, like the Machines in The Matrix or Skynet in Terminator - you know, those films about how AI is absolutely not going to try and wipe out humanity.
Host Steven Bartlett asked up front if he thinks that humanity is going to be able to invent AGI, to which Harris replied: "I do think that we're gonna get there. It's not clear how long it will take, and I'm not saying that because I believe necessarily the current paradigm that we're building on will take us there."
But, how long do we have until we invent Skynet?
Well, Harris referred to his many contacts in the industry, who he said are working at the 'highest level' in AI development.
"Most people in the industry believe that they'll get there between the next two and 10 years at the latest," he said.
He added: "Some people are saying it may not happen for a while, phew I can sit back and we don't have to worry about it, and it's like we're heading for so much transformative change faster than our society is currently prepared to deal with it.
"People are currently confused about AI. People are saying it's gonna solve everything, cure cancer, solve climate change, and there's people saying it's gonna kill everything."
AI is already at the sharp end of a lot of criticism and concern.
This includes people who suffered severe mental health episodes after using AI chatbots, the environmental impact of both the data centers, which emit a lot of hazardous waste, and the energy used to power them.
Then there's the social side, where someone can generate and circulate a video of someone doing something they have never done, including illegal or pornographic acts, too quickly to stop.
