Gary’s Q&A

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

Derrin Brown asks What are your thoughts on the future of AI and its practical application to our lives. Especially through the context of historic technological innovation

There is obviously a potential for huge disruptions in certain fields. We are already seeing this with large language models that can produce well-written answers to questions. One of the best uses currently is in the area of customer support. If there is a set knowledge base of information, using AI is a quick and easy way to get answers from that knowledge base.

However, there are still huge problems. People ask me if I’ve used AI in the creation of this podcast. The truth is, I’ve tried, but the results have not been very good. There are very serious factual errors I’ve found in almost every search I’ve done on ChatGPT.

As of right now, it can create something that seems impressive, but it has no idea if it is right or wrong. It also doesn’t care if it is right or wrong.

I’ve had people suggest I could use an AI-rendered voice of myself reading an AI-generated script. If I did that, it would be a horrible experience for everyone.

So, right now, it seems to work better on a limited data set, not a generalized one. That is not a bad thing. One of the best applications I’ve seen for AI has to do with education.

For centuries, it has been known that the best way to teach someone is via individual tutoring. The problem is that tutoring doesn’t scale very well. One tutor can, at best, serve only a few students, and even then, it is expensive.

However, an AI tutor can provide custom teaching for every person. It can correct particular mistakes that a person makes to help them better understand. Khan Academy is already doing this online. There is also potential in applications that involve analyzing large sets of data. This could be revolutionary for the diagnosis of diseases.

It is hard to know exactly where AI will go because the term is so ambiguous. Everyone is excited about it right now, but I don’t think anything revolutionary has happened to justify the excitement. It is just that some tools have been made available to the public. Its become a buzzword that people are not using to generate interest in their products and inflate their value.

Many of the fears people have about AI, I think, are unfounded because computers don’t have a will. They have no desire other than what they are programmed to do.

Computers can do many remarkable things that mimic human intelligence, but ultimately, they are not the same as a human brain. Underneath, at least given how computers currently are, it is all still boolean logic. So, I’m not too worried about AI taking over the world.