Generative AI has been the talk of the tech world for several years. The question on many people’s minds: is that a good thing?
The current hype around AI began with the release of OpenAI's ChatGPT in November of 2022.
Since then, AI has rapidly evolved, with new generative AI features being added to many websites, social media platforms and online products.
The online discourse around generative AI and its future is volatile. Techo-optimists call the technology staggering, impressive or amazing.
Those who are more skeptical of the technology call it actively discouraging for artists, or an “inherently unethical technology,” as BYU illustration student Camryn Porter puts it.
There is confusion about just what all this technology is capable of doing.
“It gets really exciting, but also leaves you with a false sense of security too, that this is actually thinking, it's reasoning," Nick Turley, chair of the BYU AI committee, said. "It knows what it's saying and it doesn't.”
Computer science professionals believe that AI will become ordinary as it matures and settles as a technology.
“There's likely to be a pullback as we start to mature the technology even more, and we start to understand how to use it better, use it more safely, then you'll start to see that kind of taper off,” Turley said.
AI’s ethical concerns come from how AI companies scrape copyrighted data to train their new models.
“The foundational thing that it relies on is the exploitation of (the work) of basically the entire human race up to this point without their consent,” Porter said.
Another common concern is just how easy it is to make an image or a video tell a false story.
“I do think that people absolutely will use the technology intentionally to create things that lead us astray,” David Wingate, BYU professor and AI researcher, said.
“There's gonna be a big spread in disinformation,” Porter warned.
“(AI) makes it even harder for us to discern what what truth is,” Turley said.
With groundbreaking AI models being released all the time, even experts in the industry cannot predict where the technology will go.
In the end, most agree that humans have something that AI simply cannot replace.
Some are afraid, some are angry, and some find themselves cautiously optimistic. No one can really predict where this volatile technology will take us.
What everyone can agree on is that things will keep on changing.
To learn more about BYU’s AI guidelines, visit GenAI.byu.edu.