Do we really need another IT tool to learn? I am sure the techies out there are just loving the new AI revolution. And the young kids in school are going to absorb it right into their daily routines. But how much change do we really want to adapt to in the AI space?
For people over 70, social media, texting and post internet technology has been a difficult learning curve. Some people just never bothered with learning it at all. However, it is a necessity in today’s business and social world. The younger you are, the more it has become entwined, for better or worse, into your life.
For the over 50 crowd, we started with landlines, telephone booths, encyclopedias and libraries for our information and communication. If you wanted to make a phone call, you had to use your rotary dial phone with the long cord at home. My family was advanced because we had two lines for the kids and the parents. I can remember sitting by the phone waiting for it to ring as a teenager and depending on my family to take a message if I wasn’t there.
As a lawyer during the 80’s , the typewriter was replaced by a computer, the law books were replaced by discs, couriers were replaced by fax machines and email started to replace paper (monumental for lawyers, who love paper).
Newspapers were the main source of information. We walked outside and picked up the paper magically delivered every day . Advertising revolved around newspaper ads , telephone book ads and good old fashioned word of mouth. Now, the internet has become the primary source of information.
AI is a whole new ballgame. AI absorbs 10x more energy than a basic online search. Some estimate by
the end of the decade, AI could consume up to 25% of the US power requirements.
Copyright is an interesting issue. GloriaBlog does not use AI , in any form, to write this blog. However, AI could find my posted blog , absorb it, and use it if someone on ChatGPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) asked it to write an article about AI and people over 50 years old. ChatGPT proclaims to be “just a tool” and points to the user for copyright infringement issues.
An original artist is protected against subsequent artists using their work in some instances. If I take a picture and post it, does it become fair use by AI ? What about novels? Can ChatGPT change a few words and character names and escape copyright infringement for the original artist?
Maybe we will all just blindly accept the new technology and allow our children to use ChatGPT to write their papers much like we gave up on prohibiting the use of calculators to learn multiplication tables or learning to write in cursive.
For the people who grew up with newspapers and no social media, ChatGPT could become yet another change that makes us wonder what is in store for the next generation? How far are they going to allow technology to rule their lives? At what point does technology cease to be a positive force in human existence?
Right now, I am resisting the temptation to run this article through AI to let it be my editor and publisher. If I ever do use it for my blog, I feel compelled to provide a disclaimer. Is that a bad idea? I would like to know if an article or picture I am reading is AI generated. It sort of levels the playing field of man against technology. What do you think? Should AI generated material have a disclaimer?