Babbage: How worrying is generative AI?

<p>Since the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT almost six months ago, little else has occupied the minds of technologists. <a href="https://www.economist.com/interactive/science-and-technology/2023/04/22/large-creative-ai-models-will-transform-how-we-live-and-work?utm_campaign=a.io&amp;utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&amp;utm_source=babbage&amp;utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&amp;utm_term=sa.listeners" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Generative artificial intelligence</a>—capable of producing media like text, images and audio in response to prompts—seems to be <a href="https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2023/04/19/large-language-models-ability-to-generate-text-also-lets-them-plan-and-reason?utm_campaign=a.io&amp;utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&amp;utm_source=babbage&amp;utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&amp;utm_term=sa.listeners" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">improving every day</a>, with many technology companies developing and releasing their own competing systems.</p><br><p>As the AI revolution accelerates, the technology is being used in ever <a href="https://www.economist.com/essay/2023/04/20/how-ai-could-change-computing-culture-and-the-course-of-history?utm_campaign=a.io&amp;utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&amp;utm_source=babbage&amp;utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&amp;utm_term=sa.listeners" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">more creative ways</a>, companies are discovering its potential, causing unease among many content-creators and white-collar professionals, whose <a href="https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2023/04/14/chatgpt-could-replace-telemarketers-teachers-and-traders?utm_campaign=a.io&amp;utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&amp;utm_source=babbage&amp;utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&amp;utm_term=sa.listeners" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">jobs seem to be at risk</a>. The story of automation changing the world of work is not a ne