This year has been one of the biggest years of all time for AI. Ever since the big blow up of ChatGPT, it seems like every tech company has put some part of their resources into this new form of intelligence.
Massive tech companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Google, Meta, Intel, AMD, and Nvidia have all seen big success with AI. Stocks have gone up, CEO’s net worths have gone up, and the investors have been kept happy with new growth. In the corporate tech world, the advancement of AI has been the best thing to ever happen, but what about the average consumer?
It’s not like decades prior where consumers got to choose what the next big thing in tech was by buying it. No tech companies have taken AI and shoved it in everything that we do such as search results on Google, Copilot AI constantly reinstalling itself on windows, and Meta’s AI summing up a comment section on facebook.
Is this even something that we want, this constant integration with AI? Is this really a good thing?
“Overall I would say that AI is good,” Mr. Aaron Longacre, computer science teacher, said. “When we think about the daily usage of AI, we don’t even realize that we’re using it. All those AI are helpful. Things like Google Maps, or the smart devices that are in our home such as smart thermostats, smart fire detectors, things along those lines. So those are all advantages. The disadvantages when we come to items like Chat GPT, we just don’t have to think for ourselves anymore, and that could be detrimental to education and communication as we rely too much on it.”
But that’s the thing that is dangerous about AI, the reliance on it.
And that is what these tech companies want. If you were to do a Google search right now the first thing that you would see is not a result written by an actual human being, but from an artificial intelligence. It’s blatantly put in are faces and for the most part there is no way to turn it off.
Another negative impact is the loss of creativity.
“You don’t have to think anymore,” Senior Kingston Sanders said. “You just tell the AI what you want written and it’s done.”
The human element of our world is being changed and AI is replacing it. This is shown most prominently in the entertainment industry.
“If Disney wanted to re-create the famous movie Aladdin. The voice actor of the Genie from Aladdin Robin Willaims, sadly has passed away. But with AI they can take snippets of his voice to recreate it without him even being in the studio to record the lines. So now you have the question such as would the royalties of his voice go to his family or because it was created by AI would all of it just be owned by Disney. This doesn’t just apply to actors who are deceased, the idea that people’s voices living or dead can just be used by companies is a little unsettling. We don’t especially know what the legal ramifications are for things of this nature,” said Mr. Brian Past, the television production teacher at Merrillville High School.
When all of these companies can just use voices that are already well known and loved without paying them, what’s the point of having new voice actors.
“A lot of people aren’t going to bother to learn how to voice act when they can just use AI,” Senior Adam Jones-Williams said.
Jones-Williams said that he uses AI when developing content.
“If I want to create any type of content that requires my voice, I use AI,” he said. “I don’t really use my voice cause not going to lie. I’m a little bit shy. So whenever I create a Youtube video and I want a voice behind it, I use AI. Also I use the deeper AI voices, but not too deep.”
Artificial Intelligence needs to have more regulations to protect us humans. It’s in everything we do regarding technology
“AI has been around longer than the average person would realise.Things like Siri and the weather apps on our phones are all being powered by AI, which use past data to give us information we want in the current,” Mr. Longacre said.
Ever since the Covid-19 pandemic, many people have had a wake up call on how much power isn’t actually in their hand. With these AI companies already being big tech juggernauts, governments around the world should look into how much power they have. If not, we may have a dystopian future straight outta Cyberpunk 2077.