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- 🤖 Smart weapons, robot lawyers, and the worst medical advice you've ever seen
🤖 Smart weapons, robot lawyers, and the worst medical advice you've ever seen
2/18/23
Neon Pulse Team
February 18, 2023
Good morning and welcome to the latest edition of neonpulse!
Here's what we have for you today:
The dangers of A.I. content
The future of warfare
And robot lawyers hit the scene
Is A.I. generated content ready for prime time?
When Arena group CEO Ross Levinsohn announced that he was going to start publishing A.I. generated articles in it’s portfolio of magazines, including Men’s Journal and Sports Illustrated, he told his staff not to worry, vowing that "AI will never replace journalism."
Yet only weeks later, employees of Arena were hit with a fresh round of layoffs, including senior writers and editors…
And the former employees aren’t happy about it.
Actual quote from laid off staffer
"After seven and a half years of writing about the NHL, NBA, NFL, MLB, LPGA, World Cup, Olympics and more, I have been laid off by Sports Illustrated," tweeted Alex Prewitt, a former senior writer.
And while many have speculated that it was only a matter of time before companies began using A.I. tools to replace human workers, there’s another problem…
The potential for grossly inaccurate content created by tools like ChatGPT.
While Levinsohn assured Wall Street Journal readers that his strategy wasn’t to simply "crank out AI content as much as you can," you need look no further than the very first article that ChatGPT wrote for Men’s Journal titled “What All Men Should Know About Low Testosterone.”
What at first glance appears to be a well researched article written by medical experts quickly falls apart when reviewed by an actual medical professional.
When Bradley Anawalt (the chief of medicine at the University of Washington Medical Center) reviewed the article, he was shocked to find 18 factual errors in the medical advice given.
"There is just enough proximity to the scientific evidence and literature to have the ring of truth," Anawalt said, "but there are many false and misleading notes."
The serious lack of editorial oversight poses a serious danger to readers, making this look like a grossly irresponsible move on Levinsohn’s behalf.
Maybe he’ll have to bring back of few of his human editors after all…
You can read more about the fiasco here.
Former Google CEO weighs in on the future of war
There seems to be no industry that A.I. will not be disrupting in the coming years, and the military is no exception.
But just how big of an impact will A.I. have on military technology?
According to Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO, the impact of artificial intelligence on military applications will be as game-changing as nuclear weapons.
"Every once in a while, a new weapon, a new technology comes along that changes things. Einstein wrote a letter to Roosevelt in the 1930s saying that there is this new technology—nuclear weapons—that could change war, which it clearly did," Schmidt told Wired. "I would argue that [AI-powered] autonomy and decentralized, distributed systems are that powerful."
According to Schmidt, while the U.S. military has great leaders, it has not fully harnessed the latest advancements in technology.
"Let's imagine we’re going to build a better war-fighting system. We would just create a tech company and build a large number of inexpensive devices that were highly mobile, and those devices—or drones—would have sensors or weapons, and they would be networked together."
This type of networking would allow U.S. military commanders to network all of their forces together (including fighter jets, tanks, ships, and ground troops) in order to better execute military campaigns around the world.
Schmidt himself is no stranger to military technology, and is a substantial backer of Istari, a company that uses machine learning in order to virtually engineer and test war machines.
"The Istari team is bringing internet-type usability to models and simulations," he said, adding that "This unlocks the possibility of software-like agility for future physical systems—it’s very exciting."
The heads of the U.S. military tend to agree, and according to the findings in a 2016 Department of Defense report, A.I. will be the single most powerful force shaping the future of military conflict.
Top law firm adopts A.I. to cut costs
As we’re coming to find out, white collar jobs will not be shielded from the coming A.I. revolution…
Lawyers included.
London-based law firm Allen & Overy recently retained the services an A.I. chatbot in order to boost efficiencies at the firm, although the firm claimed that the new technology would not be replacing any of its workforce at this time.
The legal chatbot “Harvey” was built using the ChatGPT architecture with the goal of “expanding a lawyer’s capabilities by leveraging AI to make tedious tasks such as research, drafting, analysis, and communication easier and more efficient.”
Not surprisingly, the law firm has not informed clients about their use of the tool, claiming that the tool “would not reduce billable hours or save money for the company or clients.”
The startup behind Harvey raised $5 million last year, with the round being led by the OpenAI Startup Fund.
You can read more about the startups that have received funding from the OpenAI Startup Fund here.
And now your moment of zen
That’s all for today folks!
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