What once was science fiction is now a reality that can and will affect nearly every area of our lives.
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When I was a kid, the only thing I knew about AI was that, when we figured out how to make it, it would lead robots to take over the world (until Will Smith stopped them, of course). Now, I “talk” with AI every day – not to plead for it to spare my mortal life, but mostly to help me resolve coding issues I run into at work or give me dinner ideas. The release of AI chatbots, like the widely popular ChatGPT, has for most people been a fun and useful addition to using the internet. Many people use it to simplify monotonous tasks, spark creative ideas, and figure out difficult problems (or laugh at it when it “hallucinates” and gives terrible answers).
But it’s bigger than that
There is so much more that AI can do that is already having extremely negative consequences, and its potential is even more concerning.
Perhaps the scariest AI implementations right now are the ones that can create images, videos based on text prompts, or alter existing videos and images in terrible ways. Take a moment to consider some of the ways this could be abused…
Got some thoughts in mind? Pretty scary, right?
Now take a look at a quick list of some of the real ways this is already being used:
- Presidential candidates pictured in Nazi and Soviet uniforms.
- A school employee making a deepfake audio recording of a principal making racist and antisemitic slurs towards students and faculty (the principal never actually said any of those things).
- High school boys taking normal, fully-clothed images of their female classmates, and used an AI tool to generate hyper-realistic nude images of them.
- AI-generated images and videos used for political and social disinformation are getting hundreds of millions of views online.
Worse than you thought? This is bad; really bad. Innocent adults and children are being violated by people’s abuse of AI tools, and there is little being done to prevent it at the moment.
A lot of these AI fakes have defects or quality issues that make them easy to spot. But at the rate technology is advancing, and with the trillions of dollars getting put toward AI companies, that won’t last long. What will happen when we can’t distinguish AI-generated content from real content?
What do we do?
Many top companies are already developing tools to detect AI-generated content and prevent harmful content from being created, and the government is catching on to these dangers and working to create legislation to criminalize and restrict certain content. But as we all know, the government is slow, and big tech cares far more about money than people.
So while we wait for changes to come from the top, we have a responsibility and need to use the tools well, be wary of misinformation, and teach our children the same.
Talk About It
Parents – talk with your kids about it. Share your knowledge of different ways this content is being abused to make everyone aware of it. Use funny examples, like Drippy Pope, to introduce the concept, but make sure the danger is highlighted as well.
Make legislation around AI a high priority in your voting (or legislation, if you hold a public office). If you have kids in school or work in a school, talk with the principal about curriculum or one-off classes you could hold to inform students and parents about the dangers of AI and how to use it safely and wisely.
Despite the challenges, do not fear! Good people like you can make changes and protect the next generation from further harm related to AI.
For more information and ideas on how to protect your family, visit my Blog for more posts around internet safety.
Until next time!
Casey
