Artificial Intelligence has hit what we like to call peak media and we expect headlines to be flooded with AI “firsts” throughout 2023. From the first AI-powered ‘robot’ lawyer scheduled to represent a defendant in traffic court—a plan which had to be scrapped after legal threats—to even the “World’s first AI news anchor unveiled in China,” it’s clear that AI investments in 2023 are skyrocketing at a pace you wouldn’t believe even if we showed you. It’s a party some of us don’t feel invited to. In fact, AI has generated a party of completely fictional women created in an astonishing 0.1 seconds.
Before you scramble for an AI-proof doomsday shelter, let us stress that you’re completely safe. For now.
The AI timeline is growing at supersonic speeds, with ChatGPT quickly becoming a household name and others sure to follow in its viral wake. If you have a student at home who’s suddenly wordsmithing majestic, Tolkein-esque term papers, you may want to check their browser history. Microsoft recently acquired the open-source platform OpenAI in a jaw-dropping, multi-billion dollar investment. This chatbot has limitless capabilities that can understand, respond to, and converse with users. If used properly, it can be prompted to deliver any piece of text. If you’re stuck trying to code an enhancement to your website, just ask it the right questions and it will print the necessary code to insert into your backend. In June of 2020, the AI journey fueled up with ChatGPT’s launch. Google sounded their alarms with a ‘Code Red’ for Google’s Search Business as it scrambled to find a solution for the rise of AI. Soon, we might not even “google” answers to our problems. It looks as though Microsoft is challenging the search engine titan by offering a virtual assistant that is ever knowing and all-powerful. Let’s look at the massive open-source sourcing floodgates that ChatGPT opened in just the past 3 years.
ChatGPT-3 originally had 175,000,000,000 parameters. Before summer, ChatGPT-4 is expected to go full-multimodal and improve to become 500 times more powerful than before. Beyond text, it will offer video and audio. This means your new favorite playlist could simply contain a bunch of AI-generated music that is indistinguishable from your favorite artists. Imagine the last time you truly loved a song and craved to find that hair-raising feeling again. That desire may soon be met by AI.
This technology is also being adopted by global brands to help drive sales and attract new customers. Leading the way are NVIDIA, Intel, Salesforce, and Sentient Technologies. Software such as DaVinci AI is improving lives for VFX artists and post-production specialists in movies, TV shows, and commercials as one of the best audiovisual software delivered at no cost. It raises the question, why is AI being beta tested on the public for free? Maybe we should google “AI-proof doomsday shelter”… while we still have Google.
Here are some innovations we can expect from the future of AI:
Virtual Entertainment
AI-generated actors can use scripts to your liking. Box office hits can also be predicted based on their storylines. Weddings might no longer feature the “Cha Cha Slide”. Here’s a link if you want to give it a final playthrough, just one last time. AI will create a more personalized experience for all users.
Travel
There will be a rise in self-driving vehicles and autonomous trucking. The freeways could become safer even for manually-driven vehicles when cargo can cruise across high-speed roadways in autonomous vehicles, without the risk of human error due to dozing off or changing lanes.
Safety
People who require assistance to keep nutritious food at hand, shovel their driveways, maintain personal hygiene, or move heavy objects could assign those tasks to AI assistants. Military operations in our oceans will change with detection that can more easily spot lurking submarines. Bomb squads could safely send in a few of robots to clear buildings and dispose of explosives. Taxing jobs like warehousing, mining, or even firefighting may also be handled from control stations, out of harm’s reach.
Security
Hackers are seemingly untouchable and one step ahead. AI programs can be deployed to detect odd patterns or attempts at uploading a malicious attack on your system. Identity theft may also see a sharp decline with advancements in AI protection, though some cybersecurity professionals have also raised concerns over the increased risk for social engineering with AI-generated content.
Health
Patient diagnosis could become much more accurate and precise. AI will aid doctors by transcribing notes, entering patient data into portals with ease, and possibly serving as a second opinion. Global pharmaceutical companies are already heavily invested in drug development for major diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, asthma, and more. The human lifespan may soon spike as we treat and categorize aging as a set of diseases.
Regardless of your reservations, Artificial Intelligence is here and it’s growing in what now seems to be part of the natural progression of our society. Luckily, we ran predictions through AI to test whether or not it will become sentient, and we were quickly assured it will not. We were then given a link to AI-generated jazz and told to sit back and relax.
