The Power of AI

With the ability to pass notoriously difficult exams, compose complete articles and essays, or even assist software developers in coding – the power of AI has become the topic of discussion just about everywhere. At the centre of this conversation, you will find OpenAI, the company that launched the first-ever generative AI chatbot that reached a staggering 100 million users in just two months. The company recently made headlines again as it launched GPT 4, which featured some flashy upgrades to the software tool such as increasing the number of words that can be used in an input by 8 times, as well as the ability to process images alongside text (as was demonstrated by its infamous demo which coded an entire website based off a hand-drawn sketch). The technology is not flawless and is still in its early stages. ChatGPT can sometimes write plausible-sounding but outright incorrect answers. It can also exhibit the biases, stereotypes and general opinions that it picked up on the internet.

Nevertheless, the potential of AI has sent waves of both excitement and fear through the market. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang touted the company’s dominance in AI as he praised the rocketing demand for the company’s AI infrastructure and revealed that ChatGPT used 10,000 Nvidia GPUs to train the model. Bill Gates said that AI like ChatGPT is as revolutionary and significant as the invention of mobiles, PCs and the internet. Microsoft launched their Copilot program, which illustrates how they envision large language models being utilised to create some of the most powerful productivity tools on the planet. With Copilot embedded in your Microsoft 365 suite, users will now be able to use simple prompts to create detailed PowerPoints or conduct powerful trend analyses and data visualisations in Excel. With over 300 use cases identified to date and some analysts estimating that it could automate up to 46% of tasks in certain professions, it is difficult to not be taken aback by the potential of AI. Some tech leaders, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak included, have called for a halt
in the training of AI models more powerful than GPT 4. The open letter cites “profound risks to society and humanity” given the inadequate time for these labs to develop safety and security protocols to keep advanced AI tools in check. Although it is incredibly difficult to imagine which tech giant will lead the AI revolution, one thing is certain – ChatGPT has captured the world’s imagination.