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In my last post, I have elaborated on the disturbing consequences of AI, with a focus on deep fake videos. My purpose of this post was to go into the entertainment functions of ChatGPT. However, while writing it, some concerns came up to me.  

Everybody knows that ChatGPT has an answer to (almost) everything. You forgot what Socrates’ beliefs were? ChatGPT gives you an overview. You want a good recommendation for a restaurant when you are on holiday in Italy? ChatGPT has one. You are looking for a recipe with zucchini and potatoes? ChatGPT will provide one.

However, I am asking myself if we should ask everything to ChatGPT. Why don’t we look anything up in a book anymore? You can have entire conversations with AI-robots. Will this lead to a society in which people will find it more and more difficult to speak to somebody in person? Think about all the (young) people nowadays that have a fear of calling. Will new generations still be able to think for themselves, or will they rely on AI?

On the other side, I am wondering if we make use of ChatGPT enough. I think ChatGPT has much more to offer than we use it for. For example, I asked ChatGPT if I could play a game with it. ChatGPT gave me a few options: trivia, riddles, word games, or something I came up with. I asked for the riddles, and ChatGPT repeated itself after the second riddle. However, the riddles were not standard, I haven’t heard from them before.

Furthermore, I asked the tool to create a short humorous story about a weasel living in Rotterdam. Within seconds, a well written funny story was created (see below). While I am amazed how you can experiment with ChatGPT, I also think it decreases people’s creativity. Furthermore, readers are able to see the differences between a text made by ChatGPT or by a human being. However, as ChatGPT will keep evolving, in a few years, the texts made by ChatGPT may become undistinguishable from “real” texts. Therefore, the question might rise, whether ChatGPT will take over the work from writers in a few years?

What do you think? Is ChatGPT just a great contribution? We can learn a lot from it, and it can make our life easier, for example by simply telling what store to go to. Or does it also decreases our creativity and independence? In the end, are we able to be entertained without ChatGPT and other AI tools?

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Artificial Intelligence has present many opportunities. However, AI tools also can have disturbing consequences. In this blog, I will elaborate on this, using the example of deep fake. Deep fake includes the use of deep learning in order to create an image or a video of fake occurrences (Sample, 2020). The tool is continuously developing and is getting better and better. In the first stages of the development of the tool, it was clear that the videos were fake. However, since the technology is improving, soon (or already?) it will be impossible to recognize whether it is real or fake.

These deep fake videos create many opportunities. For example, using deep fake, a short video of Anne Frank is created in order to create a deeper understanding of the Holocaust (Ribbens, 2021). However, while this use is for educational purposes, Sample (2020) explains that most of these deep fake videos are pornographic in which celebrities are the main character.

Another example of deep fake is the following video of “Barack Obama”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ54GDm1eL0&ab_channel=BuzzFeedVideo .

As you can imagine, while this video is “funny”, it addresses the possibility that “Obama” can “say” disturbing things. And since this tool is accessible for everyone, the question rises: “How can we ensure that AI tools are used properly?”

In my opinion, the most important is to create awareness and educate people how they can distinguish a real video from a fake. Making the tools less accessible would be another solution, but the implementation of this would be very hard. Another solution would be to have every video controlled by a team. However, the whole purpose of creating a deep fake in a few minutes would not be possible anymore. Another possible solution could be to rise the prices. While this would make it less attractive for some people, I think it mostly would discourage the people who would use it for positive objectives.

In short, while funny and creative deep fake videos take over the entire internet, it is an AI-driven tool that can also be used for disturbing purposes. With fake pornographic videos made, and influential people in the deep fake videos, it is clear that not everyone is using the tool for educational or entertainment goals. However, isn’t there a downside to all the AI tools?

Bibliography

Ribbens, K. (2021, April 8). Is DeepFake the Future of Holocaust Memory? – The British and Irish Association for Holocaust Studies. https://biahs.co.uk/2021/04/08/is-deepfake-the-future-of-holocaust-memory/

Sample, I. (2020, January 13). What are deepfakes – and how can you spot them? The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jan/13/what-are-deepfakes-and-how-can-you-spot-them