A few decades ago, artificial intelligence (AI) was just a fantasy idea from movies and novels. Today, it is rapidly integrated into all aspects of our lives. From medical diagnoses to self-driving cars, from social media algorithms to military systems, AI is already changing the world. Already now it is possible to say with confidence how much the use of technology has simplified and accelerated the everyday processes of human activity – from routine to creative. But every day, society begins to worry more and more about the question – what if humanity’s greatest invention becomes its greatest curse?
The world is on the threshold of an era when artificial intelligence will not just automate routine tasks, but will surpass the human mind in many aspects. After all, it is impossible to deny the fact that technologies that should make our lives easier are already becoming tools of manipulation, control and mass unemployment. The time is probably not far off when a superintelligence will be able to dictate the rules of the game itself.
Artificial intelligence in our life
As of 2023, Ukraine ranked 55th for Index government’s readiness to implement artificial intelligence (Government AI Readiness Index).
At the same time, in the international ranking of the use of artificial intelligence in 2023, Ukraine entered the group of countries with the lowest rate, including Guatemala, Paraguay, Venezuela, and El Salvador.
According to the data poll According to the Razumkov Center, only 42% of surveyed Ukrainians have a rough idea of what artificial intelligence is, and 33.9% do not know what it is at all. On the other hand, 24% are sure that they know the new technology well.
Regarding the popularity of the GPT chatbot, the following picture emerged:
- 8.6% of respondents actively use it at work;
- 64% do not use it;
- 9% do not know what it is.
At the same time, it is worth noting that people aged 18 to 39 perceive the GPT chatbot only as entertainment.
The areas of use of AI are very diverse. Today, the capabilities of new technology are increasingly being used in education. Yes for data The All-Ukrainian study of the prospects of AI in school education, conducted in September-October 2023 at the initiative of the Small Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the Projector Institute, found that 76% of teachers used AI at least once. Educators note that they use AI services in their activities to prepare for classes, create tests for homework, during lessons, as well as to test students’ knowledge and even in extracurricular work.
In addition, the younger a teacher is, the more willing he is to use the latest technology in his work. Schoolchildren are generally willing to use AI. Thus, 91% of schoolchildren know at least one of AI services, and 78% of respondents actively use them. 6 out of 10 surveyed students have already used AI services when preparing homework. 85% of children used AI at least once, and a third of them do so at least weekly. Also, about 40% say that they used AI during lessons at school.
The top use of digital technologies by students and their teachers is as follows:
- ChatGPT – 68% of users;
- the project from “Na uroko” – 49% of users;
- Bard Google – 16% of users;
- Midjourney – 15% of users;
- Grammarly – 14% of users;
- Notion AI – 7% of users;
- Stable Diffusion – 4% of users.
However, 39% of teachers do not intend to advise their students to use AI in education. This is explained by the fact that the shortcomings of technology, in particular in its use for educational needs, are also obvious to educators. Among the problems, teachers point out the inability of schoolchildren to use primary sources and discover really correct information, since they simply rely on AI data. In turn, AI makes elementary logical errors, or the data it relies on may contain inaccuracies or be no longer relevant.
AI is also actively used in the business sphere. This is indicated data a survey of the educational laboratory Projector Al Lab, conducted among employees of 150 Ukrainian companies in the summer of 2023:
- 51% of respondents noted that they use AI in their work “from time to time”:
- 22% of respondents use technology “often”;
- 20% of respondents indicated that they use it “rarely” or not at all.
The most active users of artificial intelligence among the surveyed companies were designers (65%). They are followed by copywriters (52%), marketing and PR representatives (49%), team leaders (39%) and development engineers (21%).
With the help of AI, they solve such tasks as:
- generation of ideas -66%;
- creating images – 58%;
- creation and processing of video/audio – 8%;
- writing or editing texts – 81%;
- translation into another language – 41%;
- automation of business processes -13.
44% of respondents see an advantage in using this technology in their work, as it contributes to increasing speed, and therefore increasing labor productivity. 18% of respondents pointed to help in creativity. Only 6% mentioned possible job loss or other negative impact on career and profession as risks.
How artificial intelligence was born
Artificial intelligence is not a new phenomenon. His idea was born long before the advent of modern technologies. In a few decades, humanity has gone from fantastic ideas to the creation of systems that affect all aspects of life. The first ideas about creating mechanisms that can think appeared in antiquity. So, as far back as the 17th century, the philosopher René Descartes suggested that thinking can be reproduced as a mechanical process.
And already in the 18th century, a mechanical automaton named “Turkish chess player” was invented. This machine pretended to be a game of chess, although it was only a trick. It had the appearance of a pedestal with a chessboard installed on it, next to which there was a sculpture of a man in Turkish clothes. From 1770 until its destruction by fire in 1854, various owners presented the device as an automaton, although it was eventually proven to be an elaborate hoax and the device was covertly operated by a human. It was designed in 1770 by Wolfgang von Kempelen to impress Empress Maria Theresa. The mechanism was perceived as an artificial chess player capable of beating any human opponent. And although it eventually turned out to be controlled by a person, it was humanity’s first attempt at creating a new technology.
In 1936, Alan Turing developed the “Turing machine”, a concept that laid the foundation for modern computing systems. And in 1943, Walter Pitts and Warren McCulloch created a mathematical model of neurons, which became the foundation for neural networks.
The 1950s and 1960s are considered the birth period of artificial intelligence itself. The term “artificial intelligence” was first proposed in 1956 at the Dartmouth Conference. This year is considered the official start of the era of AI.
In 1956, the first AI programs capable of solving mathematical problems appeared. And already in the 1960s, the first chat bots, such as ELIZA, started working. They were able to simulate communication with a psychotherapist. But at that time, the capabilities of AI were very limited. He could perform tasks only according to a clearly prescribed algorithm of actions.
In the future, despite great enthusiasm, the development of AI encountered serious limitations. There was a lack of quality data. And scientists constantly encountered difficulties that did not meet their expectations. During this period, the funding of AI research was significantly reduced, which was called the “artificial intelligence winter”. It was only in the 1990s that a new impetus for the development of artificial intelligence capabilities appeared. During this period, machine learning algorithms began to be developed, which allowed systems to learn on their own based on data. And so, in 1997, IBM’s Deep Blue computer defeats world champion Garry Kasparov in chess. This was a turning point in understanding the capabilities of AI. Systems are attracting attention and are being actively used for data analysis, process automation, and forecasting.
In the future, the Internet and the increase in the volume of digital data became a catalyst for the development of AI. New approaches emerged, such as deep learning, which enabled neural networks to analyze vast amounts of information. In 2011, AI’s ability to understand complex questions was first demonstrated when IBM’s Watson won the televised Jeopard game. In 2012, a neural network from Google learned to recognize images of cats without human help.
Modern AI is integrated into all aspects of life. People use helper bots like Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant. AI algorithms make it possible to detect cancer tumors in the early stages, predict disease risks and personalize treatment. Adaptive learning platforms help students learn in a convenient way, taking into account their pace and level.
Tesla’s self-driving cars and air traffic control systems demonstrate how AI can improve safety and efficiency. Intelligent algorithms analyze markets, automate processes and increase profitability. AI is used for intelligence, controlling drones and even developing autonomous weapons.
We are now on the verge of an era where artificial intelligence can surpass human intelligence. Superintelligence can solve global problems or become an uncontrollable threat. And now society is faced with the task of finding a balance between the use of AI and the preservation of its own uniqueness.
The dark side of artificial intelligence
However, not everything is so rosy with the use of artificial intelligence. Research, conducted by scientists from the University of Pennsylvania (USA) found that the use of artificial intelligence in the educational process can negatively affect the quality of students’ knowledge. When performing tasks with the GPT chat, the group of students completed 48% more tasks correctly than those who studied independently. But, at the same time, the group that used AI had 17% worse results compared to students who studied independently. As it turned out, the participants of the experiment did not even read the test questions, but simply asked ready-made answers from the AI, which made it difficult to develop problem-solving skills. The AI itself made mistakes in arithmetic calculations in 8% of cases, and in approaches to problem solving in 42% of cases. While the students were sure that their answers were 100% correct and significantly overestimated their abilities, blindly trusting AI.
It should be understood that AI is far from perfect. In 2018, an autonomous Uber car fatally struck a pedestrian due to mistaken object recognition. In 2020, the driver of a Tesla electric car activated the Full Self-Driving autonomous control system, which failed to make a turn, causing the car to collide with one of the white and green pillars. Several similar accidents due to FSD were also recorded in 2021 in Texas, Canada and Norway.
Amazon’s hiring algorithms were found to be biased against women because of the skewed data they were trained on. AI turned out to be a real sexist. So in 2014, Amazon created an algorithm that was supposed to analyze resumes and motivational letters of job seekers, and then rate them on a scale of one to five. In 2015, it turned out that the artificial intelligence was missing a questionnaire with the word “woman”. They tried to edit the program, but it was still considered unreliable and closed.
In fact, there are many threats from the use of such technology. Generative AI like ChatGPT or MidJourney already creates fake images, texts and videos. This opens the door to massive disinformation campaigns. Hackers use AI to create viruses, and terrorist groups use AI to develop autonomous attack systems.
In the hands of talented authors, AI is able to become exactly the necessary tool for improving their activities. Combined with the imagination and creativity of people, AI is becoming a new tool that allows writers to reach new heights and get a vision of their own books from the side of the program. Beginning authors can learn new aspects of their activities and the formation of full-fledged stories and poetry with the help of AI, and professional writers discover new directions of creativity and analysis of their plots.
Don’t think that writing books with AI is a bad thing. No need to let the program do everything for you. It only provides the necessary materials, available examples and analysis of the author’s ideas, but the same author is still at the helm of the fantasy ship and only he can decide how best to use the help of AI when writing a book. The program opens up new horizons for all people and gives an opportunity to look at the creative process in a new way, to acquire the initial necessary skills and to improve one’s own author’s ideas, polishing them to perfection.
However, despite all its usefulness, AI has already managed to cause certain inconveniences in the e-book market. One such case happened at Amazon, forcing it to limit the sale of e-books on its own Kindle Direct Publishing platform. As the representatives of the company explained, this limitation was caused by significant book spam, during which the sale of e-books generated with the help of AI increased. It was to reduce this spam that the company introduced significant restrictions on the sale of such books. Now on the platform, users can publish no more than three books for sale per day.
In early September, the company warned all authors that AI-generated content would now be tracked on the platform and would henceforth be subject to careful moderation. These innovations were created following the significant discovery of books created by AI that brazenly imitated the works of real talented authors. In August, The New York Times also published an interesting detailed investigation, during which it confirmed the fact that Amazon was selling generated books that were published on behalf of fake authors who had AI-generated photos on their avatars. Against the background of this threat of proliferation of content created by the hands of AI, significant market players working with artificial intelligence, such as Google, Microsoft and OpenAI, had to take full responsibility before the White House for the development of AI and the duty to use it in good faith in all areas human activity.
Today, there are many sites that generate information using AI on a daily basis. Usually, such sites have generic names like iBusiness Day or Daily Time Update and publish information in dozens of languages. For the creators of such sites, quality is not important, but quantity. And unfortunately, the audience that consumes such news is growing every day. In turn, the Google search engine does not recognize information created by AI, but willingly offers it in the top. Such deep fakes can not only misinform the population, but also lead to serious negative consequences for the well-being of the entire country.
Despite the fact that the use of AI raises such serious and truly worrying questions, Ukrainians still do not think about its use. Thus, returning to the survey of the Razumkov Center, we have a very ambiguous attitude towards the spread of AI technology on the part of society. 32.4% believe that the technology does not need any restrictions. And 27% of respondents do not think about it at all. Only 34% of Ukrainians indicated the need for control and restrictions.
Superintelligence is not just a technology, it is a challenge to the entire human civilization. We are already seeing how AI is changing the world: from personal assistants to autonomous weapons, from creating works of art to making critical decisions. But what happens when its power exceeds our ability to control?
We risk creating a being for whom humanity will become nothing more than another variable in the equation. Without proper regulation and ethical boundaries, a superintelligence can turn our ideals into tools to achieve its goals. His decisions can be so foreign to our logic that we don’t have time to understand when and why everything went wrong.
Are we ready to entrust our own future to a technology that we do not fully understand? This question is before each of us. The answer will determine whether the superintelligence will become our ally in building utopia, or will pass judgment on the existence of humanity. The future is upon us, and it is time for us to decide whether to open the door.
