Recently the Montezuma County League of Women Voters hosted a presentation on Artificial Intelligence by Ben Burkett. Ben audits large corporate accounts and uses AI daily, both at work and at home, to save time and boost efficiency. His talk was timely, with insights worth sharing broadly.
Cellphones, the internet and social media have reshaped our world over recent decades, but AI probably moved from the realm of science fiction into daily life faster than almost any technology before it. It can compose emails, do research, plan trips or brainstorm. It’s a powerful tool, but like any tool, it’s important to understand both its strengths and weaknesses.
Speed is AI’s biggest strength. According to Ben, tasks that once took him days or weeks can now be accomplished in hours. For the casual user, that time can shrink to minutes. It can perform repetitive tasks and best of all for night owls, it’s available around the clock!
On the downside, AI can generate inaccurate information that sounds accurate, a flaw known as “hallucination.” It has also been shown to reflect biases built into the system. Elon Musk’s chatbot, Grok, has shown significant bias, with responses occasionally altered to reflect Musk’s personal viewpoints. Privacy is also a concern because the platforms store and learn from what users type in. A greater concern is job displacement and relying on AI to perform tasks that require human judgment, such as medicine, law, hiring and war. On an encouraging note, AI has been shown to boost cancer detection rates in mammogram readings by roughly 20%, but only when paired with radiologists as a “second set of eyes.”
Numerous AI platforms are now available, but they are not all the same and should be chosen based on the needs of the user:
- ChatGPT (OpenAI): Perhaps the most widely used AI assistant, it’s great for general tasks, brainstorming and writing, but prone to hallucinations and lacks human empathy.
- Claude (Anthropic): Can handle massive amounts of instructions and long documents, uses natural phrasing, excels in step-by-step problem-solving with a framework to reduce bias and prevent the generation of harmful content, but has fewer built-in features.
- Gemini (Google): Built into Gmail and Google platforms, it’s excellent for current Google users and top tier at generating images.
- Perplexity: Useful for research and fact-checking, as it provides citations.
- Midjourney: A text-to-image platform that is regarded as a leader in that space.
Most of these platforms offer free tiers, great for a test drive or limited use.
Ben emphasized that while AI can complete tasks rapidly, condensing weeks of work into a few hours, it still requires human oversight. Reviewing AI-generated documents requires the input and expertise of humans who have done that work without the benefit of AI. My question was, “What happens when humans without that on-the-ground experience are at the helm of overseeing AI?”
Recently, Pope Leo issued his first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas” (Magnificent Humanity), citing AI as the biggest challenge facing humanity today. He believes a “culture of power” is driving the AI race, especially in developing ever more sophisticated methods of remote warfare. He also expressed concern about AI replacing human jobs and human intelligence. Ethical considerations, he wrote, are critical when making important policy decisions, because “a moral AI is not enough if that morality is determined by a few.” He calls for regulation of this powerful technology and urges AI developers to be guided by ethical and spiritual principles, working “not for their own profit or power but the betterment of humanity.”
AI has great potential: cures for cancer, solutions to knotty problems, cleaner sources of energy and answers to world hunger. But there is a downside, too, which requires each of us to stay engaged on this topic and share our concerns with our legislators.
Karen Sheek of Cortez chairs the Montezuma County League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan organization, and is a former Cortez mayor and city councilor. Contact lwvmzc@gmail.com or find the League on Facebook at https://tinyurl.com/bdcjr8pn.
