Between the pope in a puffy jacket, garments shielding from facial recognition, and calls by the tech elite for a halt to AI research

Artificial intelligence (AI) has caused a great furor recently. It started with the AI language model ChatGPT from OpenAI, in which Microsoft invested USD10 billion to incorporate OpenAI‘s services in its own products. Then the entire tech community started to talk about generative AI again. Google, for example, invested USD300 million in a 10% stake in Anthropic, an AI company founded by former OpenAI employees.

To celebrate its 150th anniversary, German brewery Beck‘s will be launching Autonomous, a limited-edition, futuristic beer developed by AI.

On a different note, AI-generated pictures appeared on the internet of the Pope as a rapper with an oversized down jacket. These deepfake pictures were generated by software from Midjourney, which has now stopped its free AI imaging, fearing misuse. (Midjourney selected Google Cloud’s AI accelerators, Tensor Processor Units (TPUs), which are custom developed, to train its model.)

Finally, there are non-tech start-ups, such as the Italian fashion label Cap_able, which recently created its Manifesto Collection. This “wearable algorithm to protect our identity” offers garments with woven patterns with “adversarial” patches that protect the wearer’s biometric data. In other words, AI cannot categorize the object, i.e., the garments shield from facial recognition.

Image: via Reddit / u/trippy_art_special // via Cap_able

On a more positive note, AI is able to automate manual processes by performing repetitive tasks. This frees up time for employees to focus on more complex and creative work, leading to higher productivity and job satisfaction. On the other hand, AI can make businesses more efficient – AI algorithms can process vast amounts of data faster than humans, meaning that AI-powered systems can identify patterns and generate insights that humans may overlook, leading to better decision-making, cost reduction, and improved efficiency.

Nevertheless, AI is currently faced with heated controversy:

1. As AI continues to automate routine tasks, there is a risk of job losses for specific tasks and industries. This can lead to unemployment and economic inequality. It is essential to upskill and reskill workers to make sure they can adapt to the changing job market.

2. AI algorithms are only as unbiased as the data they are trained on. If the data contains bias (“poison the well”), the AI system will also be biased. This can lead to unfair decisions and reinforce existing societal bias.

3. AI-powered systems collect and process vast amounts of data, causing privacy concerns. It is essential to ensure that data is collected, stored, and processed in an ethical and transparent manner.

4. AI systems lack empathy and emotional intelligence. This can disadvantage healthcare and customer service, where human interaction is crucial.

As AI increasingly competes with humans when it comes to general tasks, an open letter (signed, among others, by Elon Musk, Evan Sharp, Sinéad Bovell, and Yoshua Bengio) was published, demanding that giant AI experiments and AI training for models stronger than ChatGPT-4 be paused. The AI experts cite risks to society. (As a side note, there was an open letter in 2015 that called for research to be done on the societal impacts of AI to prevent scientists from creating unsafe or uncontrollable AI. This was also signed by Elon Musk, for example.)