Microsoft has been reportedly experimenting with building OpenAI’s language AI technology into its Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook apps. The Information reports that Microsoft has already incorporated an unknown version of OpenAI’s text-generating GPT model into Word in its autocomplete feature, and has been working on integrating it further into Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
“Due to concerns about negative impacts on student learning, and concerns regarding the safety and accuracy of content, access to ChatGPT is restricted on New York City Public Schools’ networks and devices,” education department spokesperson Jenna Lyle told Motherboard in a statement. “While the tool may be able to provide quick and easy answers to questions, it does not build critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, which are essential for academic and lifelong success.”
The panic and hype around the surprisingly dumb chatbot is stopping us from talking about real issues with AI.
ChatGPT is more about bullshitting than creativity, which serves as a neat metaphor for what has happened with our technology sector and how it “feels like a giant organ for bullshittery―for upscaling human access to speech and for amplifying lies.” When Bogost sat down with ChatGPT, he found something similar to what moderators at Stack Overflow did.
A close-up image of a silicon mono-crystal. Silicon is a crucial component in AI. Image: Catherine Breslin / Better Images of AI / Silicon Closeup / CC-BY 4.0
Capability overhang is a technical term, but it also perfectly describes what’s happening right now as AI enters the public domain. For years, researchers have been on a tear, pumping out new models faster than they can be commercialized. But in 2022, a glut of new apps and programs have suddenly made these skills available to a general audience, and in 2023, as we continue scaling this new territory, things will start changing — fast.
The situation is both absurd and entirely predictable. AI models like ChatGPT make use of large language models (LLMs), a type of AI model trained on billions of examples scraped from the web. These models don’t actually understand human language—they merely generate natural-sounding text by predicting what word will come next, based on training data and the previous words in a sequence. They’re also infamous for reproducing racist and sexist stereotypes, which AI companies have attempted to filter and suppress with extremely spotty results.
“I see people on both sides of this extremely confident in their positions, but the reality is nobody knows,” Baio, who’s been following the generative AI scene closely, told The Verge. “And anyone who says they know confidently how this will play out in court is wrong.”
:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/10793349/acastro_180507_1777_microsoft_0002.jpg)
:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24275829/CatherineBreslin_SiliconCloseup_2650x1767.jpg)
:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24175864/226390_AI_Generated_Art_Copyright_MMatic_001.jpg)