“It’s great, but I can’t actually make it work reliably enough to offer it to our customers.”
reality-check
It now seems clear that much of the hype surrounding generative AI is overblown — if not a bubble — and some companies that have invested in the technology are learning this the hard way.
Technology flaws are hard to ignore. Large language models like ChatGPT are prone to hallucinations and disinformation. Both chatbots and AI image creators have been accused of ripping off writers and artists. In general, artificial intelligence devices consume a lot of energy, which leads to environmental degradation.
Perhaps most importantly, according to cognitive scientist and lead AI researcher Gary Marcus, companies are discovering that technology cannot be relied upon.
“It seems like almost everyone comes back with a report that says, ‘This is great, but I can’t make it work reliably enough to deliver to our customers,'” says Marcus. tell me Axios.
Customer service
It’s not hard to believe. A UK company had to disable its chatbot after it started insulting customers and talking inappropriately to their employers. A California car dealership had to do the same when a ChatGPT-powered car seller started offering cars to buyers for $1.
More depressingly, an airline was forced to pay damages after its chatbot lied to a grieving customer and told him that he would be guaranteed a bereavement discount later if he bought a full-price ticket to his grandmother’s funeral.
“No one wants to build a product on a model that builds things,” says Roman Chowdhury, CEO of AI consultancy Human Intelligence. Axios. “The fundamental problem is that GenAI models are not information retrieval systems,” he added. “They use crowdsourcing systems that have no way to separate them from the data they train on unless significant security measures are put in place.”
Bladder problems
For these and many other reasons, some experts warn that artificial intelligence is a bubble, just like cryptocurrency or dot-com startups. Expectations that artificial intelligence will become An industry worth over a trillion dollars The coming decade will surely remind us of the panic that always accompanies a boom before a recession.
From a technological perspective, some doubt that the technology will advance fast enough to sustain the hype and may even go through a long period of stagnation. Investors who have poured billions of dollars into the industry in a short period of time, hoping for a profitable turnaround, may not have the patience to hold on.
“It’s easy to say, ‘We’re only a few months away,'” Marcus said. Axios. “I don’t think we’re in that particular situation. I don’t believe that AI or AGI is impossible, but just because [this] “A particular technology has many problems.”
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