Chronicle poll results: Artificial intelligence
We asked our readers if they are concerned with the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence. Here's what they said.
Last week, the Chronicle asked its readers in an electronic poll the following question: “Are you concerned with the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI)?” Of the 200 people who responded, 56% said “very concerned”; 30% said, “somewhat concerned”; 11% said, “not concerned”; and 3% said they didn’t know. Comments were submitted by 43 people. A few follow.
We have trouble telling truth from fiction, now we will have to worry about human or machine. Totally frightening!
I am cautiously optimistic about the benefits, yet I have seen enough sci-fi to be concerned.
I believe that it’s a new monster that we will unfortunately come to know all too soon.
Truth be told, I am way more concerned with the rapid decline of actual human intelligence.
We are already losing interpersonal skills to our detriment and AI will further deteriorate human interaction.
It is a genuine threat. I hope people will take it seriously and not think of it as a partisan issue to fight over. I know a lot of people scoff at this, and others get indignant over “so much government regulation,” but we regulate for health and safety. This is definitely a health and safety issue. I hope everyone tries to convince their members of Congress to set partisanship aside and work on this.
If it’s artificial, it ain’t “intelligence”!
As a writer and teacher of writing, I value the imagination, creativity and originality of all
individuals. AI threatens that; it will squelch our independent thinking and turn us into robots who allow a machine to think and act for us. I fear that AI has more negatives than positives to it. Instead, let’s use our minds and money to improve the education of all our children and make our nation one of engaged, curious, capable citizens.
As with any new technology, it can be used for good as well as for bad. We shouldn’t prevent progress, but instead learn how to mitigate unintended consequences and work to prevent nefarious usage.
I am concerned that we are not preparing ourselves for it sufficiently. As with other matters, we have been warned ahead and have failed to think about it until it is nearly too late.
Maybe I’ve read too many sci-fi books, but it seems to me that with AI’s ability to problem-solve, eventually people will become irrelevant. Some of the best minds around have already warned us of this possibility. And yet from a scientific point of view, it’s so tempting… PJC
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