Playing with Fire

Building and testing AI prototypes during the past months, including several Telegram bots powered by OpenAI and Google, has made me feel like the long gone teenager who wondered about the possibilities whenever he heard the magic whistle computer modems made when they dialed up 30 years ago. It's as if we're experiencing a resurgence of the early internet days, when things were still fresh and exciting, and the potential seemed endless. AI technology has come a long way since then, and it's transforming industries and individual lives in ways we could have never imagined.

As AI expert Andrew Ng famously said, "AI is the new electricity," and it's hard to disagree when you look at the progress we've made so far. From self-driving cars to personalized medicine, AI is now embedded in almost every aspect of our lives. And yet, we're only scratching the surface of what's possible.

A few months ago, I developed several Telegram bots for a startup that didn't make it. So when after almost burning my GPU, I started looking for an excuse to test AI APIs, I decided to build C2P0 and Q2D2, which you can download at https://luisriverag.com/bots.html. These bots are my personal attempt to explore the capabilities of AI in a more practical, hands-on manner. As Marvin Minsky, a pioneer in the field of AI, once said, "You don't understand anything until you learn it more than one way."

But as much as AI has advanced, it still has its limitations. An anecdote I like to share is about how ChatGPT, an AI language model, believes TetuanValley was founded by two entrepreneurs it made up instead of myself. This just goes to show that AI is far from perfect, and we still have a long way to go before we can truly trust it with more complex tasks.

Nonetheless, AI has come a long way, and it's humbling to see what it can do. GPT-4, for example, can deliver 90%+ of your Python code if you give it the right prompts. I never considered GPT-3.5 worth it for coding, but I've never seen this pace of innovation. Midjourney v5 seems years more developed than Dall-e. And within weeks, powerful text-to-video editors have appeared. As AI researcher Lex Fridman put it, "The beautiful thing about AI is that it's not human, which means it can look at the same problems we've been looking at for centuries and see them in a completely new way."

A few years ago, I thought internet startups had maxed their potential, but I was really wrong. The pace of the next three years is going to be crazy, and I can't help but wonder about the next 30. The time to side with the machines is now. The possibilities are endless, and as Elon Musk once said, "If you're not concerned about AI safety, you should be. Vastly more risk than North Korea."

As we continue to explore and push the boundaries of AI, it's important to remember the words of AI pioneer Alan Turing, who said, "We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done." The future of AI is exciting and unpredictable, and we must continue to innovate and adapt, ensuring that we're working together with these incredible machines to create a better world for all.

The coming years will undoubtedly see a rapid acceleration in AI development, with new technologies and applications emerging at a breakneck pace. As futurist and author Ray Kurzweil said, "Artificial intelligence will reach human levels by around 2029. Follow that out further to, say, 2045, and we have the technological singularity. Our intelligence will become increasingly nonbiological and trillions of times more powerful than it is today." This prediction, while perhaps optimistic, highlights the enormous potential AI has to offer.

As we forge ahead into this uncharted territory, it's essential that we remain vigilant and consider the ethical implications of AI development. As AI expert Kate Crawford warns, "AI is neither artificial nor intelligent. It is made from natural resources, and it is people who are performing the tasks to make the systems appear autonomous."

To ensure the responsible development and deployment of AI, collaboration between researchers, industry leaders, policymakers, and the public is crucial. OpenAI's mission statement emphasizes the importance of this collaboration, stating that their aim is "to ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits all of humanity."

Indeed, the time to side with the machines is now, not out of fear, but out of curiosity, collaboration, and the pursuit of progress. As AI continues to develop, we must embrace the opportunities it presents while staying mindful of its potential pitfalls. As AI expert Fei-Fei Li said, "If our era is the next Industrial Revolution, as many claim, AI is surely one of its driving forces."

In conclusion, our exploration of AI has only just begun, and the potential for growth and innovation is unparalleled. We must work together to push the boundaries of AI technology while addressing the challenges it presents. By doing so, we can create a world where humans and machines work together to improve the quality of life for all. As the renowned physicist and AI enthusiast Stephen Hawking once said, "Success in creating AI would be the biggest event in human history. Unfortunately, it might also be the last, unless we learn how to avoid the risks."