Just in the last week, I attended a number of networking
sessions in the burbs here in Chicago, and with many of the people I have met, the
bulk of the discussion has been around AI.
Some people asked me what my thoughts on AI were, and I simply said that
it is a piece of technology like everything else.
It has its good and bad, but I also mentioned to them that
we are in a bubble right now. Just like
the .com craze, this AI bubble will burst also, probably sooner than later.
As I wrote in a recent blog, AI has been around since the
1950s. How come nobody paid attention to
it back then, and all of a sudden, it is causing so much hysteria? Well, it all comes down to one entity called
Open AI.
They are the creators of ChatGPT, and it is something that
has caught the world by storm. As far as
I know (and I am no expert), this is probably the most sophisticated piece of
tool out there that has become available to the mass markets.
Pretty much everybody can use it, and as far as I know, it
is still free to use. There is a paid
subscription to it, it is called the “Enterprise” version, and I believe that
it is only $20.00 per month. But also keep
in mind, ChatGPT also has its severe limitations as well, and I elaborated on
this in detail in a recent whitepaper that I wrote for a client.
Back to the discussions I had, some people had even mentioned
how their kids were using it for their papers and projects. But as I chimed in, as much as cheating here could
be happening, teachers and professors are also quickly adopting tools to see if
ChatGPT has been used or not.
I even talked to a couple of attorneys, who were fearful of
AI. I told them that human intervention is
always needed, so the fears of people losing jobs, etc. is still a pipe dream, in my opinion.
But AI is never going to go away. It will be around with us for a long time to
come, with more advances to come into the future. Will it be like Star Trek technology? Possibly in decades, but nothing in our
lifetimes. So, this brings up another
question:
As much as data privacy has become under the scrutiny if the
GDPR and the CCPA, will AI follow suit?
In other words, should there be separate pieces of legislation governing
the safe and fair use of AI?
Well, it all starts back to Microsoft. This company has always been on the cutting edge
of technology, especially when it came to AI.
So when it saw the potential of Open AI, it immediately sought to form a
partnership with them, which actually transpired back in 2019. From what I understand, Microsoft injected
about $1 billion into Open AI.
But truth to be told, it wasn’t a straight cash
donation. Rather, Microsoft offered Open
AI a bunch of free deals (that was actually worth the $1 billion) so that the Chat
GPT platform could be hosted on Azure.
So because of this, Microsoft and Open AI have now fostered
a very deep relationship, which essentially gives the software giant the upper
hand in the AI market. Because of this,
the question of why this did not come under the scrutiny of the Federal
Government?
In other words, why are some many other M and A deals come
under this microscope, but why not this one?
There is no clear-cut answer to this.
My only assumption is that since AI is so new to everybody, there was no
legal precedence in hand to regulate this kind of business transaction.
Many people feel that this should have been regulated, but
it never was. Now, even people are
questioning if this partnership will stifle innovation, because it is all
hosted on Azure. This is actually a
complex question to answer.
In one sense, yes, ChatGPT should be available on open-source
platforms as well. But this can expand
the attack surface probably at least 10X more than what the current fears
are.
Also keep in mind that Azure is not just a Microsoft centric
platform. It has also embraced the open-source
model as well, in order to keep up with AWS.
But don’t worry, Microsoft has its keenly aware it. In the end, it will do everything it can to
be at the forefront of AI.
Meaning, if people want to see ChatGPT on open-sourced
platforms, Microsoft will make sure that this happens.
This has been technically referred to as the “Walled Garden”. It simply means that each of the major tech vendors
(like Google, AWS, Oracle, Meta, etc.). will create their own ChatGPT like
tools. While this will perhaps give the consumer
a greater product choice when it comes to AI, the critics have also claimed
here as well that this too will stifle innovation and growth.
My Thoughts On This:
To be honest, I am rather excited to see where the growth
and technological advances in AI will take us.
But yet, I approach with a strong sense of caution. I am not worried about if it replaces jobs,
this will never happen. But I am simply
afraid that the hysteria brought on by the media will only fuel the mayhem which
is happening right now.
There needs to be some control over that.
But back to the fundamental question: Do we need AI laws like we do for data privacy? I think at some point we will, but perhaps
not right now. I think what is really
needed most is to keep a proactive eye on the AI landscape that is
developing. In this regard, I think the Biden
Administration has done a very good job with this, at least so far.
There needs to be some sort of framework that is evolving which
can easily be translated into law when the need arises. But the big caveat here is that the law needs
to keep up with the pace of technology. And
AI will be advancing very quickly.
To get more viewpoints into ChatGPT and AI general, follow
these links:
https://www.darkreading.com/remote-workforce/pentesters-need-to-hack-ai-question-its-existence
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