Grokking Grok

In a typically cavalier move, Elon Musk released an AI tool that disregards all the premises of safety engraved in the Bletchley declaration a few days after warning against the dangers of AI at that conference.

Arms control and AI

US and Chinese leaders are attending the APEC summit in San Francisco in an age of deteriorating international relationships and rapid innovation in defence, driven by new technology and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Doctoring the facts

Government and industry guardrails are urgently needed for Generative AI to protect the health and wellbeing of our communities, say Flinders University medical researchers who put the technology to the test.

Balancing the risks and rewards of AI

The tricky balance between innovation and safety in the realm of artificial intelligence means policymakers, intelligence agencies, industry, civil society and researchers must work together to shape the future.

It’s not alive – yet

Are the large language models which power AI chatbots “stochastic parrots”, which chatter convincingly without understanding a thing, or the harbinger of artificial life on Earth?

Regulating AI

We have seen extraordinary developments in generative AI over the past 12 months that underline the challenges we face in protecting these rights and principles.

So long SEO

The AI chatbots deployed by the big tech industry threaten to transform many aspects of the economy, including the US$68 billion search engine optimization industry that companies like Google helped to create.

AI can strengthen democracy

AI, like every transformative technology, threatens the status quo for both good and ill, but political as well as economic benefits can outweigh the costs if people come together and use these new techniques constructively for the common good.

Putting Turing to the test

Given the rapid progress achieved in the design of natural language processing systems, we may see AI pass Turing’s original test within the next few years but is imitating humans really an effective test for intelligence? If not, what are some alternative benchmarks we might use to measure AI’s capabilities?

Wising up or dumbing down?

Proponents of generative AI claim it will offer personalised content for schools, expedite writing and information analysis, and push the frontiers of scientific discovery, but if machines start thinking for us, will we have more time to think more deeply or have no need to think at all?

Machines and men

Narrow AI can enhance us by freeing us from routine tasks, enabling us to concentrate on higher level strategic goals and improving our productivity, but as artificial intelligence expands in capabilities, we have to make sure it serves the interests of humanity, not the other way around.

Will AI kill creative jobs?

Firms will always replace humans with cheaper, tireless machines if that generates greater profits, and AI is offering the chance to churn out generic faux-creative material which was once the purview of real artists.