AI to Z

Everyone’s talking about artificial intelligence, but we can’t have a proper conversation about its impact and possibilities without understanding the basic terms used in the sector. Here’s a short glossary of the major terms so you can impress your boss in the lift tomorrow.

AI never forgets

Many people now use ChatGPT at work or at home for a wide range of exploration and tasks, but we should all be careful not to give it confidential details about ourselves or our companies.

Not if, but when

AI chatbots based on large language models can beat people at advanced strategy games, generate incredible art, write blurbs and even diagnose cancers and compose music, but could they ever be as intelligent as humans?

A short history of artificial neural networks

Artificial neural networks are machine learning algorithms inspired by the biological structure and function of the human brain and may soon outstrip it in terms of intelligence and even creativity.

Making the most of ChatGPT

AI technology such as ChatGPT is here to stay and we should make the most of its ability to enhance human creativity and scientific discovery and lower barriers to learning, while remaining mindful of its potential misuse and downsides.

Tik-tok and the tyrants

The hope that technology and online information would liberate people from oppressive regimes has been dashed by the weaponisation of the internet and social media by Russia and China to oppress their own populations and poison international debate.

Stop, look and listen

The avalanche of possibilities triggered by the release and rapid development of AI chatbots is unlikely to slow, given the potential rewards for the winners of the race, but there are still reasons to pause.

Who’s accountable when AI goes wrong?

Businesses, students and individuals are eager to use AI to reduce costs and improve productivity, but who will they have to blame when the bots make mistakes?

Intelligence without sentience

General artificial intelligence is the holy grail of technology researchers, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4 has taken another step towards achieving it, but is it possible to achieve, and how will we know when they’ve reached it?

A plea to pause giant AI experiments

In a plea likely to fall on deaf ears at the tech giants pushing forward with AI chatbots, the Future of Life institute has published this open letter calling for a six-month moratorium on AI deployment to allow its ramifications to be properly considered.

A race of the reckless

The pious promises of giant tech firms that AI would be developed through a responsible, transparent processes have been ditched in a reckless race for mindshare and profit.

Chat-GPTimes

Cash-strapped newspapers will soon be tempted to use AI chatbots to rewrite news items from internet sources and replace their dwindling numbers of actual journalists.