AI writing assistants can cause biased thinking in their users
Ars TechnicaMay 26, 2023
A study by researchers at the UK's University of Anglia has found that ChatGPT contains a "significant and systemic" bias towards left-wing ideology.
Researchers asked the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot to take part in a survey based on politics in the UK, US, and Brazil from both an unprompted perspective and from a left-wing perspective.
AI can certainly contain bias, despite not being alive. This has the potential to become extremely problematic in the future, holding the possibility of portraying societal opinions as truth on a mass scale. Luckily, there is still time to control and amend the problem. Programmers and their vigilance hold the key to mitigating this and making sure that AI becomes both an efficient and objective tool for all to use.
The ramifications of developing AI technology are far too vast to even try to predict. But the positives are just as numerous as the negatives. AI could act to tackle loneliness, solve climate change, and address income inequality. Attempts to stifle the technology will not work, and versions of AI will regardless soon permeate the lives of billions. AI is likely to evolve and improve over time.
There is a 5% chance that there will be an 'AI Bust' or 'AI Winter' by the end of 2025, according to the Metaculus prediction community.