Are artificial chatbots taking over? Not exactly.
AI chatbots are a software application used to have a conversation that can take on the role of a live human, using technology.
“From a pros point of view, I would say we can get answers, and what we might consider intelligent answers, much more quickly,” said Steve Beaty, a computer science expert with the Metropolitan State University of Denver.
Experts said it could also reduce the need for human labor. There are also some cons.
“I also see some disruption going on in the job market,” he said. “They are biased and so they are biased by the data they are trained on. But it also must be said, so are we.”
He said they can also be difficult to understand, and there are some security concerns.
“We can say that somebody else is getting the questions we ask. This has been happening for a long time, of course, with many of the major search engines, and so we’re handing over what might be considered fairly personal information to a third party if you will, or someone else,” said Beaty.
ChatGPT, owned by research company OpenAI, is one of these chatbot programs. Greg Brockman, the president of OpenAI, wrote on Twitter on December 5 that ChatGPT crossed one million users just five days after launch.
“Even if it's only been around for a short amount of time, it certainly has shown some impressive results,” said Beaty.
The chatbot can be used for applications like customer service and virtual assistants.
“This is some interesting tech, no question about it. I think with all tech we need to ask ourselves how we can amplify the good and diminish the bad,” he said.