I had a great and stressful experience last week when Craig Mandy, the company’s former head of research and strategy, Microsoftshowed me this GPT-4. This is the most advanced version of ChatGPT developed by the developer company. artificial intelligence OpenAI in November last year. Craig was preparing for the board briefing. my wife’s museum, Planet World, of which she is a member, for the effect this will have ChatGPT in language and innovation.

“You have to understand,” Craig warned me before the demonstration began, “that this thing will change everything in the way we do things. I think it’s the greatest invention of man.” As he explained to me, major language communication platforms such as ChatGPT will create a new kind of artificial intelligence. (ay)giving us the ability to create ideas, innovations and features that we didn’t even know existed.

Revolution

Then he started the show. And then I began to realize that his acquaintance was probably an underestimation of her. revolution it goes.

He first asked GPT-4 to do a 400-word synopsis of Planet World. He did it miraculously, in seconds. Then she asked him to do the same, limiting the number of words to 200. A few more seconds and it was done. He then asked him to make similar presentations of the museum in Arabic, Chinese and English from Shakespeare’s time. Again, flawless execution within seconds.

That night it was very difficult for me to sleep. By observing the AI ​​system, the software, microchip and their combinations – creating this level of original work in so many languages ​​in a matter of seconds reminded me of the famous science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke’s saying that “every sufficiently advanced technology becomes synonymous with magic.”

The second thing that comes to mind is the moment from the beginning of The Wizard of Oz, the scene of a tornado sweeping everything and everyone, including Dorothy and Toto, from the foggy Kansas landscape into the glittering Land of Oz.

Today we stand on the threshold of a similar whirlwind that will sweep away all of humanity. We are entering the Promethean period, one of those periods in history when new tools, ways of thinking or sources of energy bring shock to all of humanity. How we create, how we compete, how we collaborate, how we work, how we learn, how we manage, and yes, how we cheat, how we commit crimes, how we wage war.

This Promethean moment is fueled not by a particular invention, such as the printing press or the steam engine, but by the great technological cycle. It is about our ability to sense, digitize, process and share information using artificial intelligence. This technological cycle is applied everywhere.

This is what I have called “the Promethean age of acceleration, empowerment and democratization.” Never before have people had such low-cost tools to expand their power at an ever-accelerating rate as new opportunities seep into more people’s personal and professional lives. The speed of change exceeds all forecasts.

Scientific Solutions

The possibilities of using new tools to solve a variety of seemingly intractable problems – from human biology to thermonuclear fusion and climate change – are impressive. Let’s take just one example that most people ignore: how Deep Mind, the artificial intelligence subsidiary of the Google Group, used the AlphaFord system to solve one of the most difficult scientific problems with such speed and skill that it stunned the scientists who devoted it to the problem. all life.

This is a problem known as “protein folding”. Proteins are large complex molecules made up of sequences of amino acids. They constitute the microscopic mechanisms that determine the functioning of the human body and all other forms of living matter.

However, what each protein can do depends on its three-dimensional structure. Once scientists learn about the shape of the protein, they can accelerate understanding of disease, develop new drugs, and unravel other mysteries of life on Earth.

Metatechnology

The AlphaFord system is a metatechnology: it is able to detect patterns that potentially help discoveries in any scientific field. ChatGPT is another example of a metatechnology.

But, as Dorothy discovered when she was taken to Oz, there is a good wizard and a bad wizard fighting each other to win her over. The same applies to ChatGPT and its competing products such as Google’s Bard and ApphaFord.

Are we ready for what’s to come? It seems not. We started the discussion about whether we should ban books in the early days of technology that can summarize or answer questions from anyone, anywhere, about the content of any book in a matter of seconds.

AI can act either as a tool or as a weapon. The last powerful invention of man was nuclear energy, which could light up an entire country or destroy an entire planet. But nuclear power was created by governments that collectively placed restrictions on its proliferation into the wrong hands.

Instead, AI is the product of private commercial companies. The question arises: how can one rule a country or the whole world when universal AI applications, tools and weapons are all managed by private companies? Of course, we need control mechanisms, but they should not throw the baby out of the bath with the water.