ChatGPT and AI Rave
I was in college when the millennium bug aka Y2k scare hit the shores. It was doom and gloom, some stocked up supplies; food, munitions, medical, others made large bank withdrawals, not forgetting inordinate purchase of power backup generators. This was a computer-induced apocalypse. It came and went. Easily contained. The world survived.
The millennium came about due to potential computer errors related to the formatting and storage of calendar data for dates in and after the year 2000. Many programs represented four-digit years with only the final two digits, making the year 2000 indistinguishable from 1900. Computer systems’ inability to distinguish dates correctly had the potential to bring down worldwide infrastructures for industries ranging from banking to air travel.
Fast forward year 2022 and ChatGPT is all rave. I posed this question to the model itself; “What is ChatGPT?” And I got; “Hello! I am ChatGPT, a large language model developed by OpenAI. I have been trained on a massive amount of text data and have been designed to understand and respond to natural language questions and statements. As a language model, my goal is to assist users in generating human-like responses to their queries or inputs. I can provide information on a wide range of topics, from science and technology to pop culture and current events, and my responses are generated based on patterns and relationships found in the data I have been trained on.”
Simply put ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot designed to provide natural, fluid, dialogue-like responses to queries. Then what is artificial intelligence and what are the use-cases. I posed the question to the bot. Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to the ability of machines and computer programs to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, and decision-making. AI is a branch of computer science that aims to create intelligent machines that can work and perform tasks like humans, but without the limitations of human beings.
AI involves creating algorithms and computer programs that can analyze and interpret complex data, learn from past experiences, and make predictions or decisions based on that learning. There are several different subfields of AI, including machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision, robotics, and expert systems.
AI has a wide range of applications, from healthcare and transportation to finance and education. Some of the most popular examples of AI in everyday life include virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa, recommendation systems used by online retailers, and autonomous vehicles that use AI to navigate roads and avoid obstacles.
Much said! Though we have witnessed exponential advance in technology, it is not humanly possible to replace a human being. AI and other technologies will and continue to make life easier for human beings. But there are other core and central human capabilities that neither be automated, manipulated nor regenerated, those capabilities are controlled by our souls and spirituality, intelligence is subservient to this. That is what makes our human species special and unique. Automating intelligence does not replace these. As such AI is utterly limited in those aspects. Technology is thus an enabler not a disabler of man. This too shall pass away. Human beings will trudge on and continue advancing.
Murithi MAGIRI, The writer is the Lead IT Consultant at Magtech Solutions, solutions@magtech.co.ke