Trust in AI technology and the companies that develop it is dropping, in both the U.S. and around the world, according to new data from Edelman shared first with Axios.
Why it matters: The move comes as regulators around the world are deciding what rules should apply to the fast-growing industry. “Trust is the currency of the AI era, yet, as it stands, our innovation account is dangerously overdrawn,” Edelman global technology chair Justin Westcott told Axios in an email. “Companies must move beyond the mere mechanics of AI to address its true cost and value — the ‘why’ and ‘for whom.’”
Yeah this would apply except for a few things.
AI is a concern for a variety of reasons, but people randomly thinking shaky tech is perfect isn’t really one of them (except for the gullible idiots who think that way, which again is on them).
Half of the human population is of below-average intelligence. They will be that dumb. Guaranteed. And safeguards generally only get added until after someone notices that a wrong answer is, in fact, wrong, and complains.
In part, I believe someone’s going to die because large corporations will only get serious about controlling what their LLMs spew when faced with criminal charges or a lawsuit that might make a significant gouge in their gross income. Untill then, they’re going to at best try to patch around the exact prompts that come up in each subsequent media scandal. Which is so easy to get around that some people are likely to do so by accident.
(As for humans making up answers, yes, some of them will, but in my experience it’s not all that common—some form of “how would I know?” is a more likely response. Maybe the sample of people I have contact with on a regular basis is statistically skewed. Or maybe it’s a Canadian thing.)
Insurance companies are already using AI to make medical decisions. We don’t have to speculate about people getting hurt because of AI giving out bad medical advice, it’s already happening and multiple companies are being sued over it.
Somehow we went from me saying this technology shouldn’t be downplayed to “but it’s costing lives already!”
Not really sure how that happened but yeah it’s obviously shitty that people are irresponsible shitheads and I think downplaying it or quibbling about whether it’s actually AI or not is far from helpful in light of such consequences