About 80% of those attending “Futurecast” held at the ABC in Sydney today, said they use artificial intelligence in their daily work, despite concerns about its potential misuse.
“I wasn’t sure if I should put my hand up or not”, a colleague told me, noting at the ABC we’ve received an explicit directive NOT to use AI for a bunch of reasons.
I personally use Google Gemini for spell-checking, grammar, and sometimes to better organise my thoughts.
A friend who runs a small business told me he used Chat GPT to automate some of the things which previously took hours to do.
Nonetheless, there are a bunch of issues.
Renowned artificial intelligence expert Professor Kate Crawford highlighted several critical issues surrounding AI development and deployment. These include data privacy concerns, the concentration of AI power in the hands of a few, the shift from human to algorithmic curation, and the need for global regulations.The environmental cost of using AI is about 15 times that of a regular Google Search, she said.
ABC Chair Kim Williams also spoke today, offereing a more optimistic perspective on AI’s potential to revolutionize content creation. He talked about taking out the “drudge work” of journalism, allowing journalists to concentrate on more important issues. He also emphasized the importance of AI literacy for everyone.
One of my favourite comments from Williams today was about “casting”. In movies, films, on radio, tv etc, it’s all about finding the right people, casting them. He said this principle also applies to life and the people you surround yourself with!