2023 was an inflection point in the evolution of artificial intelligence and its role in society. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The year saw the\u00a0emergence of generative AI<\/a>, which moved the technology from the shadows to center stage in the public imagination. It also saw\u00a0boardroom drama<\/a>\u00a0in an AI startup dominate the news cycle for several days. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And it saw the Biden administration issue\u00a0an executive order<\/a>\u00a0and the European Union\u00a0pass a law<\/a>\u00a0aimed at regulating AI, moves perhaps best described as attempting to bridle a horse that\u2019s already galloping along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019ve assembled a panel of AI scholars to look ahead to 2024 and describe the issues AI developers, regulators and everyday people are likely to face, and to give their hopes and recommendations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Casey Fiesler, Associate Professor of Information Science, University of Colorado Boulder<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 2023 was the\u00a0year of AI hype<\/a>. Regardless of whether the narrative was that AI was going to save the world or destroy it, it often felt as if visions of what AI might be someday overwhelmed the current reality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And though I think that anticipating future harms is a critical component of\u00a0overcoming ethical debt in tech<\/a>, getting too swept up in the hype risks creating a vision of AI that seems more like magic than a technology that can still be shaped by explicit choices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But taking control requires a better understanding of that technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the major AI debates of 2023 was around the role of ChatGPT and similar chatbots in education. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This time last year,\u00a0most relevant headlines focused on<\/a>\u00a0how students might use it to cheat and how educators were scrambling to keep them from doing so \u2013 in ways that\u00a0often do more harm than good<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, as the year went on, there was a recognition that a failure to teach students about AI might put them at a disadvantage, and many schools\u00a0rescinded their bans<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t think we should be revamping education to put AI at the center of everything, but if students don\u2019t learn about how AI works, they won\u2019t understand its limitations \u2013 and therefore how it is useful and appropriate to use and how it\u2019s not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This isn\u2019t just true for students. The more people understand how AI works, the more empowered they are to use it and to critique it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, my prediction, or perhaps my hope, for 2024 is that there will be a huge push to learn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1966, Joseph Weizenbaum, the creator of the ELIZA chatbot,\u00a0wrote that<\/a>\u00a0machines are \u201coften sufficient to dazzle even the most experienced observer,\u201d but that once their \u201cinner workings are explained in language sufficiently plain to induce understanding, its magic crumbles away.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The challenge with generative artificial intelligence is that, in contrast to ELIZA\u2019s very basic pattern matching and substitution methodology, it is much more difficult to find language \u201csufficiently plain\u201d to make the AI magic crumble away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think it\u2019s possible to make this happen. I hope that universities that are\u00a0rushing to hire more technical AI experts<\/a>\u00a0put just as much effort into hiring AI ethicists. I hope that media outlets help cut through the hype. I hope that everyone reflects on their own uses of this technology and its consequences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And I hope that tech companies listen to informed critiques in considering what choices continue to shape the future.Many of the challenges in the year ahead have to do with problems of AI that society is already facing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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