Why We're Worried about Generative AI

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May 23, 2023

Generative AI is cropping up all over the place. A fake photo purporting to be an explosion at the Pentagon went viral as perhaps the first AI-generated image to impact the stock market. Google announced plans to incorporate generative AI into its word processing, spreadsheet and search engine products (following similar moves from Microsoft). And if this rush to bring AI into our daily lives makes you worried—you're not the only one. This week's lead story is a podcast episode about the potential negative consequences of putting AI everywhere all at once.

Sophie Bushwick, Associate Editor, Technology

Artificial Intelligence Why We're Worried about Generative AI From the technology upsetting jobs and causing intellectual property issues to models making up fake answers to questions, here’s why we’re concerned about generative AI. By Sophie Bushwick,Tulika Bose

Food Science Shows Why Traditional Kimchi Making Works So Well A new study reveals why handmade fermentation vessels called onggi stand the test of time By Rachel Crowell

Robotics Soft 'Electronic Skin' Mimics Our Sense of Touch A flexible, conductive membrane that can pass sensory information to the brain and muscles is a step towards artificial skin By Katharine Sanderson,Nature magazine

Artificial Intelligence Police Facial Recognition Technology Can't Tell Black People Apart AI-powered facial recognition will lead to increased racial profiling By Thaddeus L. Johnson,Natasha N. Johnson

Sponsor Content Provided by University of Chicago Charting Our Quantum Future Quantum technology is paving the way for powerful computing, and a quantum internet that can relay information encoded in quantum states. Hear from the UChicago researchers who are leading efforts to define a new field of science and technology.

Space Exploration China's Mysterious Space Plane Returns to Earth Specialists speculate that a Chinese spacecraft that spent nine months in Earth’s orbit might be similar to a U.S. space plane, and it could have research or military uses By Yvaine Ye,Nature magazine

Archaeology Stone Engravings of Mysterious Ancient Megastructures May Be World's Oldest 'Blueprints' Stone engravings of ancient megastructures called desert kites may be the earliest “blueprints” ever discovered By Tom Metcalfe

Economics ChatGPT on Wall Street Could Be Disastrous, Financial History Shows Using artificial intelligence like ChatGPT to trade stocks and other financial instruments could have benefits—and perils By Pawan Jain,The Conversation US

Materials Science New Material Is Squishy, Conductive and Self-Healing A new electrically conductive material could lead to better self-healing soft robots By Sophie Bushwick

Renewable Energy 'SuperLab' Will Test U.S. Power Grid against Climate Disasters The Department of Energy is launching an initiative to mimic climate disasters and other threats against the power grid By John Fialka,E&E News

Energy What Is the Future of Fusion Energy? Nuclear fusion won’t arrive in time to fix climate change, but it could be essential for our future energy needs By Philip Ball

FROM THE STORE Scientific American Volume 328, Issue 6

QUOTE OF THE DAY "On Monday morning, a verified Twitter account called Bloomberg Feed shared an ominous tweet. Beneath the words, 'Large Explosion near The Pentagon Complex in Washington, D.C. - Initial Report,' it showed an image of a huge plume of black smoke next to a vaguely Pentagon-like building. On closer inspection, the image was a fake, likely generated by artificial intelligence." Will Oremus, Drew Harwell and Teo Armus, The Washington Post

FROM THE ARCHIVE 50, 100 & 150 Years Ago: June 2023 Computer chess master; private bathing for birds By Mark Fischetti | June 2023

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