Many people fear artificial intelligence, commonly known as AI.
They fear that technology can be harmful by creating false narratives, video and audio of real people or events.
On Thursday, the day after the Philadelphia debate on artificial intelligence and the black community, The Washington Post published a story on the FBI warning that foreign adversaries could spread disinformation to interfere in US elections. Can use AI.
People fear that AI will result in people losing their jobs. One of the reasons for the Hollywood writers' strike last year was concern that AI would replace human writers for television and movies.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a term for any technology that makes it possible for a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks normally performed by humans.
Sulaiman Rehman, founder and CEO of DiverseForce, a human capital solutions firm that builds pipelines of diverse talent and places people on nonprofit governing boards, said that everyone needs to understand the realities of AI. Need to face.
“There's a lot of fear about AI,” Rahman said this week. I sent out a LinkedIn post where I gave a speech by having AI mimic my face and voice and I wanted to see how our community reacted.
He warned people that an AI tool had created the message and got two kinds of responses: Some thought the technology was “amazing” and others said, “It's scary.”
“We have to face that fear,” Rahman said. “We can't bury our heads in the sand. That won't affect change.”
Read more: How Voters Can Avoid Deepfakes and AI-Generated Misinformation in the 2024 Presidential Election
Rahman spoke with The Inquirer on the day DiverseForce co-sponsored “Artificial Intelligence, Black Realities: Unpacking AI's True Impact,” a panel discussion Wednesday at the P4 Hub in Germantown, along with WURD Radio and P4 Hub.
A crowd of about 200 people packed into the space for the standing-room-only talk. It was a part of Philly Tech Week 2024.
Apart from Rahman, the panel includes; Akinyemi Bjolai, founder of Pentridge Media; Shelton Mercer, Founder and CEO of Virtuous Innovation and Audigent, Inc. 5000 company founder; Deborah Roebuck, and Doctor of Nursing Practice and Founder and CEO of Going Through the Change. Technology and lifestyle expert Stephanie Humphrey, who appears regularly on the WURD radio show, moderated the panel.
Decades-old technology, breaking through.
Rehman said that artificial intelligence has been around for decades.
But since ChatGPT debuted in late 2022, there has been widespread concern that an artificial “superintelligence,” now called artificial general intelligence (AGI)—in which AI is more capable than humans—will emerge. Gets done – coming sooner than expected.
Rahman compared recent innovations in artificial intelligence to how computers and mainframes predated personal computers for decades (on university campuses and in government and military institutions).
“AI has been around for the last 30 years, but it was behind the scenes. Now it's in the hands of individuals,” he said.
Shelton Mercer, a tech innovator, said the spread of AI presents both opportunities and challenges for black people and people of color. Mercer said the panel discussion was needed to help black people “make sense of the bombardment, whispers and chatter that people are hearing about AI.”
(Mercer is also on the board of the Lanefest Foundation, which owns the Philadelphia Inquirer.)
“There's a lot of work for leaders to help uncover AI and show how this technology is affecting us now and what it will do in the future,” Mercer said.
“Authenticity is what I talk about. We talk about artificial intelligence, but we have to make sure we're tripling down on authenticity because it's harder to detect. . [what is real]”
People are already using AI when they use chatbots on a company's website. It is also used in smartphones that suggest the next words to use when texting.
Can algorithms be biased?
An example of bias in AI technology discussed on Wednesday came when someone mentioned searching for photos of doctors, and the only photos the AI tool “imagined” of doctors were white or Asian.
Mercer said that this prejudice in American society about who can be a doctor comes from the prejudices of human programmers. Humans program algorithms, or sets of instructions, to solve a problem.
“We've seen these kinds of cultural biases in the way these machines produce and the way AI assumes that certain roles, like doctors, lawyers, or scientists, can only be seen in certain populations. , either white Europeans and Asians”. Mercer said.
“Society is plagued by the evils of many IMS and phobias, and unfortunately, tools designed and programmed by humans will be affected by these kinds of evils,” added Mercer.
Women's health and executive coach Deborah Roebuck said that when the COVID pandemic shut things down in 2020, she didn't know how to use Zoom, nor did she know about social media. But he signed up for a course to learn about technology.
“If we don't ride, we're not being a model for other people,” said Roebuck, who will be 70 this year.
A technology that requires guidance.
In the audience, Chris Brown, 31, of Mount Airy admitted the conversation was new to him, even though he's a teenager.
“I'm an anti-social media person and all of this is scary to me,” said Brown, who works in financial services. “I'm trying to open myself up to learning more about it.”
Tazanna Jackson, a 25-year-old community college student in Philadelphia, said she recently returned to college and wants to finish her degree. She said she came to make connections and meet people who could help her choose a career.
While people may fear AI, Rahman said they should compare it to how fire is used.
Fire can be used for cooking or keeping your home warm, or it can be dangerous and destructive, he said.
He said there are already discussions about how AI should be regulated or monitored and how it should be positioned in the United States and globally.
“It's inevitably going to be a part of our lives, and if we want to take advantage of it, we need to be aware of its implications as it becomes part of our society and part of that conversation.” Let's say we're going to raise this baby — I think of AI as a baby — and create it in a way that's responsible.”