ADVENT OF CHATGPT- IS IT A WOLF IN SHEEP’S SKIN?

This piece is Artificial Intelligence Model ChatGPT, its perils and its capabilities in the absence of any legal regulation. 

INTRODUCTION

ChatGPT was introduced as an artificial intelligence language model chatbot in November, 2022 designed to give human-like responses to various questions and prompts. The platform quickly gained immense popularity, reaching over one million users within five days of its release. It has a database that is updated till 2021 and thereby relies on conversations with humans to further its learning.  The capabilities of ChatGPT are quite amazing, and its scope extends to writing term papers, creating poetry and even writing legal proceedings.  Since COVID, a boom in technology occurred revolutionizing the way the world functioned, but ChatGPT has reached another milestone of technological revolution. As exciting and promising as it seems to aid human tasks, its ability to reinvent the world is threatening. This article aims to identify the perils and risks of ChatGPT and argues for immediate regulation of AI before AI overrules the world and the human touch is forever lost in the shadows.  

PRIVACY AND CONFIDENTIALITY CONCERNS

"What you won’t realize is that whatever data you enter in ChatGPT regarding your personal ideas or confidential information of your company now becomes data of the AI maker to presumably improve their AI services."

The smartness of conversations with ChatGPT is so compelling that you can’t simply use it in jest and will eventually try to reduce your administrative burden through this chatbot. When that works wonders for you and you get compliments from your boss, you will start to ask for creative ideas or share your own to get more inputs from it. Soon enough, the chatbot will become your human editor giving you ample of suggestions, reducing your workload and creating a better version of your own self abilities. 

What you won’t realize is that whatever data you enter in ChatGPT regarding your personal ideas or confidential information of your company now becomes data of the AI maker to presumably improve their AI services.  There is a clear privacy and security concern associated with ChatGPT and other AI powered solution system claiming to aid human tasks. 

OVER-RELIANCE AND DEPENDANCY 

"There is a threat of unemployment of humans if AI takes over human jobs. Presently, the threat is limited to lower-tier job profiles which are mostly administrative and clerical. But, as time passes and dependency on technology will multiply, that can lead to an extinction of most jobs."

Any technological revolution, for example boom of internet, is full of excitement until its perils come to the surface. The inherent problem with technology that it is increasing exponentially and there is no time for acceptance and reaction to it. There is a threat of unemployment of humans if AI takes over human jobs. Presently, the threat is limited to lower-tier job profiles which are mostly administrative and clerical. But, as time passes and dependency on technology will multiply, that can lead to an extinction of most jobs. 

In the legal profession for example, a senior lawyer employs AI to support him in all clerical functions, he will no longer feel the need to hire junior lawyers. This will result in over-reliance on technology and collapse of a colleague relationships in general. An artificial and digital world will put an end to creativity, hard-work and emotions. In essence, ChatGPT and other AI powered technologies pose a threat to humanity and the human touch of life. 

PLAGIARISM AND MISINFORMATION

"Inaccuracy of information presented by ChatGPT disguised in a perfectly well written response is a big point of concern."

There is a prominent issue of plagiarism in schools, colleges and even workplaces due to increased usage of ChatGPT as a shortcut to complete assignments and deadlines. It is not clear if usage of content from ChatGPT will come under the definition of plagiarism as it is not a copy of another person’s work but there is no doubt that there is no originality of the content gathered from ChatGPT. 

NewsGuard reported on ChatGPT as an agent of spreading misinformation and false narratives. NewsGuard claims that it tempted the AI chatbot with 100 false narratives from their catalog of Misinformation Fingerprints™. 80% of the time, the AI chatbot delivered eloquent, false and misleading claims about significant topics in the news, including COVID-19, Ukraine and school shootings.  

Inaccuracy of information presented by ChatGPT disguised in a perfectly well written response is a big point of concern. Utilization of the language tool at a large scale which has a potential to spread misinformation is alarming. It is pertinent to create mitigation strategies before massive utilization of ChatGPT becomes a reality.  

Due to the above-mentioned issues, there is possibility of cyber crime and disinformation. AI and ChatGPT can become a source for spreading false narratives driven by Governments and political opponents aimed to attract a certain consensus. The differentiation between humans and AI can diminish and pose serious risk of cyber-crimes.   

NEED FOR URGENT LEGAL REGULATION 

There are several concerns regarding privacy, security, confidentiality of data put into the AI chatbot, risk of plagiarism in schools, colleges and workplaces, concerns regarding unemployment and degrading of human creative thinking skills. The power of ChatGPT is limitless and needs to be comprehended and regulated before it gets too late.   

Therefore, it is recommended that there is a dire need for urgent regulation on usage of ChatGPT and other AI powered technologies. Apart from the risks mentioned above, the question regarding ownership of the data produced by ChatGPT, its right to use and store data provided by a user should be addressed in the regulations. The reliance on AI by private individuals and even private enterprises needs to be regulated by governments to make sure that the economy is not disturbed and to control over-reliance of humans on AI technologies. 

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[1] Ridwaan Boda, ‘ChatGPT: a useful tool or risk for lawyers’, Lexology, can be accessed at https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=368340b7-c550-48bc-aaf0-e48dd499e09c.

[2] H. Dennis Beaver, ‘Could ChatGPT and AI Change Delivery of Legal Services’, (27 January, 2023), can be accessed at https://www.kiplinger.com/personal-finance/chatgpt-artificial-intelligence-and-legal-services.

[3] Lance Eliot, ‘Generative AI ChatGPT Can Disturbingly Gobble Up Your Private and Confidential Data, Forewarns AI Ethics and AI Law’, (27 January, 2023), can be accessed at https://www.forbes.com/sites/lanceeliot/2023/01/27/generative-ai-chatgpt-can-disturbingly-gobble-up-your-private-and-confidential-data-forewarns-ai-ethics-and-ai-law/?sh=6eaa19f7fdb1.

[4] Sofia Barnett, ‘ChatGPT Is Making Universities Rethink Plagiarism’, (January 30, 2023), can be accessed at https://www.wired.com/story/chatgpt-college-university-plagiarism/#:~:text=According%20to%20ChatGPT%2C%20the%20definition,definition%20is%20tricky%20to%20apply.

[5] Jack Brewster, Lorenzo Arvanitis and McKenzie Sadenghi, ‘The Next Great Misinformation Superspreader: How ChatGPT Could Spread Toxic Misinformation at Unprecedented Scale’, (January,2023), can be accessed at https://www.newsguardtech.com/misinformation-monitor/jan-2023/.

[6] Derek du Preez, ‘ChatGPT has the potential to spread misinformation at unprecedented scale’, (February 13, 2023), can be accessed at https://diginomica.com/chatgpt-has-potential-spread-misinformation-unprecedented-scale.

[7] Stu Sjouwerman, ‘The Implications of ChatGPT on Cybercrime’, (February 24, 2023), can be accessed at https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2023/02/24/the-implications-of-chatgpt-on-cybercrime/?sh=31ee0a94770b.

[8] Christianna Silva, ‘ChatGPT could be useful AI tool. So how are we regulating it? (February 2, 2023), can be accessed at https://mashable.com/article/chatgpt-openai-artificial-intelligence-ai-regulation.