The adoption of Generative AI in technology is potentially more significant than it was when the Internet was introduced. It is stifling most creative efforts and is not as efficient as it will be by the end of the decade.
General AI will force us to rethink how we communicate, how we collaborate, how we create, how we solve problems, how we govern, and even How and what do we travel – and this is far from an exhaustive list. I expect that once this technology matures, the list of things that haven’t changed will be much smaller than the list of things that were before.
This week, I want to focus on three things we should start discussing that represent some of the biggest risks to generative AI. I am not against technology, nor am I so foolish as to suggest that it be stopped because it would be impossible to stop it now.
What I suggest is that we start looking at mitigating these problems before they do substantial damage. The three problems are data center loading, security, and connection damage.
We’ll end with our product of the week, which just might be the best electric SUV to hit the market. I’m suddenly in the market for a new electric car, but more on that later.
data center loading
Despite all the hype, few people are yet using generative AI, let alone harnessing its full potential. The technology is processor- and data-intensive, while it is also very individual-centric, so it will not be feasible to simply live in the cloud, mainly because the size, cost and resulting latency would be unsustainable.
Much like we’ve done with other data and performance-intensive applications, the best approach will probably be a hybrid where processing power is placed closer to the user. Still, the massive amount of data, which would require aggressive updating, would need to be loaded and accessed more centrally to protect the limited storage capacity of client devices, smartphones and PCs.
But, because we’re talking about an increasingly intelligent system, which sometimes – like those used for gaming, translation or conversation – requires very low latency. How the load is divided without harming performance will likely determine whether a particular implementation is successful.
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Achieving low latency won’t be easy as wireless technology improves, yet it can be unreliable due to weather, placement of towers or users, maintenance outages, man-made or natural disasters, and less than complete global coverage. AI must work both online and offline, while limiting data traffic and avoiding catastrophic outages.
Even if we could centralize all of this, the cost would be exorbitant, although we have used less performance in our individual devices which could reduce that expense. Qualcomm was one of the first firms to identify this as a problem and is doing a lot to fix it. Still, it is expected to be too little and too late, given how quickly AI is progressing and how slowly such technology is developed and brought to market.
Security
I was an internal auditor specializing in security and a competitive analyst trained in the legal ways to enter security. I learned that if someone can get enough data, they can make more accurate predictions than data they don’t have access to.
For example, if you know the average number of cars in a company’s parking lot, you can estimate with reasonable accuracy how many employees a firm has. You can generally scan social media and find out the interests of the firm’s key employees, and view job openings to determine the types of future products the company will offer.
These large language models collect massive amounts of data, and I expect that many of the things being scanned in these LLMs are, or should be, confidential. Furthermore, if enough information is collected, the gaps arising from what is not scanned will be rapidly derived.
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This scenario doesn’t just apply to corporate information. With personal information readily available, we will be able to determine much more about users’ private lives.
Employers will be able to detect whistleblowers, disgruntled or disloyal employees, poor employee behavior and employees who are illegally taking advantage of the firm with greater accuracy. Protecting against a hostile entity obtaining confidential information about you, your company, or even your government would have been more feasible with far greater accuracy than I enjoy as an auditor or competitive analyst. going.
The best defense is likely to be to create enough misinformation so that the devices don’t know what’s real and what’s not. However, this path would make connected AI systems less reliable overall, which would be fine if only competitors used those systems. However, this is likely to compromise the company’s systems that may be using the security, resulting in an increasing number of bad decisions.
interpersonal relationships
Companies like Mindverse with its MindOS and Suki with its employee complement avatars are demonstrating future personal use of generative AI as a tool that can pose as if it were you. As we progressively use such devices, our ability to determine what is real and what is digital will diminish significantly, and our opinions of the people using these devices may differ from person to person. will reflect more on the device.
Imagine your digital twin doing a virtual interview, becoming the face of your presence on a dating app or taking over much of your daily virtual interactions. The tool will try to be responsive to the person it is interacting with, it will never get tired or grumpy, and it will be trained to present you in the best possible light. However, as it progresses down this path, it will become less and less like who you really are – and possibly be far more interesting, engaging, and more even-tempered.
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This will create problems because, like actors who date someone the actor once played, the reality will lead to a breakup and loss of trust later on.
The easiest solution would be to either learn how to behave like your avatar or use them to interact with friends and colleagues. I doubt we will either, but these are the two most viable approaches to mitigating this insurmountable problem.
wrapping up
Generative AI is amazing and will improve performance tremendously as it ramps up the market and users reach critical mass. Yet there are significant problems that will need to be addressed, including the excessive data center loading that should drive hybrid solutions in the future, the inability to derive secrets from these vast language models, and a substantial reduction in mutual trust.
Understanding these impending risks should help avoid them. However, the improvements aren’t great, suggesting that we’ll have to regret some of the unintended consequences of using this technique.
fisher ocean
My Jaguar I-Pace turned to dust last month in a towing accident that damaged its battery pack. The result was an estimated $100,000 car to fix, which is now closer to $40,000. I am expecting USAA, my insurance carrier, to repossess the car. So, I’m looking at replacement electric cars, and availability sucks across the board.
I’m likely to get another Jaguar I-Pace mainly because I don’t want to wait months or even years for my car again. Currently, I’m sharing my wife’s Volve XC-60 and running into a lot of scheduling problems where we both need the car at the same time. I went shopping for a new electric SUV, and the best I could find was the Fisher Ocean.
The all-electric Fisker Ocean (Image credit: Fisker)
With most electrics, the wait for a new one is months, and I can’t stand that wait. Among the electric cars available this year, the Fisker Ocean hits all the boxes. Its features include:
- 350 mile range (bar is 300 miles)
- Your smartphone can be the key to your vehicle
- Reverse charging, so your car can power your home during a power outage
- Impressive 0-60 time of around 3.6 seconds (I love the performance)
- A solar panel roof to increase range and supply emergency power
- a convertible-like mod (that really opens up the car)
- One of the cleanest designs on the market.
The Fisher Ocean is an impressive car. If I can wait until the end of the year to get one, I’ll order it in a jiffy. Sadly this is not the case. Nevertheless, Fisker Ocean is still my product of the week.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ECT News Network.