With the rise of AI (artificial intelligence) applications and systems, schools, academia, and the general public need to be aware of its benefits and drawbacks. AI is growing and advancing at a rapid pace. For example, since my first examination of the subject matter back in Rain Volume 4 Issue No. 25, dated January 20, 2024, there have been massive changes.
Companies, like Open AI, the creators of the now-famous Chat GPT, have grown exponentially. Now considered one of the fastest-growing businesses in history, the company hit the two-billion-dollar revenue milestone in December 2023, and is aiming to double this in 2025.
AI is also being explored by veteran companies such as Meta, which owns Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram. They’ve launched Meta AI 01 on all their platforms. Owned by Mark Zuckerberg, it is clear that Meta is trying to get a slice of the AI pie that has proved very profitable.
Google (perhaps the most famous technology company ever) is owned by Alphabet, Inc. and has also decided to venture into artificial intelligence. Although the company launched Google AI in 2017, it is only now that this division of the business has been doing big things since the launch of its Gemini AI in March 2023. Available in 46 languages, Gemini is used in some 239 countries.
For this article, I asked Gemini to define itself. This was the response: “I am a large language model, also known as a conversational AI chatbot. I’m trained on a massive amount of text data, and I’m able to communicate and generate human-like text in response to a wide range of prompts and questions.”
This summary of capabilities also applies to Chat GPT and Meta AI. Where things really differ is that Meta AI can generate images on immediate request, while Chat GPT and Gemini cannot. As long as the content is not harmful, Meta AI can generate images. For example, if you asked it to generate child abuse images, it would decline. Any prompt typed in Meta AI, for in
stance, generating what Jamaica would look like in 2039, would be instantly provided. With Gemini and Chat GPT, however, you cannot generate images upon request.
A PRACTICAL DEMONSTRATION
For the purpose of this article in particular, I requested that Meta AI generate an image of a church on the solar system planet Mars. The result:
To understand Chat GPT completely, one must realise that this is just a general name for a system of different versions of Chat GPT. The Chat GPT we normally hear of and know generally is the free-to-use model of the different versions. The free-to-use version is not a completely up-to-date version of the Chat GPT family.
Enter Chat GPT-4; this is the most advanced version of the family and requires a subscription fee. This version does not generate images either, which brings us to another brainchild of Open AI, Chat GPT’s sister programmes, Dalle-2 and Dalle-3, which are designed solely for image generation. So you see, the world of AI is moving rapidly, and while we know that technology can be a force for good and meaningful change, pushing the world beyond poverty and inequality and towards new prosperity, we need to step up and make the necessary regulations and policy decisions so that artificial intelligence is not used for bad. We have faced before the unwelcome outcome where things developed to help mankind were instead misused by bad people to do bad things.
For example, AI can be manipulated to spread propaganda. It can be used to proliferate lies and falsehoods, the consequences of which can be disastrous.
Earlier this week, we saw online a clip of a popular gynaecologist in Jamaica, Dr. Michael Abrahams, and singer Judy Mowatt being deep-faked by AI. The claim was that Dr. Abrhams had endorsed a particular medical product for hypertension and had successfully treated Judy Mowatt with it. Although their voices sounded different in the image-generated video, some people who knew them both pretty well were fleeced of their cash when they bought this product. Further, they were charged not just once but multiple times for a one-time purchase. So, you see, we really have to be on the lookout for AI scams and be careful with our personal and banking information when venturing online.
Ifeoluwa Alonge is 15 years old and has been writing with Freedom Come Rain since he was 11.
