ChatGPT plugins are officially here, and Im already filled with dystopian dread

Date:
Fri, 24 Mar 2023 11:06:34 +0000

Description:
The first wave of plugins for the AI chatbot has landed, and so far its dominated by, uh travel companies?

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Not to be outdone by the rising (well, sometimes falling) star of Google Bard , OpenAI has announced that popular language learning model ChatGPT now has official plugin support for developers.

Under OpenAIs iterative deployment philosophy, the AI lab is releasing
initial plugin access to a limited number of partner companies in order to study how the plugins are used, and how effective they are, before committing to a wider-scale rollout (developers can currently subscribe to a waitlist
for access).

We have a list of the companies that have been granted access, and have already created plugins: Expedia, FiscalNote, Instacart, KAYAK, Klarna, Milo, OpenTable, Shopify, Slack, Speak, Wolfram, and Zapier.

Thats a really weird list. Im not the only one who thinks that, right? Some
of them make sense; Wolfram and FiscalNote are both organizations that have history working with AI technology, while ChatGPT integration with Slack was something we knew about already . Speak isnt entirely surprising either; weve already seen GPT-4 working as a virtual tutor in rival language app Duolingo
.

Other participants in the plugin program feel a little harder to justify. OpenAI says that its excited to build a community shaping the future of the humanAI interaction paradigm, but Im really not convinced these are use cases where human-AI interaction is actually needed. I can already book a holiday quite easily using the KAYAK app I dont need a chatbot to handhold me
through the process. Do you? Opinion: ChatGPT has its uses, but it doesn't need to be everywhere

I feel quite dubious about several of the plugin-touting companies on this list I dont think shoehorning AI into restaurant-booking app OpenTable was necessary at all but theres one that really worries me: Klarna.

Now, Im not here just to rag on Klarna (or any buy-now-pay-later service),
but lets be honest here: these platforms are moderately helpful at best, and downright predatory at worst. Im sure not everybody will share my view here, but Ive always felt that companies such as Klarna, Afterpay, and Zip exist solely to prey on people living paycheck to paycheck getting into
contractual debt over smaller expenses like ordering takeout or buying some groceries is basically never a good idea, if you ask me.

The point Im trying to make is that some of the people who suffer the worst
at the hands of pay-later companies are exactly the same people who will be more vulnerable to the encroaching effects of AIs in our society. Ive written before about how AI could ruin a whole generation of future kids if were not careful, and slapping ChatGPT into Klarna is exactly the sort of dodgy nonsense I was talking about.

AI is still a largely unregulated space; theres nothing to stop ChatGPT from suggesting that you absolutely should take out a loan to get that burrito delivered. Of course, ChatGPT doesnt actually know what a burrito tastes
like, but it sure can amalgamate a bunch of food critics words to convince
you that it does.

Honestly, this sort of thing worries me. Not on a personal level, because Im not about to let a chatbot convince me to get into debt over a shopping cart of food, but on a moral level, because some people will be swayed by it. Theres also the entirely different threat of companies like Klarna booting
out human customer service in place of AI assistants; not only could that
cost real people their jobs, but debt-stricken, desperate individuals will be better served by an actual person than by an unfeeling chatbot.

Look, AI isnt all bad, and ChatGPT isnt evil. And sure, OpenAI needs to make money; running a large, complex machine-learning program like ChatGPT
requires a lot of hardware and a lot of energy. But we need to collectively take a serious look at how far were willing to go when it comes to letting it into every facet of our lives. AI isnt the big problem but how people use it definitely is.



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/chatgpt-plugins-are-officially-here-and-im-alre ady-filled-with-dystopian-dread


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