By James King

Editorials Editor

It is my firm belief that artificial intelligence has been a great tool for us in recent years. It’s used in art, music, writing, manufacturing, and even more. Due to these uses, it has been increasingly used more and more by everyone. However, this has also increased the likelihood of people using artificial intelligence in ways they shouldn’t.

You use artificial intelligence daily, whether you notice it or not. Artificial intelligence is used in almost everything. I use it daily through digital assistants like Siri or even ChatGPT. These AI technologies help me to find things throughout the day or write something.  I use Siri and my Apple suggestions multiple times a day since the AI on my phone already knows what I will likely want to open at that time of day. Artificial intelligence has increasingly been used in artistic ways as well. These are videos, art, and even music. While these generally don’t come out great, it’s amazing to see how we have been able to train artificial intelligence  to create things like that. When used properly, I think artificial intelligence makes for an amazing tool. 

Mr. Livieratos, a social studies teacher here at Hammond, shared some of his thoughts on AI saying, “I definitely have concerns, but overall I think like any tool it’s all about how the user uses it. So like anything, something can be used for good or evil depending on the intent of the person using it.” Artificial intelligence, as mentioned by Mr. Livieratos, can be used for bad purposes. Recently, students have been using it in attempts to cheat on assignments in school. I use Chat GPT to help me when I am trying to write emails or get ideas for personal writings a lot. Although, I have found, in my own experience, to sometimes give incorrect answers. This is one of the major reasons why it’s unfortunate that people are using AI to cheat. The AI just automatically gives you some kind of answer. Having a robot just feed you answers doesn’t help you to learn anything, especially if it’s actually incorrect.

It creates an unknown and scary future for me to think about how much people might rely on their technology to do things for them in future. Imagine relying entirely on a robot for medical treatment, is that not scary to think about? In a study done by the National Library of Medicine, they tested ChatGPT on a variety of medical questions. They found that ChatGPT was generally correct in its answers. They also concluded that further research and development was needed to correct the inaccuracies of artificial intelligence. When it comes to medicine, these questions could be a matter of life or death for someone. 

While art created by AI is often humorous, it also highlights another major issue of artificial intelligence; its lack of copyright knowledge. Many artists have had their art copied by artificial intelligence. It does this by using already-existing art as tools for learning, which then allows it to replicate their style. A recent interview with Anoosha Syed, a visual artist, in The Guardian stated, “when a human artist does mimic a style, or pass off a piece of artwork as their own, it is incredibly frowned upon – and in some cases could be seen as copyright infringement. This is essentially what AI art is doing.” Surprisingly, the court does not seem to have a problem about the use of artificial art. United States District Court Judge, William Orrick, found that art created by artificial intelligence was actually not subject to copyright laws. This may hurt the artist’s business or even their reputation if the artificial intelligence is used improperly. 

I think the use of artificial intelligence can be perfectly summarized by this quote from Mr. Livieratos, “I think it’s up to us as individuals to craft both policy on how its used, best practices on how its used, and to constantly be learning and updating the morality of how we’re using it.” While the technology is amazing and very useful, it is up to us to make sure we use it responsibly and in a good way.