ChatGPT and Associated Ethical Concerns

• 21 Jan 2023

For Prelims: Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLFH), Phishing Email, Plagiarism.

For Mains: Significance of ChatGPT as per and ethical concerns associated with it.

Why in News?

Recently, OpenAI (AI research and deployment company) opened its most recent and powerful AI chatbot, ChatGPT, to users to test its capability.

What is ChatGPT?

• About:
  • ChatGPT is a variant of GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) which is a large-scale neural network-based language model developed by OpenAI.
  • GPT models are trained on vast amounts of text data to generate human-like text.
  • It can generate responses to a wide range of topics, such as answering questions, providing explanations, and engaging in conversations.
  • In addition to being able to "admit its mistakes, challenge false premises, and refuse unsuitable requests," the ChatGPT can also "answer follow-up questions."
  • The chatbot was also trained using Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF).
• Limitations:
  • The chatbot displayed clear racial and sexist biases, which remains a problem with almost all AI models.
  • The chatbot gives answers which are grammatically correct and read well– though some have pointed out that these lack context and substance, which is largely true.
  • ChatGPT occasionally produces inaccurate information and that its knowledge is restricted to global events that occurred before 2021.

What are the Ethical Concerns Associated with It?

• Malicious and Dangerous Coding: Some users have been experimenting with the chatbot's potential to carry out malicious actions. It has been claimed by several users that malicious and dangerous coding is generated by the Chatbot despite their claims to be amateurs.
• Generation of Phishing Email: ChatGPT is set up to reject requests to write phishing emails or malicious code but in actual sense ChatGPT is producing an outstanding phishing email.
• Creation of Biased Data/information: One concern is the potential for bias in the generated code, as the training data used to create the code generator may contain biases that are reflected in the generated code.
• Curtailing the Job Opportunity: There is a concern that the use of code generators could lead to the loss of jobs for human programmers.
• Plagiarism Chokepoint: Plagiarism in academics is not a new issue, but ChatGPT has altered how AI is utilized to produce original writing. It is difficult to identify plagiarized information as a result. Teachers and academicians have also expressed concerns over ChatGPT’s impact on written assignments.

Way forward

• Improving its ability to understand and respond to context, such as being able to maintain a conversation on a specific topic or understanding the tone and intent of a message.
• Increasing its knowledge base and ability to generate more accurate and informative responses.
• Developing more advanced language generation capabilities, such as being able to write coherent and persuasive essays or generate creative and engaging fiction.
• Improving its ability to understand and respond to different languages and dialects.
• Developing more advanced interactive capabilities such as handling multiple tasks and engaging in more complex conversations.

UPSC Civil Services Examination, Previous Year Question (PYQ)

Q1. With the present state of development, Artificial Intelligence can effectively do which of the following? (2020)

1. Bring down electricity consumption in industrial units
2. Create meaningful short stories and songs
3. Disease diagnosis
4. Text-to-Speech Conversion
5. Wireless transmission of electrical energy

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

(a) 1, 2, 3 and 5 only
(b) 1, 3 and 4 only
(c) 2, 4 and 5 only
(d) 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5

Ans: (b)

Source: TH