ChatGPT and AI: A Balancing Act of Positive and Negative Impacts in the New Era

As the end of 2023 grows near, it is important to remember the whirlwind of technological advancements; from generative AI such as ChatGPT and and Bard to the new AR Meta glasses that are kicking up a storm.

ChatGPT and artificial intelligence (AI), including generative AI, in particular, have emerged as transformative forces shaping the modern world. While AI promises to revolutionize communication, healthcare, and countless other fields, it also raises concerns about job displacement, data privacy, and ethical implications.

Era Biz Solutions is well aware that understanding the interplay of AI’s positive and negative impacts is crucial to navigating this technological landscape responsibly and ensuring its equitable and beneficial application. Therefore, we have analyzed it for you in this article.

The Positive Impact

1.     Revolutionizing Communication and Interaction

ChatGPT and AI have laid the foundations to completely changing the way that human interaction worked in the past, enabling seamless communication beyond linguistic and cultural barriers. AI-powered chatbots provide 24/7 customer support, addressing inquiries and resolving issues efficiently. Companies like Era Biz, who deal with clients from around the world, can now use language translation tools to break down communication barriers, facilitating cross-cultural collaboration and global understanding.

Interesting Statistics

• Gartner analyzed that 40% of enterprise applications will have embedded conversational AI by 2024 in order to assist with customer service, which is up from the less than 5% in 2020.
• A recent Forrester Research report on The Top 10 Emerging Technologies in 2023 found that Generative AI was the most popular technology followed by Conversational AI – bringing into focus the advantages in communication and interaction that AI have to offer.

2.     Boosting Productivity and Efficiency with AI

AI is transforming workplaces by automating repetitive tasks, streamlining workflows, and providing data-driven insights. Many large-scale organizations, including some of our clients at Era Biz Solutions, are switching to use AI-powered systems to analyze vast amounts of data and generate actionable insights for informed decision-making. Artificial intelligence-based predictive modeling and forecasting tools with a core of Machine Learning (ML) are helping businesses anticipate trends, optimize operations, and mitigate risks.

Interesting Statistics

• PwC stated that AI is the “biggest commercial opportunity” in their Global Artificial Intelligence Study, predicting that AI will contribute US $15.7 trillion to the global economy by the year of 2030, with most of these economic gains expected to be from China and North America.
• The World Economic Forum: Future of Jobs 2023 report found that 74.9% companies plan to adopt AI technology into their operations, while it is predicted to create 25.6% more jobs in effect. According to the report, task automation powered by AI by 2027 is expected to vary from an approximate 35% of reasoning and decision-making to 65% of automation for information and data processing tasks.
• The World Economic Forum found that Generative AI’s productivity impact was such that it could add the equivalent of $2.6 trillion to $4.4 trillion to the global economy annually. This is because AI has the ability to automate nearly 60-70% of the work activities of employees today
• Deloitte’s Global State of AI in the Enterprise 2022 show that 94% of surveyed leaders (a cohort of 2620 respondents across all sectors of society) recognize AI as vital for their businesses, and 79% of leaders have deployed AI applications.

3.     Enhancing Creativity and Innovation

Another positive impact is that AI is not only revolutionizing communication and productivity but also empowering creativity and innovation. AI-assisted creative tools are able to generate content, explore new ideas, and enhance design processes. Some of Era Biz’ software use personalized recommendations and suggestions powered by AI to enrich user experiences, while data-driven insights help our clients identify untapped opportunities and trends.

A recent article in The New York Times found that AI is transforming creative work through apps like DALL-E, Midjourney and Stable Fusion. Even more interestingly there was great hoo-ha as an AI generated digital artwork won the digital category prize in the Colorado State Fair’s annual art competition becoming the first such instance in the world (Source: NY Times, Sept 2022).

Interesting Statistics

• A study by Adobe found that Creative Professionals view AI as their future with 71% expecting to use it in professional work and 59% planning to use it in their personal life as well. The UI/UX designers were the most likely to use AI according to the study.
• Further the same study stated that 51% felt that it would help them explore new mediums, 46% of the creative professionals surveyed said that AI could help create more higher quality work and 35% stated that AI could help differentiate their work.
• Brian Burke, Research VP for Technology Innovation at Gartner stated that while current AI models focus mainly on generative AI for creative work, they expect over 30% of new pharmaceutical drugs and industrial materials to be discovered with the aid of generative AI.

4.     Advancing Scientific and Technological Progress

AI is accelerating scientific and technological progress across various domains. The use of AI for drug discovery, patient diagnosis and medical research is already in the pipeline creating the foundation to new treatments and therapies, such as is the case with Google’s new generative AI model for the medical domain, Med-PaLM 2. AI-driven personalized learning platforms are tailoring education to individual needs, while AI-enabled robotics and automation are transforming industries. According to the UNESCO on Artificial Intelligence in Education, “artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to address some of the biggest challenges in education today, innovate teaching and learning practices, and accelerate progress towards SDG 4”, but it also comes with multiple risks and challenges.

An academic research article on the ‘Evolution of artificial intelligence research in Technological Forecasting and Social Change’ by Yogesh K Dwivedi[i] was able to analyze and conclude that AI research contributes knowledge to multiple disciplines, such as Social Sciences, Engineering, Computer Science, and Mathematics while also enabling interdisciplinary knowledge exchange.

5.     Addressing Global Challenges and Sustainability

One of the key positive impacts is the crucial role that AI is playing in addressing global challenges and sustainability. AI-based solutions are able to optimize resource utilization, monitor environmental conditions, and predict natural disasters. New AI-powered sustainable energy generation and distribution systems are under research with the aim to contribute to a greener future. Some of Era Biz’s IoT solutions in the past year have integrated AI for optimizing resource utilization.

Interesting Statistics

• According to a study by PwC UK, using AI for environmental applications could contribute up to $5.2 trillion USD to the global economy in 2030, while also creating 38.2 million new jobs for skilled workers as part of the transition.
• The Council on Foreign Relations analyzed that AI can help combat climate change and address global challenges through cleaner and safer transportation, 99% accurate weather forecasting, smart agriculture with more efficient irrigation and fertilization, AI-supported urban planning and smart cities, wildlife and nature conservation efforts through analyzing satellite imagery.
• Google worked hand-in-hand with the UN Statistics division to build the UN Data Commons for the SDGs, a tool that tracks metrics across the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) using data and insights from the UN and AI-powered search functions. This has allowed the information to be more commonly available and helps governments take action much faster. In addition, Google was also able to confirm that AI helps organizations achieve their SDG-related goals within a third of the time with just half the cost.

Are you looking to hire Dedicated AI Developers? Contact Era Biz Solutions right away for a free consultation

Navigating the Negative Effects of ChatGPT and AI

The rapid advancement of ChatGPT and artificial intelligence (AI) has undoubtedly brought about a plethora of benefits, revolutionizing industries, enhancing communication, empowering creativity, and improving sustainability. However, alongside these advancements, concerns have emerged regarding the potential negative impacts of these technologies, particularly in terms of job displacement, data privacy, ethical implications, and societal repercussions.

1.     Job Displacement

The automation capabilities of AI and ChatGPT has raised much resistance mainly due to many workers’ concerns about job displacement, particularly in sectors that rely heavily on repetitive tasks such as customer service and office support functions.

Interesting Statistics

• A report by McKinsey Global Institute study analyzed that 400-800 million jobs could be lost to automation by 2030, while up to 375 million workers may have to change their occupational category to adopt the changes brought by AI. Many of these losses are expected to occur in areas of predictable physical work (such as machinery operations and fast-food processing), and collecting and processing data (such as back-office operations, accounting and paralegal work)

2.     Data Privacy and Security

The vast amount of personal data collected and analyzed by AI systems poses significant data privacy and security risks. Data breaches and unauthorized access to sensitive information can lead to identity theft, financial fraud, and reputational damage.

Interesting Statistics

• The new and updated article in Cybercrime Magazine reported that cybercrime could cost the world US $10.5 trillion annually by 2025. They also pointed out that if AI was being used to conduct cybercrime, it should also be used in cyber defense to combat it.

3.     Ethical Implications and Algorithmic Bias in AI

The source of information in Generative AI has caused many ethical implications as in many cases it is not clear or is misrepresented. In a most famous viral situation recently, AI when asked to read a legal case document from a source and summarize it, added false details implicating an innocent man as a criminal. However, thankfully it didn’t make it to court and was identified beforehand. Another case, however, did, and caused the judge to consider sanctions after a lawyer used ChatGPT and cited non-existent cases, as confirmed by Forbes.

AI algorithms, if not carefully designed and implemented, can perpetuate existing societal biases and lead to discriminatory practices as AI picks up information as is from the internet or other sources. For instance, an AI algorithm used in criminal justice risk assessment may disproportionately identify certain demographic groups as high-risk offenders, perpetuating racial and socioeconomic inequalities.

Interesting Statistics

• A study by ProPublica in 2016 found that a risk assessment tool used in Florida’s criminal justice system was twice as likely to falsely label Black defendants as high-risk compared to white defendants. Further white defendants were often mislabeled as low risk when this was not the case.
• Notably in the study done by Adobe, 77% of creative professionals consider it important to counter AI-driven bias, and 83% stated that they need more transparency about the data used to train generative AI models. 80% of them also noted that the content generated by AI is currently not very safe for commercial use due to legal and ethical concerns, and that it is important for it to become safe.

4.     Societal Repercussions and Misinformation

The increasing reliance on AI for decision-making and information dissemination raises concerns about societal repercussions and the potential for misinformation. Deepfakes are a technology that creates very realistic falsified videos or photos of people. AI-powered deepfakes and fake news can manipulate public opinion and undermine trust in institutions.

A study on ‘Deepfakes and scientific knowledge dissemination’[ii] identified that less than half of average adults can identify deepfake videos for what they are, highlighting the potential for widespread manipulation in misinformation campaign. At the same time, perhaps more concerningly, real videos and photos are now being considered as deepfakes if highly sensational.

Addressing the Negative Impacts

To mitigate the negative effects of ChatGPT and AI, a multi-pronged approach is necessary:

• Promoting Responsible AI Development: Establishing ethical guidelines and regulations, such as on the transparency and use of data, that govern the development and use of AI can help prevent the perpetuation of bias and ensure responsible AI practices.
• Reskilling and Upskilling Workers: Investing in programs to reskill and upskill workers affected by automation can help them transition to new jobs and adapt to the changing technological landscape.
• Enhancing Data Privacy and Security: Implementing robust data protection measures, including data encryption, access controls, and user education, can help safeguard sensitive personal information.
• Addressing Algorithmic Bias: Implementing bias detection and mitigation techniques during AI development and deployment can help prevent discriminatory outcomes.
• Promoting Media Literacy and Fact-Checking: Educating the public about the potential for misinformation and empowering them with fact-checking tools can help combat the spread of false information.

By addressing the negative impacts of ChatGPT and AI proactively and responsibly, we can ensure that these powerful technologies are harnessed for the benefit of society while minimizing potential harm.

How Era Biz Solutions Can Help

We’re a top offshore software development company with a proven track record of success in development for over 12 years. We help businesses of all sizes to overcome their digital transformations according to their needs, all at a very cost-effective rate.

Most recently we have added top AI developers to our team and can now meet your needs in this sector of software development as well. They are also available to hire as dedicated developers or augmented staff.

If you’re interested in learning more about the AI development trends, or if you need help implementing these trends for your own business, contact Era Biz Solutions today.

Conclusion

In conclusion, AI is a powerful tool with the potential to revolutionize the world. However, it is important to use AI responsibly and to address the potential negative impacts of AI; such as job displacement, data privacy concerns, and bias in algorithmic decision-making; in order to ensure that AI benefits society equitably and sustainably. Collaboration among researchers, policymakers, and industry stakeholders is crucial to harnessing the power of AI for the betterment of humanity.

Book a free consultation with Era Biz Solutions to discuss your AI Development needs today!

[i] Dwivedi, Y.K. et al. (2023) ‘Evolution of artificial intelligence research in technological forecasting and Social Change: Research Topics, trends, and future directions’, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 192, p. 122579. doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2023.122579.

[ii] Doss, C., Mondschein, J., Shu, D. et al. (2023) ‘Deepfakes and scientific knowledge dissemination.’, Sci Rep, 13, 13429. doi:10.1038/s41598-023-39944-3