The Meeting Professionals International (MPI) Small Business Owners’ (SBO) April Mentor program on ChatGPT had barely turned off the Zoom microphones and web cameras when the plethora of newer information and controversies about the suddenly-trending Artificial Intelligence (AI) came pouring across the social media-verse faster than a speeding (bullet) train.
If you are an MPI member and want to learn how ChatGPT does or may affect your small business (under 400 staff), click onto MPI’s SBO Community Forum. The hour-long session was recorded and is accessible to play (Go to the Library icon in Community Forums).
While the full impact of using ChatGPT may not be known for years, the early applications by a multitude of businesses have already caused concern across the globe.
The 27-nation European Union created AI rules two years ago but didn’t figure in chatbots. According to an article by Kelvin Chan for the Associated Press, “Then ChatGPT kind of boom, exploded,” said Dragos Tudorache, a Romanian member of the European Parliament co-leading the measure.
European lawmakers swiftly reacted by adding language onto legislation. The rules will naturally evolve as does the AI, but leaders such as Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak called for a six-month pause to consider what risks may occur from a system has learns vast amounts of material fed to it by individuals whose own prejudices may alter the responses given.
The fear about those responses prompted a group of hackers to be tasked with trying to override the safeguards. Led by OpenAI, and other major AI providers, such as Google and Microsoft, according to an Associated Press article by Matt O’Brien, the team wanted to explore if chatbots could be manipulated to cause harm or share private information. They also wanted to know why ChatGPT assumes a doctor is a man and a nurse is a woman. The assembled group of hackers are planning an event at DEF CON in Las Vegas, NV this summer that draws thousands of people. “We need a lot of people with a wide range of lived experiences, subject matter expertise and backgrounds hacking at these models and trying to find problems that can then go be fixed,” said Humane Intelligence co-founder Rumman Chowdhury.
What hackers have already discovered are vulnerabilities and a method Chowdhury helped introduce to reward hackers for discovering algorithmic bias when she was the lead for Twitter’s AI ethics team, a job eliminated with Musk’s takeover.
Daily Beast Deputy Editor for Innovation & Tech Tony Ho Tran interniewed Som Biswas, a radiologist at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, who read about OpenAI’s chatbot when it was released in November 2022. According to the interniew, he thought “If ChatGPT can be used to write stories and jokes, why not use it for research or publication for serious articles?” He has since used OpenAI’s chatbot to write at least 16 papers in just four months and published five articles in four different journals. Not all are based on radiology or even subjects with which he is an expert. The information comes from chatGPT and he edits the final copy.
So, what’s the problem with using chatGPT to write articles?
Tony Ho Tran talked to Stefan Duma, a professor of engineering at Virginia Tech and editor-in-chief of the Annals of Biomedical Engineering. Duma said admissions went from “practically zero to probably two or three a week now.” However, he is also rejecting more articles generated by chatGPT and other large language models (LLM)s due to poor quality. The need to publish encourages more people relying on LLMs.
When Tony Ho Tran spoke with Elisabeth Bik, a microbiologist and science integrity expert, she admitted it could be a useful tool for constructing coherent sentences and paragraphs as long as article authors admitted they used chatGPT or other LLMs.
She said, “Citations and number of publications are two of the measures where academics are measured.” The more you publish, the greater your knowledge is perceived. She also expressed the profusion of articles would encourage paper mills, which tony Ho Tran describes as black-market organizations that undermined traditional academic research by producing fraudulent scientific papers that resemble genuine research and selling authorship on legitimate studies.
Questions could surround articles of information, no matter the industry, particularly when bias is revealed.
Tony Ho Tran reported that within the first days of its release, OpenAI’s LLM told users that only white males make good scientists and that a child’s life shouldn’t be saved if they an African American boy. He reported that Duma said his journal enacted a policy that forbids LLM to be listed as co-authors, but the tools used are “here to stay.”
The European Union is forging ahead with policies to control online info as much as possible. Yes, they are creating policies now, which may not be in effect until early 2024, but how much will have already altered the playing field by then?
These are just a few of the articles that have crossed by desk in the past few days. Are you using chatGPT for your small business? What positive or negative impact have you discovered? Would you like to hear more on this subject from MPI SBO in the future?
Please don’t hesitate to contact me or any of the MPI SBO leadership. You can respond on the Community Forum SBO page or to us directly.
If you are an MPI and wish to join SBO, please let us know. If you are a member of SBO and haven’t joined our Directory, go to: MPI ISBO Directory – Exchange business services with your fellow MPI ISBO members (mpisbodirectory.com)
Join us on May 18 for Mentorship Moments presents: Rebuild, Rejuvenate, Reinvent with Terri Breining. Register by sending an email with your name and email address to maryanne@bobrowassociates.com. She will manually add you as there has been a glitch in the system.
Karen Kuzsel is a writer-editor based in the Orlando area who specializes in the hospitality, entertainment, meetings & events industries. She is an active member of International Live Events Association and Meeting Professionals International and is now serving on the 2022-2023 MPI Global Advisory Board for Small Business Owners. She is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists. Karen writes about food & wine, spas, destinations, venues, meetings & events in her blog, Hotel Happenings & Program Promotions. A career journalist, she has owned magazines, written for newspapers, trade publications, radio and TV. As her alter-ego, Natasha, The Psychic Lady, she is a featured entertainer for corporate and social events. Karen@KarenKuzsel.com; www.KarenKuzsel.com; www.ThePsychicLady.com; @karenkuzsel; @thepsychiclady.