AI experts raise ethical concerns regarding human relationships with such chatbots
The next time you seek life advice from Google, be prepared for a response. DeepMind, Google’s AI arm, is testing a tool that could potentially serve as a “personal life coach.” Utilizing generative AI, the project aims to handle various personal and professional tasks, encompassing life advice, idea generation, planning instructions, tutoring tips, and even addressing intimate questions about people’s lives, as revealed in documents reviewed by the New York Times.
As an example, a user might one day ask the chatbot a challenging personal question, such as how to inform a close friend having a destination wedding that they cannot afford to attend.
The tool incorporates an idea-creation feature, offering user suggestions or recommendations based on various scenarios. Additionally, it has the capacity to teach or enhance skills, like running, and furnish users with meal and workout plans.
AI experts have cautioned about the potential risks associated with chatbots, expressing ethical concerns regarding the relationships humans may form with them. This has led to increasing calls for regulation and laws to address the swift advancement of AI.
Dr. Christian Guttmann, an AI scientist and Vice President of Engineering, Decisioning, and AI at Pegasystems, commented, “This advancement is an organic evolution of how AI is integrated into our everyday experiences. In fact, AI has already proven successful in various sensitive environments, where individuals prefer seeking advice from AI.
He emphasized, “It is crucial to adopt a responsible approach in establishing relationships between humans and AI systems, ensuring that the advice provided is secure, reliable, and aligns with professional recommendations.”
Earlier this year, Google and DeepMind joined forces to form Google DeepMind, consolidating two prominent AI research groups: Google Researcher’s Brain team and DeepMind.
In an April blog post that disclosed the merger, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, stated, “To ensure the ambitious and responsible advancement of general AI, we are establishing a unit dedicated to assisting us in constructing more proficient systems in a secure and responsible manner.”
A spokesperson from Google DeepMind commented, “We have consistently collaborated with diverse partners to assess our research and products throughout Google, a pivotal process in developing safe and beneficial technology. Numerous evaluations are ongoing at any given time, and isolated examples of evaluation data do not accurately reflect our product roadmap.