Artificial intelligence can mask scams – 09/05/2023 – Tech

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has warned that AI (artificial intelligence) could make it harder to spot scams and misinformation.

Wozniak said he feared the technology could be exploited by “malicious people”.

Speaking to the BBC, he said that AI content must be clearly labeled — and that industry regulation is needed.

The computing pioneer signed a letter in March with more than 1,000 people, including entrepreneur Elon Musk, calling for a break from developing the most powerful artificial intelligence models.

Wozniak, better known in the tech world as Woz, is a Silicon Valley veteran who co-founded Apple with Steve Jobs and invented the company’s first computer.

In an interview with Zoe Kleinman, the BBC’s technology editor, he spoke about the benefits of AI and his concerns.

“Artificial intelligence is so smart that it’s open to malicious people, those who want to mislead you about who they are,” he warned.

The term artificial intelligence encompasses computer systems capable of performing tasks that would normally require human intelligence. This includes chatbots capable of understanding questions and responding in a similar way to humans and systems capable of recognizing objects in images.

Wozniak doesn’t believe AI will replace people because it lacks emotion, but he cautioned that he thinks it will make malicious people even more convincing because programs like ChatGPT can create text that “sounds really smart.”

‘A human being really has to take responsibility’

He believes that responsibility for anything generated by artificial intelligence and then released to the public should rest with whoever publishes it:

“A human being really has to take responsibility for what is generated by this type of technology.”

He wants regulation to hold big techs accountable who “feel they can get away with anything”.

However, he expressed some skepticism about the expectation that regulators would make that happen: “I think the money-seeking forces usually win, which is kind of sad.”

‘We can’t stop technology’

Wozniak was a pioneer in computing, and he says the opportunities missed in the birth of the internet serve as a lesson for today’s architects of artificial intelligence. He believes that “we can’t stop technology”, but that we can prepare people to be better able to identify fraud and malicious attempts to obtain personal information.

Current Apple boss Tim Cook told investors last week it was important to be “conscious and careful” in how you approach the IAF.

“We see artificial intelligence as huge and will continue to build it into our products very carefully.”

This text was published here.