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Curiosity a human condition

29/06/2023 - 11:00

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AI will have a hard time replacing human curiosity, critical thinking and scientific thought.

Curiosity a human condition
An image that symbolises human curiosity, which was created by Midjourney using a prompt generated by ChatGPT.

A recent pre-print paper out of the University of Pennsylvania in collaboration with OpenResearch and OpenAI (the makers of ChatGPT) made some interesting findings about the future of the workforce.

The paper suggests that about 19 per cent of US workers could have up to half their tasks carried out by AI, specifically large language models (or LLMs), like ChatGPT.

The findings also suggest that 80 per cent of the US workforce could be affected by the introduction of LLMs, losing at least 10 per cent of their work to the technology.

These numbers are staggering and reflect a growing general anxiety about the impact of AI on the future of work. But what does it mean, really? Will robots take our jobs?

Maybe. But, as always, things are complicated. Here are a few things to deepen your insight.

AI boom

While there is increasing evidence that jobs are at risk, there is also evidence that AI is helping companies that are having trouble filling roles, while also creating new industries and thus new job categories.

For example, the IBM Global AI Adoption Index 2022 has reported that 25 per cent of companies worldwide are deploying AI as a way of dealing with a variety of pressures, including labour and skill shortages, while research from the World Economic Forum in 2020 estimated AI will create 97 million jobs.

Meanwhile, Silicon Valley is experiencing an AI gold rush, with some commentators comparing it to the 1990s dot.com boom. According to Axios, $US4.5 billion was invested in AI ventures last year while the rest of the tech landscape experienced pull back.

ChatGPT

Another aspect important to understanding what happens next is what’s happening in the current landscape.

The type of AI that has everyone’s attention right now is generative AI, which includes LLMs including ChatGPT or text-to-picture AIs such as Midjourney. These are generative in the sense that they are trained on existing content, which they then use to generate new content. It is important to note that, while generative AI can generate new content, it is not engaging in creativity or true innovation. Everything it generates is derivative of things that already exist: generative AI simply recombines existing elements in line with the patterns it has learned.

For example, generative AI can create a realistic photo of Godzilla eating spaghetti, but it couldn’t invent something like quantum computing. Yet.

This is where we move into the realm of transformative AI. This is where AI can actually create and innovate by itself, and where all work could actually be carried out by AI.

It’s a situation Ajeya Cotra, senior research analyst at US-based non-profit Open Philanthropy, which is focused on the potential risks of advanced AI, describes as “the obsolesce regime”.

In this potential future, writes Ms Cotra in a recent blog post: “Economic and military competition don’t operate on human timescales and aren’t constrained by human limitations. In this regime, a company or country that tries to make do with mere human creativity and understanding and reasoning alone would be outcompeted as surely as one that refuses to touch a computer would be today.”

But the thing is, no-one actually knows if transformative AI is possible. And if it is, when it will happen?

So, what to do?

Case for curiosity

By definition, the future is uncertain. And what we do know for certain is there are certain skills that remain very hard to replace with AI.

Another key finding of the University of Pennsylvania, OpenResearch and OpenAI research paper was that roles involving critical thinking and science were at much less risk of being automated than those involving writing and programming. The core of this, to me, is curiosity.

Curiosity remains an entirely human skill. Research shows it unlocks our creativity, powers problem solving and boosts innovation. Curiosity is even how we connect as humans, through empathy, understanding and engagement.

I’ll give ChatGPT the last word here because of course I had to ask it if it was able to be curious. It replied with the following, in a chat it tellingly labelled “no emotions, no curiosity”.

“As an artificial intelligence, I don’t experience human emotions or states of mind, including curiosity. I don’t have personal experiences, thoughts, or feelings. Therefore, I don’t have the capacity to be curious about anything.”

• Dr Kate Raynes-Goldie is a cultural anthropologist specialising in human communication, innovation and AI. She is also a keynote speaker, Certified LEGO® Serious Play® Facilitator and the creator of SUPERCONNECT®