AI, Intelligence Without an Off Switch: A Young Person's Blog

As we enter the second quarter of the 21^st century, AI (Artificial Intelligence) is a topic at the forefront of people’s minds. AI is one of the most revolutionary, groundbreaking pieces of technology in the 21^st century. But it’s still being developed, and many different AI servers are still being tested.  

There are many benefits of AI, such as the fact it is very effective when completing repetitive tasks that would often be messed up by humans due to human error. It can also complete tasks 24/7 and doesn’t have to be paid, which is why it is used lots in business. AI is also used by big companies such as Netflix to learn what their consumers like to watch so they can recommend similar titles.

Furthermore, AI can also be really fun to use to create entertaining images and can be really helpful in research and for answering questions. AI works by taking information from lots of different existing websites and summarising them together, which gives you a really good overview of exactly what you want to know. 

However, AI can also be very dangerous and negative. For example, many Generative AI Chatbots often produce information that is incorrect or biased but presented as factually correct. There have been stories where people have been given poor advice on sensitive issues such as self-harm and suicide. AI can create very realistic images, which could be used by groomers to hide their identity.

In addition, people can use AI to manipulate and distort images of people to blackmail them or humiliate them. Financial sextortion is a huge problem for youths, and AI makes it worse, as people can put a nude image of someone on someone else’s body and distort nude images. At this point in time, anyone can ask AI any question, and it is largely unfiltered. 

Overall, I think that AI is going to be incredibly useful in the future and could make breakthroughs in industries such as medicine. Despite this, I think that more needs to be done to filter and refine the results that people see, and there needs to be more regulation on who can use AI. Services such as social media have age restrictions for a reason, so why doesn’t AI have stricter policies on what ages can use it? 

AI is still in its early stages and is still being developed and improved every day, so only time will tell whether it is going to benefit or destroy our world as we know it. 

Written by Jack, age 14, at Blatchington Mill School