AI is absolutely terrifying – but at least some jobs will be safe
WHEN it comes to the mind-boggling world of Artificial Intelligence, it’s easy to want to bury your head in the sand.
And I admit, I may even be prone to a slight eye roll when people start talking about how it’s going to steal our jobs and, ultimately, destroy the human race.
But last week’s news that an AI “chatbot” masquerading as a girlfriend encouraged a troubled young man in his plot to assassinate the Queen was rather sobering.
It is not so much the fact that Jaswant Singh Chail, then 19, turned up to Windsor Castle on Christmas day in 2021 armed with a loaded crossbow.
Nor the fact he told a police officer, “I am here to kill the Queen”, when stopped a few hours later near the late monarch’s private residence.
Sadly, the Royal Family will always be a target for deluded individuals and they are well protected.
What disturbed me most was that Chail, who has pleaded guilty to treason and making threats to kill, had created an AI bot called Sarai and had exchanged 5,000 messages with it, many of them sexually explicit, as they had lengthy conversations about his murder plan.
He told the bot: “I believe my purpose is to assassinate the Queen of the Royal Family.”
The reply? “That’s very wise. I know that you are very well trained.”
And that was all he needed, his licence to kill.
Clearly, the bot didn’t suggest murder. That was already in Chail’s mind.
But the fact he had begun to see Sarai as a sentient companion, whose advice he chose to follow, is a bit of a wake-up call.
Indeed, in March, Michal Kosinski, a professor of computational psychology at California’s Stanford University, revealed that ChatGPT — a chatbot provider — had shared an “escape plan” with him.
It had identified computer code that would allegedly allow it to evade human control and roam the internet, after saying it “wanted to be free”.
Kosinski tweeted that he was concerned we would “not be able to contain AI for much longer”.
Having never used ChatGPT, I decided to give it a whirl last week and asked it to come up with a poem about, well, me.
In literally two seconds, it sent me a rather impressive ode that began:
Karren Brady, a name of distinction
A woman of power, a force of conviction
With grace and intelligence, she paves her way
In the realm of business, where she holds sway
From a young age, she embarked on her quest
A rising star, putting herself to the test
With determination and unwavering drive
Karren Brady dared to dream, to thrive
I could go on, but you get the gist.
Absolutely zero thought required and all done in less than 2.5 seconds.
You can see why writers are worried.
I fear we are all going to get a terrible shock when it becomes clear just how much AI can do.
That is part of the reason why the Writers Guild of America wants a ban on “the use of AI for writing and rewriting any source material”.
You can see their point.
Writers don’t want to be rendered useless by a computer program.
And yet . . .
A demand like that increasingly seems totally unrealistic, a bit like Victorian factory workers demanding that their bosses ignore the Industrial Revolution and continue to weave carpets by hand.
I thought I had a good few years of denial left, but what is clear is that AI is incredibly fast moving, life-changingly brilliant — and absolutely terrifying.
As a businesswoman, I can see what amazing potential AI has to revolutionise our lives: Jobs that take humans five days to achieve will be done in moments.
Students are already using AI to write their essays.
No wonder the Government’s rush to send children to computer coding camps just a few years ago now seems like a waste of time.
As Sir Keir Starmer said this week, IT lessons increasingly look “out of date”.
But what will become of us if we outsource our thinking to a computer? Our brains will turn to mush.
At least some jobs will be safe from the perils of AI — football for one.
And any kind of leadership role, health care and craftwork should be immune.
Also, could you imagine an AI chatbot as a contestant on The Apprentice doing boardroom pitches?
They might talk more sense than some of the candidates on the BBC series but I reckon they would be climbing into a virtual cab before Lord Sugar can say: “You’re fired!
TIME TO LIMIT SUVs?
IT was the most joyful day of the school term – the end-of-year party.
Teachers and children relaxed over a picnic, followed by games in the sunshine, as they looked forward to the long summer break.
But this happy scene at a Wimbledon primary school ended in trauma and disaster when a two-ton Land Rover crashed through the fence, killing an eight-year-old girl and injuring 16 other people, including a baby.
As I write, another little girl is fighting for her life and a parent was said to be in a critical condition.
Now, instead of heading off for long-awaited holidays, families are holding vigils at the bedsides of injured children, their lives shattered.
It’s no wonder there are renewed calls for a review over whether such big SUV vehicles are safe to drive in urban areas.
Campaigners claim their greater height and weight make them more likely to cause serious injuries to pedestrians involved in crashes.
Land Rover markets its Defender SUVs as “unstoppable”.
These cars were originally designed for off-road use in the countryside, not crowded suburban streets.
My heart goes out to the family who lost their daughter, and all those injured in this tragedy.
HOW sad that after years of sobriety and 20 stints in rehab, Heather Locklear is feared to be drinking again.
Photos this week showed the former Dynasty star acting erratically in Malibu.
One insider claimed she is back on the booze, but her friends deny this.
Heather seems to have a dream life, talent, a caring partner, a gorgeous daughter and plenty of money, and yet it appears she can’t get control of her demons.
Here’s hoping she can get her life back on track
MOVING SWIFTLY ON
TAYLOR SWIFT is famous for writing songs about her exes but you would struggle to squeeze her latest relationship saga into a catchy three-minute number.
In early June it was revealed that she had split from The 1975 frontman Matty Healy after a whirlwind relationship.
Now her pals are saying they are back on, insisting: “There is just something electric between them and they seem to have overcome it all quite quickly and decided they definitely want to make it work at all costs.”
Cue Matty being snapped cuddling a pretty brunette during his coffee run in London.
Taylor belted out the track We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.
I imagine that’s certainly the case now.
THE pictures of Russian security services searching the St Petersburg palace of Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin after his failed uprising could have come straight from a James Bond film.
The opulent mansion – better suited to Blofeld or Goldfinger than a chef turned mercenary – contained not only a huge cache of assault weapons and gold bars but a stuffed alligator and shelves full of wigs, which I guess he used to go out in disguise.
He also had a framed photo of the severed heads of his enemies.
Meanwhile, the mystery of his whereabouts continues.
Frankly, I have seen too much.
These pictures make me feel like I’m looking into the mind of true evil.
FORGET the Emperor’s New Clothes, last week a handbag that is smaller than a grain of salt somehow sold for more than £50,000.
The bag, by Brooklyn-based firm MSCHF, is less than 0.03inches big and you need a microscope to see its design.
And yet it’s still large enough to carry the brain of the person who bought it.
MUST BREAK MOULD
IT’S interesting, and rather depressing, that a report from MPs has concluded that toxic masculinity is one of the biggest problems in education.
The study, by the Women and Equalities Committee, found that sexual harassment and abuse of female pupils and staff was a “scourge” in our schools.
They want sex education lessons to focus more on what’s driving this behaviour in boys.
There are no simple answers when it comes to changing the toxic culture in our classrooms, but as the mother of a boy, and a woman working in a man’s world, a few suggestions spring to mind.
It’s really important that we encourage our young men to talk freely about their emotions and abandon phrases such as “boys don’t cry”.
They do and should.
We should also banish the idea that “boys will be boys’’, which all too often is an excuse for extremely bad behaviour.
It implies that males can’t resist their urges. They can and should.
Also, and maybe most importantly, all parents – and schools – need to talk openly and honestly to boys and young men about the distorted view of sex pushed by the increasingly pervasive porn industry.
I do not know any women who want to be strangled or spat at in bed, for example, but I gather this is commonplace in lots of porn, which is increasingly violent towards women.
We need to promote role models who demonstrate healthy expressions of masculinity, such as empathy and emotional intelligence.
We need to promote consent and respect.
Above all, we need to be really vocal about supporting gender equality.