Rodney Brooks, a robotic researcher and AI expert, believes that people have greatly exaggerated the potential of OpenAI’s large language models, such as the famous ChatGPT chatbot. In a recent interview with IEEE Spectrum, Brooks argued that OpenAI’s language models lack the intelligence to rival humans in any tasks, and that we have been overconfident in predicting AI’s future capabilities.
According to Brooks, language models lack the ability to interact with the real world and to truly understand the language. He explained to IEEE Spectrum that while observing a person’s actions, humans tend to quickly assess their capabilities, without being able to do so in the case of AI systems. He further highlighted that AI can only give confident answers without actually being accurate. Brooks even shared his own experience using language models to help him with coding tasks, which he described as a time-consuming process because these models give wrong answers with full confidence.
All of Brooks’ warnings should be taken into consideration, as AI technology is yet to achieve the level of human intellect that people are mistakenly attributing to it. He certainly has us thinking twice about the potential of AI; if the robotics researcher is right about these chatbot programs being no more than a ‘look-up’ of information, then the impact of AI on the future of humanity could be a lot more negative than expected.
OpenAI is a nonprofit artificial intelligence research team founded by members of tech innovators like Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and others. The group focuses on conducting research in the artificial intelligence area, while teaching ethical values to AI-related technologies and systems, and ensuring the humanitarian and ecologic implications of their AI creation. The well-known AI company has made numerous remarkable achievements, such as the creation of GPT-3, the world’s largest language model ever.
Rodney Allen Brooks is a robotic scientist and former Associate Professor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is a renowned figure in the field of robotics, artificial intelligence, and automation. He is the founder of Rethink Robotics and was previously the Chief Technology Officer at iRobot. He is currently a professor at the Queensland University of Technology in Australia and has made significant contributions to robotics, computer vision, machine learning and artificial intelligence.
