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Ananya Gairola

Jimmy Wales Wonders If AI Could Be Next Editor-In-Chief Of Wikipedia — He Has One Problem Though

Photo illustration showing ChatGPT and OpenAI research laboratory logo and inscription at a mobile phone smartphone screen with a blurry background. Open AI is an app using artificial intelligence technology. Italy is the first European country to ban and block the robot Chat GPT application and website. ChatGPT is an artificial-intelligence (AI) chatbot developed by OpenAI and launched in November 2022 using reinforcement learning techniques both from machine and human feedback. Amsterdam, the Netherlands on April 1, 2023. NICOLAS ECONOMOU/BENZINGA

It appears tech website CNET might not be the only platform experimenting with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and its incredible skills in writing articles. 

OpenAI’s ChatGPT, an AI-powered chatbot that has taken the world by storm and attracted a $10 billion investment from Microsoft Corporation, seems to have impressed Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales too, although he has some problems with the way it works, reported Evening Standard. 

Already experts and netizens alike are marveling at ChatGPT’s ability to write decent pieces, be it poetry or an article, but they also agree that there are some significant risks associated with it. 

In this photo illustration a Wikipedia logo seen displayed on a smartphone. Wikipedia has been talked about as a hypothetical take from AI. MATEUSZ SLODKOWSKI/BENZINGA

Wales said the Wikipedia community is cautious about the existing AI models but also intrigued. 

“I think we’re still a way away from: ‘ChatGPT, please write a Wikipedia entry about the Empire State Building’, but I don’t know how far away we are from that, certainly closer than I would have thought two years ago,” he said.

He also shared concerns about ChatGPT’s “hallucinating” tendencies.

“It has a tendency to just make stuff up out of thin air, which is just really bad for Wikipedia — that’s just not OK.” 

Although achieving full AI authorship is not feasible in the short term, there are ongoing discussions at Wikipedia regarding the potential use of AI technology to enhance the encyclopedia in the coming months, the report noted. 

“It’s a mistake to be relying on it for anything important right now,” OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman tweeted. “We have lots of work to do on robustness and truthfulness.”

The take of Wikipedia of AI has deemed hypothetical as is it said to be the take-over of the world putting people out of jobs. It is said that OpenAI holds all the power as it continues to develop ChatGPT according to its own goals and standards.

OpenAI released ChatGPT for testing last year. Since then, people have been either awed or terrified by this technology. Debates about AI being the future and posing a threat to the human workforce have also escalated.

At the same time, tech icons like Bill Gates believe that the ChatGPT invention is as big as the internet. 

Other critics of the AI technology, including Elon Musk, had called for the regulation and the dangers of relying on AI. 

“Don’t waste your time on the fantasies of the techbros saying ‘Oh noes, we’re building something TOO powerful,’” said Emily Bender on Twitter, a Linguistic professor at the University of Washington about AI. “Listen instead to those who are studying how corporations (and govt) are using technology (and the narratives of “AI”) to concentrate and wield power.”

The Writers Guild of America has allowed the use of AI as long as it doesn’t impact the writer’s credits and residuals. 

Produced in association with Benzinga

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