Buffalo, NY (WBEN) - It's creeping up just about everywhere in our lives.
Artificial intelligence is surfacing in our social media, customer service chat boxes and on our phones.
AI, as it's known, is bringing up a number of concerns, not just with cybersecurity but with its ability to take over human jobs.
What we don't know
When it comes to cybersecurity at risk because of AI, Buffalo area cybersecurity consultant Michael McCartney says it's a big concern because "We don't know what we don't know." He says one of the concerns with artificial intelligence is who's trained in it and how smart it can get. He cites a recent interview with Elon Musk. "(Musk) kind of puts an exclamation point on the fact that this is a scary thing that once you let it out of the box, and it's able to kind of do machine learning," says McCartney. He says that's already been done with Google and Microsoft. "The biggest concern we have right now is that we don't know when we can stop it, or how we can stop it. And how far is it going to go? And how much is it going to learn," ponders McCartney.
AI Everywhere
McCartney says artificial intelligence is lurking into all facets of society. "It's the last time you got a call from your bank that says, 'Hey, I think you got some fraudulent transactions.' How does it know that? Because it's looking at patterns, it's looking at your pattern of activity. And it's saying this is outside your normal pattern," explains McCartney.
Costing jobs?
Could AI take away human jobs? James Barlow is the founder of Triumph Technology Solutions, a Philadelphia-based data company. He tells our sister station KYW that won't be the case. "The way we're looking at it is this is enhancing our ability to do our job well," says Barlow. "We still need to have a human element, we still need a human touch, but we can be more efficient in the workplace by using this technology." Barlow says AI has been involved in customer service in recent years, but when you want to, you can talk to a human at the end.
AI Regulation?
Can anything be done to control AI's progress? McCartney admits his answer may be unpopular. "Nobody likes to hear about regulation. Right? Any kind of government regulation or government involvement has some negative connotation to it. But I think, in this instance, and in other instances, whether we're talking about nuclear, whether we're talking about banking and finance, there has to be some form of oversight," notes McCartney.
From an oversight perspective, he says there should be some regulation, to say what can be done with this and how far we can go with it. "I don't know if that's going to work because, frankly, there's a lot of independent companies that are just doing their own thing and they will continue to kind of beyond what we can say they can and can't do," notes McCartney.
