We continue to see more and more articles in the media about how AI is being used. Yet, the need for caution with AI keeps getting emphasized.
Recent examples in the media include a Wall Street Journal article about AI’s use to generate ideas for headlines for ad campaigns. The article does mention the need for caution and essentially takes the position that there are both pros and cons to employing AI for ad campaigns. As I see it, using AI to generate ideas, can be a worthwhile use of the technology. Ideation is not fact generation. Ideas can be considered much as they would in a brainstorming session. If good ideas emerge from AI, they can be adopted. At the same time however, AI might not be accurate when producing facts, so caution is needed.
Another Wall Street Journal article discussed how consumers were using AI for meal planning. According to the article, AI did do some useful meal planning. However, AI also ran into problems, such as forgetting to include allergy information when producing meal plans. Due to problems, some who tried AI for meal planning discontinued its use. As I see it, this meal planning example is an area where AI might not work as well as it might for idea generation. Good meal planning needs to be based on accurate facts, and AI does not always get the facts right. Thus, AI may not be as useful for meal planning as it might be for generating ideas, which are not necessarily fact based, but are intended to trigger further thinking and more ideation.
Additionally, as I work on finalizing this blog post, an interesting article about AI appeared on the front page of today’s Wall Street Journal. Even the title of that article epitomizes the heightened recognition that caution is needed when implementing AI. The article, written by Berber Jin, is titled “AI Startups Face Huge Reality Check As Investors Worry About Profits”.
The article reports that venture capitalist Mark “Goldberg said the initial surge in user growth for ChatGPT—the fastest ever for a consumer app, UBS analysts said in February—led investors to overestimate the rate at which consumers would use tools powered by generative AI “ But, as the article points out, “usage has waned from peak levels. Monthly online visitors to ChatGPT decreased by 10% in both June and July after months of growth.” However, the article also does report that “excitement for AI remains in the tech industry. Microsoft. Google and other established companies are investing heavily.”
In conclusion, AI is increasingly being tried in a variety of situations. But as users experiment with AI, its limitations become more obvious. This doesn’t mean AI isn’t beneficial in certain situations. It can be. However, its limitations should not be ignored and must be taken into consideration when trying to apply it. And, more recently, we do seem to see intensifying signals that the need for caution with AI is increasingly being recognized.
