Market exhilaration over ChatGPT could mean the end of caution

Article by Jacob Bourne | Jan 30, 2023

The news: BuzzFeed shares jumped due to plans to collaborate with Meta and OpenAI on content creation.

The digital media outlet says it will work with ChatGPT owner OpenAI to create content.
In a deal valued at almost $10 million, Meta will pay BuzzFeed to generate creator content for Facebook and Instagram, per Fortune.
The combined news pushed BuzzFeed stock prices up 200% Thursday afternoon.
Initially, OpenAI’s tools won’t be used to write articles but will be used for brainstorming, assisting with personalizing content, and to create quizzes.
BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti said that “AI-inspired content” will “move from an R&D stage to part of our core business,” per CNN.
He told staff during a meeting that media companies using AI to save costs and produce low-quality content were making poor use of the tech, noting more creative applications.

Throwing caution to the wind: BuzzFeed’s move follows CNET’s hasty deployment of AI to write news stories that were riddled with errors, prompting the outlet to pause the experiment.

As industries embrace ChatGPT, its creators admit they were unsure about the tech’s readiness when it was released in the fall. They’re now warning about its potential for dangerous misuse.
Although this could serve as a lesson for AI creators, the ChatGPT frenzy will more likely push companies like Google to stay competitive by abandoning a cautious approach to the technology.

What’s next? The generative AI experiment may cause major problems, like increasing the spread of misinformation, copyright infringement, cheating in education, ethics concerns, and sophisticated phishing attacks. Other adverse effects from AI behaving in unexpected, unexplainable ways may be on the horizon as well.

We can expect EU and US regulators to pass legislation attempting to address such problems this year.
Following studies warning of existential threats from generative AI, Oxford University researchers addressed the UK Parliament, saying that advanced algorithms could eventually “kill everyone,” per Popular Mechanics.
In the US, Rep. Ted Lieu introduced a bill written by ChatGPT that directs the House to investigate AI. Speaker Kevin McCarthy told members of the House Intelligence Committee to take AI and quantum tech courses.
As governments get up to speed on AI, we might see regulations blocked by nations’ desire to maintain an edge over rivals.
Media outlets should prepare for possible requirements to label articles created using AI, similar to current restrictions for sponsored content.
We can also expect an abundance of AI-generated content on social media to create content moderation problems, which could trigger a regulatory response.