Theoretical Physicists Call AI Chatbots Just 'Glorified Tape Recorders' as Fear of Artificial Intelligence Dies Down

A theoretical physicist, Michio Kaku, has shared his thoughts regarding anxiety when it comes to artificial intelligence. The physicist tackled the fears that many people are experiencing when it comes to artificial intelligence.

Fareed Zarakia Explains how Technologies Like ChatGPT Works

According to the story CNN, the physicist noted that the anxiety when it comes to AI was misguided. His statements were given to the station's Fareed Zarakia in a conversation about technologies like ChatGPT or OpenAI.

Zakaria, a futurologist, highlighted that chatbots, giving OpenAI's ChatGPT as an example, would be able to benefit society while also helping in terms of increasing production. It was also noted that fear has driven people to focus greatly on the negative implications of this technology.

The physicist then noted that the programs were basically just "glorified tape recorders." He then clarified that the artificial intelligence tool still requires snippets of what's on the web, which is still created by human beings.

The function of ChatGPT was explained further in an article by ZD Net.

AI Tools Scrape Online Interactions by Humans and Passes the Answers Off as Things They've Created

The AI tool then brings everything that they've scraped online done by humans and passes the new information off as if they've created the things. He then highlighted how after the tool does this, people are then shocked at the fact that the results are "humanlike."

He did say that one disadvantage of chatbots is that they aren't capable of discerning whether the information is true or false. Kaku then highlighted that the discerning part, especially, still needs to be done by a human.

Computers Remain in the Second Stage of Computer Evolution

Kaku then explained that humanity is still in the second stage of computer evolution. When it comes to the first stage, as detailed further in an article by Tutorials Point, this was referred to as the analog stage where people had to do computations with sticks, stones, gears, and others.

The physicist then narrated that World War II prompted the transition to electricity-powered transistors, which made it possible for the microchip to be developed, which was paramount to shaping the current digital landscape.

It was then noted that the digital landscape still rests on the idea of having two states, which is basically on or off. With that, it reportedly uses a binary notation which is composed of zeros and ones together.

The Future of Computers Could be the Quantum Realm

The physicist then noted that he believed that the next stage of technology would be to enter the quantum realm. It was then noted that quantum computing was an emerging technology that uses different states of particles including electronics in order to significantly increase the processing power of a computer.

It was noted that instead of using two states of computer chips, quantum computers utilize different types of states of vibration waves. This then makes them capable of analyzing as well as solving problems much faster compared to normal computers.