Letters to the editor June 9

Unregulated AI

There are always at least two sides to every story and unregulated artificial intelligence is included. Unregulated AI consistently steals the work of authors, photographers, journalists, artists and creators of all kinds.

While it might seem like a potential boon in some industries and businesses, in others it’s an absolute death sentence. And this is not a matter of keeping up with the times or new technology, it is a matter of the new technologies stealing the work of creative folk and regurgitating it to users through the likes of ChatGPT, and the AI models of Google, Meta and more.

These models do not create, they merely use available examples and combine them into dumbed down resources to answer questions. And honestly, not even that accurately. These models often spit out information that can be stupidly wrong like a recipe that simply won’t turn out, to dangerous misinformation like inaccurate canning information that could lead to botulism or the misidentification of a wild mushroom.

Proper regulation means AI could not steal from the works of authors, photographers and more. It means that small businesses who have made their livelihood through writing or creating online can actually stay in business.

Good regulation also means that your searches can provide a wide range of opinions and information from which you can actually learn instead of being fed info only gathered from AI that is increasingly stocked from deals made with large corporations.

Regulation is important but so is our responsible use of artificial intelligence in our daily lives. Choose wisely and support small businesses and creators so that our future is one that preserves tradition and new ideas without letting all our art and knowledge become some kind of monotone that bores us all or worse teaches nothing.

— Kathie Lapcevic, Columbia Falls