‘Godfather of AI’ Geoffrey Hinton left his job at Google recently to warn the world about the dangers of AI technology. In late March, more than 1,000 researchers and technology experts signed an open letter warning that AI technologies pose a “profound risk to society and humanity.” This group also included Tesla CEO and Twitter owner Elon Musk.
So, on the one end of the spectrum, some experts and leaders are warning the world about the threat that generative AI technologies pose and on the other end there are technology leaders who are expanding use cases of such technologies. The latter group also includes Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates who strongly believes in the capabilities of AI.
One recent use case of generative AI has emerged from Microsoft-owned LinkedIn. The platform has started testing its generative AI-powered tool to help its premium subscriber write personalized messages to hiring managers.
“To solve that blank page problem and help everyone put their best step forward, we’re starting to test AI-powered personalized writing suggestions for our Premium subscribers,” Ora Levit, Senior Director, Head of Core Growth + Premium at LinkedIn announced in a LinkedIn Post.
Generative AI will use information from the user’s profile, the hiring manager’s profile, the job description, and the company of interest to create a personalised message.
“We create a highly personalized draft message to get a conversation started,” Ora said.
In addition to this, LinkedIn has asked users to customise the AI-generated message by reviewing and editing to ‘make it your own’ and ‘convey your voice.’
“Customization is still important, so take the time to review and edit the draft to make it your own and convey your voice,” Ora added.
The quality and content of the AI-generated message will depend on how much information is available on a user’s profile. However, LinkedIn has recently announced AI-powered writing suggestions for profiles, which will take information already available on the profile.
A user will only need to give basic information and AI will do the rest of the work for them. Both features are available only to premium subscribers.
In an interview with New York Times, Geoffery Hinton said that he fears that the AI-generated false photos, videos and text will flood the internet and an average person will not be able to differentiate between genuine and those generated by AI.
Meanwhile, Microsoft co-founder estimated that in the next 18 months, AI chatbots will help children learn to read and write and it would become more economical for parents who cannot afford a tutor for their children, thus providing a level playing field.
“At first, we’ll be most stunned by how it helps with reading — being a reading research assistant — and giving you feedback on writing. If you just took the next 18 months, the AIs would come in as a teacher’s aide and give feedback on writing. And then they will amp up what we’re able to do in math,” Bill Gates said while participating in the ASU+GSV event in San Diego.