This month, RMIT hosted an In Conversation event with acclaimed journalist and author, Karen Hao, exploring the history, content and future of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The event was organised by RMIT Professors Lisa Given, Jonathan Kolieb and Falk Scholer and sponsored by the University's Social Change Enabling Impact Platform (SCEIP), the Centre for Human-AI Information Environments (CHAI) within the STEM College, and the Business and Human Rights Centre (BHRIGHT) within the College of Business and Law (CoBL).
Given, one of the hosts, said that Hao's work and her book are focused on some of the critical challenges society faces when engaging with new tech as we think of it.
"In particular, looking at OpenAI as an organisation, Sam Altman and some of the practices that she has seen on the ground as a journalist looking at AI," she explained.
Analysing AI with a forward perspective, Hao's work stresses not only the need to understand the issues AI will create for our society but also the urgency to pre-emptively develop appropriate policy.
Given said there is a need to understand where a system like ChatGPT comes from.
"We also need to understand what the questions are that we should be asking about the companies that develop, create, and deploy these kinds of systems into our world," she said.
Hao explained that the purpose of her book is to cut through the confusion and noise surrounding AI, and to challenge the narratives pushed by large-scale tech companies.
"I was quite shocked and disappointed when ChatGPT came out; how it totally reset a lot of conversations within the AI space to be once again dominated by Silicon Valley's narratives."
"There was so much rich accountability work that had been done beforehand that had just been overwritten and I felt like it was really hard for the average person in the public to actually then have a real understanding of this technology."
