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| The hit ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office highlighted the problems that can be caused by faulty software |
Status of relationships: complex
We are more dependent on technology than ever before, but we are also more cautious of it.
We have more instruments for maintaining privacy, but perhaps less privacy; society is more interconnected, but also more isolated; industrious, but also more burned out.
Undoubtedly, certain technological innovations have received widespread praise. An AI programme created the recipe for a novel drug that eradicated a previously deadly hospital superbug.
The fight against climate change may benefit greatly from the use of machines that can remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Better screens and effects make films and video games more entertaining and immersive.
However, scandals in the tech industry tend to make headlines. News reports on data breaches, cyber attacks, and horrifying internet abuse are common.
A nationwide outcry has been sparked in the UK by defective accounting software that, due to naive faith in the technology, resulted in hundreds of innocent Post Office workers being falsely convicted of fraud.
Technology, like everything, has its bad side. It's a double-edged sword, according to Prof. Mike Malone, a longtime observer of Silicon Valley
In other words: it's complicated.
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| AI, led by the app ChatGPT, has dominated tech headlines over the past year |
I've been talking to a lot of individuals recently about whether or if all of this is making people lose faith in the potent technological tools—hardware and software—that have taken over our lives and disrupted us so much.
Eileen Burbidge of Passion Capital, an investment fund, contends that it's not more so than typical.
"I believe it to be highly cyclical," she states. "We have talked about this over the years, in relation to data privacy, AI, robotics, privacy, social media, jobs, wellbeing..."
Even though she feels like a broken record, she believes that this is a conversation that needs to continue.
"It helps consumers and businesses to be more conscientious about what they're adopting," she says. "It also helps regulators to think about where they should focus their attention."
Veteran of the advertising business Sir Martin Sorrell is frank about it as usual. "Everybody uses tech - it would be wrong to say we are losing faith in it," he informs me.
However, he acknowledges that people are becoming more and more afraid of the consequences, especially when it comes to how quickly developing AI tools would effect employment (a recent IMF analysis predicted that 40% of all present positions will be impacted by AI).
From his personal experience, he provides me with this stark example: "The time it takes to produce an advertisement has shrunk from three weeks to three hours."
And when it comes to AI, people's fears go beyond simply losing their employment. There are justifiable worries that in the future, when strong automated systems are responsible for making crucial judgements about us, including those pertaining to our healthcare or legal proceedings, they may exhibit inadvertent bias and discrimination.
At the most extreme end of the spectrum, there is the existential fear of humanity being destroyed by uncontrollably advanced robots. There are also ethical concerns around the data these tools are trained upon and who owns it.
Analyst Paolo Pescatore closely monitors the IT industry. "Fundamentally, if there was a problem people would, should, stop using it," according to him.
He continues, however, discussing the pressure from friends, family, coworkers, and even governments looking to transition to digital services to stay connected.
What about the IT industry as a whole? In recent months, the major US companies have laid off thousands of employees. Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla and X, is renowned for favouring a culture that values hard labour, and he was one of the first to call employees back to work during the outbreak.
Entrepreneur Tomas Halgas tells me that the industry has become a more vulnerable place for its employees. "Tech workers were very comfy in our jobs pre-Covid," he says.
"There was a saying that Google was more of a retirement strategy than a job. Those are the distant memories.
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| Tomas Halgas says that AI is making many people employed in the tech sector rather nervous |
Mr. Halgas is a youthful Internet entrepreneur with lofty goals. He sold Twitter, his initial start-up, to X, and he has already funded over $2 million (£1.6 million) for Sutro, an AI-driven app builder.
"Tech workers thought they were safe from automation: now we are among the people who might be replaced," he asserts. That is, to be replaced by AI tools that write code and resemble his own.
"A lot of people are having existential crises right now."
While industry observers like me have long anticipated the arrival of AI, everyone was shocked by the tremendous impact of ChatGPT's debut.
It has been in the public eye for a little more than a year, and in a matter of months, it passed the bar exam that young solicitors took. The CEO of the company that produced it, OpenAI, Sam Altman, predicts that by 2024, advancements would have rendered the current version obsolete.
Is it time to take a little more time?
According to a recent survey conducted by PR firm Edelman, 52% of UK respondents (yep, that same old ratio) thought that technological innovation was progressing too quickly, while 70% said that tech executives should take their time creating new technology.
There is really very little likelihood of that occurring. The wealth and influence that are pouring into the AI industry, in particular, speak for themselves.
However, Professor Malone thinks that the upsurge of public discussion that surrounds it is helpful.
"We're not just blindly embracing new tech anymore," he asserts. "That's a good thing."
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