Bill Gates also said that we overestimate what we can do in a year but underestimate what we can do in ten years (he was not the first person to
say something like this). We are still so early in AI (even though research has been going on for decades), that it is hard to say what will come of all of this. But, he may not be wrong in stating that AI can be like chips or cell phones.
It is easy to point at all the shortcomings of AI. I just came back from a Computer Science education conference, AI was everywhere. But when you started to apply it for things like suggesting bug fixes for code samples, it still has a way to go. That's why I brought up the Gates quote above. All the bluster about what AI is going to do sounds an awful lot like overestimating what we can do in a year. But before you know it, ten years have gone by and AI may well have quietly but fundamentally changed many aspects of our life.
We live in interesting times, that's for sure. But, I think a wait and see approach is best with AI. Hopefully we can set a body of standards and norms sooner rather than later. In the meantime, have fun posing silly prompts to LLMs. Here's one prompt (with the *) that I gave to the GPT3 model:
* describe asymmetric warfare in the decades-long conflict between cats and dogs
Since ancient times, cats and dogs have been engaged in a fierce battle for supremacy. In the modern era, this battle has taken on a new form: asymmetric warfare.
Asymmetric warfare is a type of conflict in which one side has a significant advantage over the other. In the case of cats and dogs, the cats have a clear advantage. They are smaller, faster, and more agile than dogs. They also have sharp claws and teeth, while dogs do not.
This advantage has allowed cats to launch a series of successful attacks against dogs over the years. They have ambushed dogs, used stealth to their advantage, and even employed psychological warfare against their opponents.
Dogs, on the other hand, have been forced to adopt a more defensive posture. They have relied on raw strength and numbers to try to protect themselves from the onslaught of the feline enemy.
The conflict between cats and dogs is likely to continue for many years to come. As long as the cats have the advantage, they will continue to wage asymmetric warfare against the dogs.