The tech giant is evaluating tools that would use artificial intelligence to perform tasks that some of its researchers have said should be avoided.
Google’s A.I. safety experts had said in December that users could experience “diminished health and well-being” and a “loss of agency” if they took life advice from A.I. They had added that some users who grew too dependent on the technology could think it was sentient. And in March, when Google launched Bard, it said the chatbot was barred from giving medical, financial or legal advice. Bard shares mental health resources with users who say they are experiencing mental distress.
People’s reactions to new technology is famously hard to predict, but I guess it’s worth considering.
AI is getting good at white-collar tasks way faster than blue-collar ones, too, so this might be how it looks at work. An app tells you to build or fix something with no context, you send back pictures or any comments and concerns, and then you get assigned the next task. Nobody really knows who they work for or why, exactly.