I recently received an invitation to review a paper on organizational behavior from one of my colleagues. My colleague is a mid-career member and a part of a well-reputed IT firm involved in software development and maintenance for Fortune 500 companies.
He informed me that he had written the article using ChatGPT. I reviewed the article, had some suggestions, and sent it back to him.
ChatGPT seems to be taking over the writing domain where the model creates essays, and letters, answers questions, writes emails and blogs, etc. While I think we are making great progress with the help of artificial intelligence and machine learning, I wonder about this new tool's authenticity and ethical grounding. I am also told ChatGPT can help answer some of your personal health questions. This can compromise personal health information.
Would like to hear from you all on your thoughts on the ethical considerations around the use and application of ChatGPT. Saving Changes...
Peter RapinSubject Matter Expect; Project Delivery| Independent ConsultantOntario, Canada
Feb 03, 2023 6:04 PM
Replying to Stéphane Parent
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Organizations like OpenCog and OpenAI provide ethics frameworks for AI development.These frameworks focus on ensuring that AI be built on transparency and accountability pillars.
There are no doubt good intensions here but AI development will not be limited to companies with ethics and moral standards plus there is the issue of compliance to these guidelines. Additionally, one has to wonder transparency and accountability to whom.
In any event these guidelines would not necessarily extend to the users. Saving Changes...
Peter RapinSubject Matter Expect; Project Delivery| Independent ConsultantOntario, Canada
Thought this Dilbert strip was 'interesting'. One of the results of the use of AI in the management world is team reduction. Would we need assistant PMs, administrators, juniors, etc.? Where are the future PMs going to come from? The PM's job and SMEs may not be threatened in the immediate future but the entry level may be. Saving Changes...
Bryan ShelbyRetired| Retired and volunteering, having left "employment" behind!New York, Ny, United States
Just for fun and to take a contrarian view, consider ChatGBT in the context of spell-check, grammar-check, or even the software that now makes recommendations about the style of how we communicate.
Is there a qualitative difference between (a) software rewriting something that we have composed to make it more understandable and/or correct outright errors and (b) our reviewing and revising something that software (i.e. ChatGPT) has written to make it closer to what we want to say?
If your colleague is taking what the bot has written and passing it off as their own work, that is clearly unethical and equivalent to plagiarism. However, if they are using the bot as a research aid, then it could be argued that this is no different from the use of Google to research the topic and then synthesizing the result.
I am reminded of the well-known opposition of Socrates to a new technology called "writing". He felt it would eliminate the need to remember things because you could just look it up and would also greatly reduce intellectual discourse because you can't discuss or argue with a book! Saving Changes...
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
AI and its recent manifestation ChatGPT is coming since 30+ years.
AI had many other examples that were not transparent and were used for cheating, e.g. the influencing of votes by Cambridge Analytica using facebook data in several countries.
Or intransparent selection processes for hiring.
Or insurance companies deciding on your claims.
There are ethical policies, but it seems not mandatory to follow them and it's questionable if they can mitigate even the highest risks.
For project managers it is important to stay at the edge of technological developments anyhow. It is part of life long learning and application. Saving Changes...
Juan Posada ToroCustomer Success Manager| Rockwell AutomationEnvigado, Antioquia, Colombia
Great topic you bring to the table Deepa. Good to know what ChatGPT says about it and this was its answer:
"As an AI language model, I don't have personal opinions or beliefs, but here's information on AI ethics: AI ethics refers to the principles and values that govern the design, development, and use of AI systems and technology. This includes considering the social and ethical implications of AI and ensuring that AI technology is developed and used in a responsible and equitable manner. Key issues in AI ethics include fairness, transparency, privacy, accountability, and human control over AI systems. The goal is to ensure that AI is developed and used in ways that benefit society and avoid harm".
On the other hand, I think that ethical considerations are around the use that each one gives to it, beyond the application itself and what it generates. Saving Changes...
Saifuddin LimdiyawalaHead Of IT| Horizon University CollegeSharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
It's a good topic to discuss, probably at one point in time, maybe AI needs to bring to reply once humans reach exhaustion :)
A little bit of flash back... Any article/paper, when it was written in the old time, the writer and editor/reviewer both were aware of language grammar laws and their content presentability.. but now as the generation moved forward, this may be questioned why does someone need a tool to write a write-up? it is because of the missing link of actual language learning... there will be a phase, both writer and reviewer will agree without having to look at the content, cause it is done by AI, more knowledgeable than them.
second, there are countless debates on the ethical use of the such tool(s), but eventually, all will start adopting it as it is, the way we use search engines nowadays.
People will talk about up-skill the population, and how many populations will be up-skilled in that way, not all have a similar kind of grasp, and eventually, it will be replaced by machines.
There could be control fed by corporates and govt. through AI for their programs in the future for the population.
Are we looking at the imbalance in society? Maybe, Yes. Saving Changes...
Deepa, a great discussion and interesting contributions and thought. It is interesting to see the emergence of this tool. Whilst AI generally provides assistance for more tactical / easier tasks; this will never, in my opinion; replace the innovation and ideas that humans bring! Saving Changes...
Peter RapinSubject Matter Expect; Project Delivery| Independent ConsultantOntario, Canada
Maybe I can have my AI tool respond to your AI tool document and avoid all human contact Saving Changes...
there are two separate ethical concerns at play with tools like ChatGPT. The first relates to the issue of "cheating" where it is used in scenarios where original writing was required and the second relates to the nature of the outputs produced which may be influenced by bias or other factors. This has been an issue with machine learning-based decision support for many years.
As usual, our ability to use innovative technology responsibly always lags years behind its general availability...
Kiron
I completely agree with your thoughts as well. Saving Changes...
Thanks everyone for your valuable comments. I see this tool taking shape. While it is good to see new tools coming up, I am skeptical about its benefits from a privacy and confidentiality standpoint. Saving Changes...
