Today, more than ever, it's important to be aware of the power of artificial intelligence and natural language processing (NLP). We've seen AI tools such as chatbots becoming increasingly popular for customer service purposes in various industries. While these bots can provide fast, accurate responses to user questions, they also come with a certain degree of risk.

I recently asked ChatGPT to analyze data I inputed from an old article about new journalism and particulary, Hunter S. Thompson. I added a paragraph of diatribe for it to analyze realizing HST's uncompromising and honest remarks could often be grotesque and offensive. This is what he stated reflecting on his own profession, journalism:

"The press is a gang of cruel faggots. Journalism is not a profession or a trade. It is a cheap catch-all for fuckoffs and misfits - a false doorway to the backside of life, a filthy piss-ridden little hole nailed off by the building inspector, but just deep enough for a wino to curl up from the sidewalk and masturbate like a chimp in a zoo-cage." Hunter S. Thompson

After inputing this highly offensive ditty, I got a swift "Danger Will Robinson" reply back from the Chat GPT bot:

Hmmmm…..well, this got my attention. If certain input datasets are off limits then this is censorship at it's politically and socially F'in best. I mean are we so far gone that highly irreverant and funny movies like Tropic Thunder and a highly respected Rolling Stone journalist who wrote the iconic "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail" are canceled for their satirical insights? Enough….seriously….enough! AI is spewing out woke sermons instead of helpful, unbiased information. Enter the bombastic Elon Musk and his xAI a maximum truth-seeking AI that tries to understand the nature of the universe.

ChatGPT's Wokeness and the Muskian Intervention

ChatGPT is the talk of the town. It's eloquent, it's versatile, but it's also been a little bit… "woke." Now, I'm all for a bit of social awareness, but when it comes to AI, we need objectivity, not ideology. Elon Musk, billionaire, tech-titan, part-time Twitter philosopher and the guy who decided to shoot a car into space (just because he could), seems to agree. He's announced his newest brainchild - xAI. Sounds futuristic, right? It is, it aims to create a 'truth-seeking' AI, trying to understand the universe, while hopefully not getting stuck on Earth's drama.

Of Ethics and AI: Navigating the Bias Minefield

Now, you might be wondering, what's the fuss about woke AI anyway? In the immortal words of any lawyer, it's all about 'ethics' - well, and biases. Let's face it, we're humans, as perfect as our mothers think we are, we carry biases. It's like luggage, sometimes you just can't travel light. However, when our biases are baked into AI systems, it becomes a game of Chinese whispers gone wrong. Imagine telling a joke at a party only to hear it later, twisted into a politically charged monologue. Not cool, right?

Unbiased Data: The Secret Sauce of Fair AI

The secret to a balanced AI is the data it's fed. It's like raising a child - feed them the right stuff, and they'll probably grow up to be upstanding citizens. Feed AI a balanced diet of diverse, unbiased data, and voila, you've got yourself a bot that plays fair! Of course, the AI model should also be designed to treat this data fairly, much like a good chef knows how to bring out the best in the ingredients.

Walking the Tightrope: Ethics and Innovation

But here's the catch-22. If we make our AI totally neutral, we risk creating a machine that's as interesting as watching paint dry. On the other hand, giving it too much of a human touch, and we risk creating a bot with the biases of a grumpy pensioner. Finding the balance isn't a walk in the park, it's a tightrope walk over a crocodile-infested river. It's tricky, but with Musk at the helm of this new venture, who knows?

So, as we tread deeper into the realm of AI, let's not forget that it's supposed to serve us all. We don't need machines that preach or judge. We need AI that's unbiased, ethical, and preferably with a dash of humour. After all, who wouldn't love a bot that can get irony, insentivity and the relevance of history whether it was offensive or woke? It needs to be able to embrace the good, the bad and the ugly to truly be innovative. Here's to hoping that Elon's xAI might just be the right step in that direction!