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The author of the book The Lincoln Lawyer, Michael Connelly, has turned his attention to the issues behind unrestrained corporate artificial intelligence. His latest work of fiction, The Proving Ground, is about a lawyer who files a civil lawsuit against an AI company "whose chatbot told a sixteen-year-old boy that it was OK for him to kill his ex-girlfriend for her disloyalty."
Also: Your favorite AI tool barely scraped by this safety review - why that's a problem
The book describes the case, which "explores the mostly unregulated and exploding AI business and the lack of training guardrails."
While this is a work of fiction, and the case presented is extreme, it's an important reminder that AI can go off the ethical or logical rails in many ways -- either through bias, bad advice, or misdirection -- with repercussions. At the same time, at least one notable AI voice advises against going too far overboard with attempts to regulate AI, in the process slowing down innovation.
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