News Artificial intelligence technology AI advances by leaps and bounds at Carnegie Mellon University

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Over the past two years, artificial intelligence (AI) has moved from research universities to the mainstream. But there are pros and cons to these amazing and rapid advances in AI.

Its name is FRIDA, and it is a robot that uses artificial intelligence technology to generate portraits from photos.

Usually, they are colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University of its developers, Jean Oh and Peter Schaldenbrand. Other times, it’s Pittsburgh luminaries like Andy Warhol.

FRIDA is one of many emerging visual technologies that use AI to create unique images, raising concerns among graphic artists and fine artists who fear these machines will take away their livelihoods.

“As images were being produced, there was a concern that it would put artists out of work,” said Vincent Conitzer, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. “And, a worry [it] Also exploiting certain artists. “

Most of the attention has focused on an artificial intelligence application called Dall-E-2, which responds to spoken commands to generate graphic images, sometimes of unlikely pairings.

“DALL-E-2 is a new AI system from OpenAI that can transform simple text descriptions, such as a koala dunking a dunk, into images of unprecedented realism,” Conitzer said.

The threat primarily targets illustrators who produce graphic art for publications, videos, and advertisements, but fine artists are also targeted. Although Pittsburgh painter Bill Pfahl doubts that DALL-E-2 will ever be a match for humans.

“I’ve known a lot of really good artists that a machine couldn’t touch,” says painter Bill Pfahl.

So we tested both, giving Pfahl and DALL-E-2 the same hint. Beautiful sunset in downtown Pittsburgh, impressionist style.

Andy Sheehan of KDKA: “These are brand new images.”

Connitzer: “It’s creating them from scratch; drawing inspiration from a plethora of images it’s seen before.”

Pfahl spent three hours drawing his likeness on Grandview Avenue. This image can be considered similar in some respects to that of DALL-E-2, but it is not a synthesis of existing paintings, but has been handcrafted from a lifetime of experience.

“With your insight and your practice, and your spirit, and immersing yourself in a subject, that’s something I couldn’t foresee a machine doing,” Pfahl said.

Schaldenbrand says FRIDA doesn’t pose a threat to real artists; instead, he says it helps people with visual or physical disabilities make images.

OpenAI, which created DALL-E-2, says its policy requires users to communicate with their audience before using a tool like DALL-E-2. The same goes for another of their programs, ChatGPT, which is making waves.

Kelly Tobias’ AP English class at Chartiers Valley High School is packed with bright young writers who say they write essays and term papers themselves, but say many other students are using an artificial intelligence program called ChatGPT to do the work for them.

In ChatGPT, a student can enter a prompt—write a term paper on the Civil War the way a 10th grader would—and within milliseconds, ChatGPT scans the internet and can write a paper on that or any other topic.

Not a copy of something already released, but something new. It is synthesized from various sources and is difficult to detect as plagiarism. This poses a problem for educators.

Carnegie Mellon University is a world leader in generative AI, programs that create new content from vast databases of text, audio or visual images.

This technology has made huge leaps in the past few years and is ahead of our understanding of how it will change our lives.

“I think we’re going to figure out in the next few years how to get this technology into writing, what’s good and what’s not. Everyone’s struggling with that,” Conizter said.

Conizter teaches workshop on AI ethics.The course focuses on the benefits of artificial intelligence and the concerns surrounding it, including its impact on educating students and people in the workplace

While journalists may struggle with deadlines, ChatGPT produced an article on AI at CMU in the blink of an eye.

Andy Sheehan of KDKA asked whether a robot called Playground meant journalists could be replaced, too.

Sheen: “Some journalists fear AI will write their stories.”

playground: “AI is unlikely to completely replace journalists in the near future. However, it will be a powerful tool to help them write more efficiently, accurately and quickly.”

“You can have different levels of worry, you can worry about different timescales,” Conizter said. “I think for now, with the technology we have today, most people are not out of a job at this point.”

Six school districts contacted by KDKA said they are determining what to do with ChatGPT and other AI programs, how to detect it and limit their use.

Tobias said teachers and parents need to be involved in monitoring student learning, but he acknowledged that AI is here to stay.

Sheen: “Are you at war with robots?”

Tobias: “I think we need to learn to live with robots because we’re not going to win that war.”

Open AI, the maker of ChatGPT, said in a statement: “We don’t want ChatGPT to be used for misleading purposes in schools or anywhere else, so we’re already developing mitigations to help anyone recognize text generated by the system. We look forward to Working with educators to find useful solutions and other ways to help teachers and students benefit from AI.”