The world is upset, perhaps confused, about the increasing use of artificial intelligence. One of the most popular artificial intelligence (AI) tools available to the public today is ChatGPT, which is an AI-powered language model that has been “trained” and fed from vast amounts of information across the Internet. After everything is absorbed, ChatGPT can return human-like text responses to a given prompt. He can answer questions, discuss many topics, and prepare texts.
It’s not hard to imagine a robot operating and manipulating the surface of Mars, factory-wired with ChatGPT or a similar AI language model. This smart robot can be loaded with a range of scientific instruments. He can “instantly” analyze what his scientific instruments find, and may even piece together any past life evidence he discovers almost instantly.
This data can be digested, evaluated, evaluated and aggregated in a scientific way. The product, if well-paged, with footnotes, can then be transferred directly from the bot to a scientific journal, such as Science or Nature, for publication. Obviously, this article will be peer-reviewed – possibly by AI/ChatGPT reviewers. Does it seem excessive?
I contacted several leading researchers, and they presented this extraterrestrial scenario on Mars, with a variety of reactions in return.
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prone to hallucinations
“It can be done, but there may be misinformation,” said Serkan Özkan, Reader in Innovation and Technology Management at the University of Portsmouth, UK. “ChatGPT is not 100% accurate and is prone to ‘hallucinations’.”
Özkan said he’s not sure ChatGPT will be of value if there’s no previous workload for analysis and simulation. He said: “I think humans can still do a better job than ChatGPT, even if it’s slower”.
His advice is not to use ChatGPT “in areas where we can’t accept any errors”.
humans in the loop
Steve Roff, associate research professor at Arizona State University’s College of Earth and Space Exploration in Tempe, Arizona, is deeply involved in the study of Mars.
“My immediate reaction is that the manuscripts ‘on site’ are unlikely to be a realistic scenario, given that the process involves discussions among the team about the notes and their interpretation,” said Rove. “I am skeptical that any artificial intelligence, trained on existing observations, can be used to confidently interpret new observations without humans in the loop, especially with new instrument datasets that were not previously available. Each dataset requires careful efforts to resolve.”
In the short term, Rove believes AI could be used for rovers’ operations, such as selecting targets for surveillance without humans in the loop, and for navigation.
The most important things first
In what world do we want to live?
Perhaps this is the most pressing question, said Natalie Cabrol, director of the Carl Sagan Research Center at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California.
“First things first,” Caprol said. “Artificial intelligence is a tremendous tool and should be used as such to support humans in their activities. In fact, we already do this more or less every day,” she added, “and improved versions can make things even better.”
On the other hand, like any human tool, they are double-edged swords and sometimes make people start thinking “bullshit,” Cabrol added, and she believes that is the case here.
Personally, I love writing papers. Caprol has said, “It’s a wonderful moment when I see my work come to fruition and I can put my ideas down on paper,” and he sees this as an important part of his creative process.
“But let’s assume for a moment that I let this algorithm write it for me. I’ve been told it’s OK because the paper is going to be reviewed,” Caprol said. “But who? I would say if you let the algorithms do the work for you is it because you assume they will be less biased and do a better job? Following this reasoning, I would say that a human being is not qualified to review this article.”
The specter of “transhumanism”
Cabrol understands that the next question is: Where do we stop? What if all researchers asked AI to write their research grant proposals? What if they did and didn’t tell?
“It depends on what world you want to live in and what part of humanity you want to leave,” Caprol said. And she continued, “We are creative beings and we are not perfect, but we learn from our mistakes and this is part of our development.” Mistake and learning are other words for “adaptation,” she said.
By allowing AI to learn what makes us human, we’re messing with our own evolution, Caprol added, seeing the specter of “transhumanism” in all of this. Transhumanism can be defined as a loose ideological movement united by the belief that the human race can evolve beyond its current physical and mental limits, especially through science and technology.
“Of course, this is not a chip in our brain and this is just a piece of paper, you will say. Unfortunately, it is part of a broader and very troubling discourse about (the) misuse of AI.” “It’s not trivial. It’s not just an article. It’s about who we really want to become as a species. I personally see AI as a useful tool and I’ll confine it there.”
knowledge court
said Amy Williams, assistant professor of geosciences at the University of Florida in Gainesville. She is a co-scientist for NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance probe missions, which have rovers exploring Mars.
Williams reacted by putting AI-ChatGPT out of the world in full disclosure mode. The first time I used ChatGPT was in preparation for this answer with a question: “What organic molecules did the Mars rover find?” “The question was based on my specific area of expertise,” she told Space.com.
“It was enlightening because it did a great job of providing me with data that I can describe as robust and suitable for a summary I could give in a lecture to the general public about organic molecules on Mars,” Williams said.
But it also showed Williams his limitations, as he only had access to the data from September 2021, in her case — calling it a “piece of knowledge”.
“So your responses did not cover the full range of published results on organic matter on Mars that I know of since 2021,” she said.
Emphasizing that she is not an expert in artificial intelligence or machine learning, Williams said that future iterations of ChatGPT + AI will likely be able to incorporate newer data and create a full synthesis of the latest results from any scientific exploration.
However, I still see them as tools that can be used in tune with instead of humans instead of humans,” commented Williams. “Given the limitations of connecting and linking data with our existing Deep Space network, it’s hard for me to see a way to upload the knowledge base of something as complex as, say, current and historical data and the context of the sources, sinks, and fates of organic molecules on Mars, so the onboard AI could generate a manuscript for publication.”
Put it into context
For Williams, cutting-edge planetary research is something that requires “reflection, introspection, and clairvoyance.” She added that we are pushing the boundaries of science by looking at options that have not been considered before.
“Right now, my experience with ChatGPT has shown that it’s great at bibliographic research and effectively turning that information into an annotated bibliography. It can definitely save me time searching for background knowledge. Tell me what we already know – and you’ve written it beautifully! – but there wasn’t Something no organic geochemistry graduate student on Mars could tell me.”
Ultimately, Williams said that while ChatGPT+AI is a powerful tool that can positively improve the process of communicating new information and discoveries, “I don’t see it replacing the human process of assembling and contextualizing new information to generate new insights in science.” However, if all A sci-fi movie with artificial intelligence that I saw predicting the future, I could be wrong!”
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