Bengaluru: The economic potential of generative AI is enormous and can improve the productivity of work at large, said Michael Spence on Thursday.
A Nobel laureate on Economics, Michael Spence spoke at the public guest lecture titled ‘AI in the age of uncertainty,’ organised by Azim Premji University at Bangalore International Centre.
In a conversation with Anurag Behar, the CEO of Azim Premji Foundation, Michael argued against the notion of AI as disruptive force.
“About 15 years ago, the current version of AI based on an analogy of the way the brain functions, with a sort of deep algorithms, was available only in theory. But there were three things missing — enough digital data, networks to move that data around, and computing programmes,” he said.
On AI’s accessibility without having to achieve a specific skill set and its applicability in various domains, he said that AI can enhance the productivity in the economic sector. However, he added that this is subject to certain conditions such as automation bias, which he defined as “a general tendency to argue that AI passes the human mind and therefore get rid of the human.”
He said, “I don’t think that the overall growth dynamics will hamper with AI proliferating in the market.”
However, he warned
the danger of privacy concerns in national security and a surge in false information where people have difficulty in distinguishing the real
content from the AI-generated matter.
Published 15 February 2024, 21:55 IST