Garbage in, garbage out

OPINION:

There has been much agonizing over the potential threat posed by ChatGPT and its ilk. And while there is indeed cause to be wary,
perhaps some perspective is in order.

We live in a world where facts and science have a hard time competing with false narratives — in the mainstream media, online
news sources, social media, and search engines. Since AI chatbots derive inputs from those same sources, the resulting output may be elegantly presented, but the results are the same — garbage in, garbage out.

Science will still be ignored when the focus is on “climate change” or the medical establishment’s views on healthy living and the causes of obesity (more garbage-in, garbage-out situations). After all, it’s not like these chatbots are capable of critical thinking.

Chatbots will find a place where the rules are well defined and relatively narrow in scope. The only threat may be to those who
use and believe those aforementioned news sources.

DAVID SWINK

Vienna, Virginia