ChatGPT Offers More Risk than Reward for Mattel
AI: A Brief Introduction
Artificial intelligence refers to the development of computer systems that can perform tasks that typically require human intelligence, such as learning, problem-solving, and decision-making. These systems use data & algorithms to improve their performance over time, making them increasingly effective at handling complex tasks. AI has already been implemented in voice assistants, fraud detection, and other areas of mainstream technology.
However, the introduction of ChatGPT, a free-to-use online chatbot with vast capabilities, has been a bombshell in internet culture and society at large. It can be used to answer questions about history, for recipes, or even for a workout plan. Think Wikipedia— but you could ask it any question you wanted and get an answer within seconds.
ChatGPT’s Potential
ChatGPT is already proving to be a very useful tool for work in a variety of fields, due to its ability to gather information following precise guidelines in little to no time at all. Companies have noticed this and want that competitive advantage for themselves. According to the Hill, 9/10 employers want employees with ChatGPT skills. Despite ChatGPT’s recent release, there are already positions for ‘prompt engineers’— a position specific to figuring out how to extract useful information from the platform.
Ultimately, ChatGPT’s nature as an AI program means it will continue to improve as it is used more and is given more data. As a result, it has nearly limitless upward potential– to be smarter, faster, and more insightful into our queries.
What about the kids?
ChatGPT isn’t just useful for employers. Kids all over the country have been using, and abusing ChatGPT to do their homework for them. This has caused a panic in academic circles which are wholly unprepared for the changes this will bring to the school system. There has been a rise in anti-AI detection software, but its efficacy remains spotty.
ChatGPT is also being used for novel applications in the world of children. It can be used to generate bedtime stories, and for interactive learning activities— with topics including vocabulary, social/emotional learning, and math help.
ChatGPT- A Cause for Concern?
Naturally, ChatGPT has safety guidelines in place, preventing it from revealing or discussing violent, sexual, or otherwise harmful content. But in February of this 2023, the internet figured out a way to bypass these safety guidelines, by injecting a specific prompt into the program called “DAN” (Do Anything Now). Users were successfully able to use ChatGPT to respond as DAN to generate violent stories, and sexual content. Additionally, DAN was responsible for spreading misinformation and false, harmful claims about world events and racial groups. DAN has since been patched but raised a cause for concern.
On March 22nd, 2023, Elon Musk and others released an open letter urging a six-month pause in OpenAI to cease development of AI programs, citing “risks to society”. To put it simply, the idea here is that we don’t know what we’re messing with and should take some time to re-adjust.
Elon claims to be working on an alternative- ‘TruthGPT’— an AI which “cares about understanding the universe [and] is unlikely to annihilate humans because we are an interesting part of that universe”.
Takeaways for Mattel
Despite ChatGPT’s widespread utility, it is too risky, and too early for Mattel to engage with it. Given that the platform has had security breaches that have allowed users to bypass the safety guidelines, this is a PR nightmare waiting to happen. Mattel products are intended for children, so a safety breach would be very problematic, particularly since ChatGPT has the capability to produce violent & sexual content. Perhaps as time goes on and the stability of the platform is proven, Mattel can reassess at that time. Integration of ChatGPT with Mattel products would also require the development of an API, necessitating troubleshooting & additional costs.
