[VIDEO included] The horrors of Generative AI: A nightmare in the making

On a dark and stormy night, as the wind howls through the trees and the moonlight casts eerie shadows on the ground, imagine this: a world where every digital interaction, every conversation, and every creative output is shaped by a terrifying, invisible force. It's not a ghost, nor a monster from the depths of a haunted forest. It's something much more insidious -- Artificial Intelligence (AI).

With its uncanny ability to create human-like content, AI poses a silent, creeping threat to the digital landscape. It can conjure words, images, music, and even videos with a speed and accuracy that seem almost supernatural. But like all great horror stories, you can't just close your eyes and ignore it.

The Rise of the Machines: A tale of deception

AI has an uncanny ability to mimic human writing, to impersonate human speech, to copy human images and to take work. It can even write the introductions to articles like this! It can influence human opinions, invade privacy, steal intellectual property and predict human behavior and thoughts better than even the best poker players. The risks and horrors are many and some have already experienced it.

In 2023, Samsung employees released highly sensitive source code to ChatGPT, unwittingly making it public information. This prompted the company to ban the use of ChatGPT and take disciplinary action against the employees. A 2024 University of Washington study found that AI tools using large language models, such as ChatGPT, exhibit bias and favor white workers in the U.S. A finance worker in Hong Kong transferred over $25 million to a criminal after a deepfake conference call with what appeared to be his CFO. We have all heard the growing numbers of lawyers sanctioned by courts for fake cases and fake facts.

What's even scarier is that the average person, even many experts, find it difficult to distinguish reality from the digital masquerade. Even those who create the AI are often pressed to admit that they themselves do not know the full list of possible future evils. Stephen Hawking believed before his death that thinking machines were perhaps the most significant threat to human existence. Movies like Terminator play heavily in the minds of those who fear AI and robotic thinking. 

The Rise of the Machines: Is AI a real life horror movie or Halloween?

And yet, with these known risks and horrors, humans persist. Why? The cynic will say humans in a capitalistic world are shaped purely by greed; AI is worth a lot of money for a lot of people right now. But I honestly believe there are more that see the promise that AI can bring to us and our children's futures. It is the new industrial revolution with hopes that it could, if used properly, cure hunger, poverty and so many ills of our world. In the health care space, there are high hopes that the most advanced AI may one day help doctors diagnose and treat diseases that have stumped them. Automated driving has hopes (and already is) of reducing risks of drunk and distracted driving.

And for all of the horrors listed above, some are using AI today to fight the very ills it creates. Like in Terminator 2, humans are using technology (and even AI) to fight itself. I was at an event a few weeks ago and met the team behind a new startup that is helping artists validate their images on the internet to avoid the deepfakes, IP theft and reputational damage that AI can create.

Harnessing the fear with a plan

The reality is that we can't fight AI, we must embrace it. You are using it more in your world than you want to admit any time you search on your phone or on the internet. Avoiding AI is simply not an option. Like most things, the best protection against an unknown force is to make it a known force through education. We must educate ourselves. Here are some high-level ideas for Responsible AI:

• Educate yourself. Understand what you are using today that might be AI. Understand what you are sharing and adjust settings in the apps and your computer that protect against unintended intrusion. For businesses, understand the well-accepted AI principles of transparency, fairness, accountability, security, reliability and human-centric design.

• Don't let any system think for you. AI is a great tool to help learn a lot of information quickly, but it is not necessarily accurate. Just like people, it can give wrong or even fabricated responses. As lawyers, we must take ultimate ethical responsibility to know that what we are saying is true and evidence is reliable.

• Practice AI "by design." When making AI or working on an AI project, think about the risks early and manage them. Don't just think "what can go right" or "how much money can I make," make sure to ask the team "what can go wrong" and "who can this harm?" Once a project is completed, continuously improve to reduce the horrors of AI.

• Don't share sensitive or confidential information with public AI and be careful with all AI. Most tools have protection settings today, so if you must use AI for sensitive or confidential information, make sure the settings and tools are safe.

• Stay informed in a rapidly changing world. AI is expanding exponentially. Unsafe tools are becoming more and less safe daily. Research shows previously thought unreliable algorithms are becoming more reliable. Stay up to date!

• Find an expert! When in doubt, go to an expert in your company, law firm, or externally to help you ensure that your most sensitive and major decisions are done right.

Conclusion: A never-ending nightmare or a bright future of advancement

As Halloween looms closer and the dark, twisted tales of monsters and phantoms return to our screens, it's essential to remember that the real horror might not be the AI at all. In fact, fear and ignorance are likely the biggest threat. AI can be a terrifying weapon in the wrong hands, but with vigilance, knowledge, and careful management, we can turn the enemy into a friend. The future of AI is like any good horror story -- it's up to us whether it ends with triumph or terror. So, when the next digital ghost appears, be ready to confront it head-on.