Generative AI promises to unleash human creativity and power innovation, but as companies lean into Gen AI it’s more vital than ever to balance the opportunity with responsibility.
We’ve already seen rapid adoption of generative AI tools in recent months, and that pace isn’t slowing down. As this technology continues to learn and grow, there are serious considerations and conversations that need to be had around how to develop this technology responsibly to ensure both the inputs and outputs are fair and ethical.
We spoke to AI leaders at TEDx Sydney to explore what responsible AI looks like and why now is the time for developers and governments to act.
Raising AI to be intrinsically good
AI development is accelerating at rapid pace and the rate of innovation is astronomical.
Liesl Yearsley, CEO of public benefit AI company aKin, says now is the time for developers, organisations and government to instil ethical guardrails into this technology, before it’s too late.
“Our role is to really understand, if you use this technology, what happens to a life, or a population or an ecosystem, and to reward the outcomes that are good. We only have a short window to play this role.”
She says AI and humans are coevolving and we need to design artificial intelligence that optimises for kindness.
“We can't get through the next ten years by trying to control this because it's going to get smarter than us. But what we can do is bring it up like a child and think about what sort of grown up we want to have one day.”
Democratising AI development and training
AI researcher and professor at Torrens University Australia, Dr Seyedali Mirjalili is passionate about the vast opportunities that AI presents but even he has been surprised by the rapid acceleration of generative AI.
The adoption of generative AI is “not a surprise because we've had algorithms, machines and data right at different scales,” he says. However, he did not expect it to reach the current level for at least five years.
“What has been the game changer is obviously the cloud computing advancement because we've now got massive infrastructure, and also data.”
His major concern is the democratisation of the data and technology behind generative AI models, and ensure its use is fair, accessible and equitable. He says instilling a non-bias purpose in AI will ensure it will be a force for good.
Systems that reward creatives
Joseph Couch, CTO of Othelia, is building storytelling technologies to help directors, producers, showrunners and writers engage with the next generation of storytelling.
He’s at the forefront of debates around the use of AI in creativity as screenwriters grapple with the impact of AI in their industry.
The concerns of the screenwriting industry are reflective of the broader creative industry’s caution as a whole towards generative AI.
Couch says the adoption of AI in creativity is inevitable, but that the technology needs to be designed with human creativity at the core.
The value of generative AI tools, comes from the human-created material that the machines learn from.
“These things are valuable because they have got human expression in them and therefore it's fair that some of the value that the tech companies are getting from that goes back to the users.”
It’s why Adobe Firefly is trained only on licensed and fair use content including licensed Adobe Stock images and public domain content.
Generative AI is empowering creatives to dream bigger, and helping professionals unlock workflow efficiencies to focus on the things that matter.
Balancing these opportunities with responsible and ethical development has never been more important, and Adobe is committed to innovating responsibly to protect and empower everyone.
Discover your toolkit for creating the future with Adobe Firefly and dream bigger.
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