On August 31, 2023, the Republikon Institute held a conference about artificial intelligence where topics such as how the rapid development of artificial intelligence impacts our daily lives, politics, education, and overall existence were discussed. Does this innovation provide opportunities, or does it also pose threats? Our invited guests sought answers to these questions during the conference.
Judit Mihalik, lecturer at the International Business School, pointed out that artificial intelligence was not inevitable until now, nor were the questions it raises, such as whether we like it or fear it or see it as an ever-expanding opportunity. However, it has become increasingly unavoidable. While inevitable, it does not replace our thinking. It encompasses all the results of human civilization's thinking but cannot think for us, as it merely follows linguistic patterns. Artificial intelligence could have already performed many tasks and has carried out numerous work processes and phases, but it does not pose a significant threat when discussing how replaceable humans are in the workforce due to this technology.
Orsolya Ring, member of the Társadalomtudomány Kutatóközpont (Social Science Research Centre), argued that we do not fully understand how artificial intelligence operates, as it is unclear on what basis these machine-generated texts are created. We know how they can be influenced by the training data we provide, teaching them to produce liberal texts or even racist ones, but even experts do not fully understand how the built system works. Nevertheless, these tools are appearing in various areas of life, such as ChatGPT, which has already entered education, causing plagiarism issues. Furthermore, she highlighted the importance of reducing digital illiteracy, a topic becoming increasingly relevant due to such innovations, as many people freely and unknowingly sell their data using various applications without realizing the significance of their actions.
András Stumpf, journalist of Válasz Online, emphasized that due to artificial intelligence, we are starting to think about human intelligence—who we are and what human intelligence means. In 10 years, the world will be different; artificial intelligence and the increasing capacity in computing will continually evolve and solve problems that we currently cannot address. When this happens, there will be significant changes in our lives. He also stressed the importance of regulating this, as this new technology could improve our lives considerably, but it could be equally dangerous if misused, particularly with the average person's data, images, and other content shared online.
According to Csaba Tóth, political scientist, topics such as education or politics are fundamentally transformed by these technologies, as they fundamentally change life situations. And society is learning that you can't even trust what you see or hear anymore, because anything can be a creation of artificial intelligence that can be used by propaganda machines. Furthermore, he believes that the added value of the human dimension of knowledge in the context of work and artificial intelligence will be devalued, because an artificial intelligence will not be able to make a value-based decision. There will certainly be jobs that will disappear, but this will not endanger the labour market as a whole.
The round table discussion was moderated by Örs Lányi, journalist of 24.hu.
Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
