ChatGPT & Twitter not reliable sources of information, says Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales taking a swipe at Elon Musk – The Indian Express
The early days of any new technology often spark alarmism and fears about how it could be misused, and artificial intelligence is no exception, according to Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales.
Wales draws some parallels between the sceptical reaction to ChatGPT today and the frenzy surrounding eBay back when the site was just getting started.
In a recent interview at a Web Summit in Lisbon, Wales recalled the worries in eBay’s early days: “I remember in the early days of eBay, it was like, ‘Oh, no, somebody’s selling a gun on eBay. Oh, no, somebody’s selling their baby on eBay.’ Then after a while, we figured out you can list whatever you want on eBay, but people will report it, and it gets taken down. It’s actually not that exciting.”
Wales thinks that we may be seeing a similar dynamic with ChatGPT right now. No doubt, it’s an incredibly impressive technology, but if you really dig into using it, the limitations grow more apparent, he suggested.
“Now when we look at the emergence of ChatGPT, clearly, it’s not good enough for a great many purposes. It’s an amazing thing to play with, but when you really start to use it, what initially seems fantastic you realise is pretty bad.”
However, Wales expects the technology will continue improving over time. “I think it will continue to get better. But, you know, I think we’re still a long way from it being able to be a reliable source.”
The Wikipedia co-founder also took the opportunity to poke a little fun at Elon Musk’s tech ventures. When asked about large language models training on Wikipedia content, Wales quipped, “I’m pretty happy that they’re (LLMs) reading Wikipedia and not just Elon Musk’s Twitter; It’s not really a great source of truth.” Cue applause and laughter from the audience.
Additionally, Wales revealed he had told the conference organisers backstage that he would take “one whack at Elon” because it’s always a crowd-pleaser. He also professed ignorance when asked about Musk’s own AI chatbot called Grok, replying simply “I haven’t even heard of it.”
While Wales kept things mostly playful, his comments hint at some very real concerns about the responsibility tech companies have as they build increasingly powerful AI systems. Figuring out how to maximize benefits while minimizing harm will be an ongoing challenge.
