A valuable perspective. It may not be all that is claimed for it.
Noam Chomsky, writing in the New York Times in March 2023 sought to put AI and particularly the hysteria around ChatGPT into some sort of perspective.
“The human mind is not, like ChatGPT and its ilk, a lumbering statistical engine for pattern matching, gorging on hundreds of terabytes of data and extrapolating the most likely conversational response or most probable answer to a scientific question.
On the contrary, the human mind is a surprisingly efficient and even elegant system that operates with small amounts of information; it seeks not to infer brute correlations among data points but to create explanations.
Let’s stop calling it “artificial intelligence” and call it what it is, which is plagiarism software.
ChatGPT doesn’t create anything, it just copies existing artists’ works and modifies them while circumventing copyright laws.
This is the biggest theft of intellectual property since the arrival of European settlers to America.”
The term “Artificial Intelligence” underscores the copying nature of AI, reminiscent of historical injustices where existing creations were appropriated.
Chomsky goes on to observe:
“In a world increasingly shaped by technology, it’s crucial to acknowledge the value of genuine creativity, original thought, and the human capacity for innovation. Let’s celebrate the human mind’s ability to craft unique, meaningful narratives and solutions, paving the way for a future where creativity, not replication, drives progress”.
Given our interest in Mental Toughness, first understood as a human virtue by Plato 2500 years ago, and its relevance to creativity, innovation and curiosity, as well as your capacity for resilience and optimism, this is a useful contribution to understanding exactly what AI can do and maybe cannot do.
Usefully we can understand mental toughness and what it offers through the 4Cs mental toughness concept. Even more usefully, we can assess it in ourselves and, if a practitioner, in others through the MTQPlus psychometric. It’s the platform from which growth and development can spring.
For more information about the mental toughness concept and the mental toughness measure – MTQPlus contact: headoffice@aqrinternational.co.uk or go to https://aqrinternational.co.uk/product/mtqplus-assessment
For information about becoming a licensed user of the MTQ suite of measures contact: headoffice@aqrinternational.co.uk
Completion of the AQR Licensed user training programme is recognised by EMCC and ICF for CPD purposes.
