Written by Nick Wood for Telecoms.com
69 percent of operator respondents to a Capgemini survey published on Thursday agree that the benefits that generative AI brings outweigh the associated risks. So while it might end up spreading misinformation and reinforcing prejudice, it will at least be able to recommend the right service plan, or direct a customer’s query to the appropriate answer. So, every cloud, and all that.
Telcos’ collective appetite for risk is reassuringly below the average score of 74 percent in Capgemini’s survey. Unsurprisingly, 84 percent of high tech firms think it is worth pushing on with gen AI in spite of the potential downsides – possibly because high tech firms are among those at the leading edge of AI development in the first place. Somewhat worryingly, so do 82 percent of aerospace and defence organisations, even though these are probably the ones that have to be most careful about swapping human for artificial intelligence.
As has been well documented here and elsewhere, such is the degree of concern about AI’s potentially problematic side, that some governments are pushing on with regulations designed to keep it in check.
Towards the end of last month, US President Joe Biden gave an overview of recent meetings with AI experts that will inform his government’s approach to managing the risks it could pose. The EU is even further ahead, having held its first vote on its proposed AI act, which would impose various rules and guidelines on companies working on AI.
