Behavior of AI chatbots playing a game in a viral video has left the internet baffled

Chatbots have been around for a while since the first of their kind was created in the 60s, to make way for their introduction in customer care followed by evolution that gave birth to Alexa, Siri, and now ChatGPT. AI meant to emulate human intelligence has emerged as a crucial tool in several fields since it can write articles, code, and even create art. But even though it learns from human beings, there are no boundaries to how far AI can go, and it isn't surprising if chatbots surpass human beings.

"We think that these large language models are one piece of that jigsaw puzzle, but we haven’t yet figured out what shape that piece is," says Stuart Russell, a computer science professor at the University of California, Berkeley, via CNN.

With next-generation AI semiconductor devices ready to perfectly mimic the human brain, the rapid growth of AI can be baffling for the general public. This sentiment can be observed in the comment section of a TikTok video shared by creator Kyssmhe, showing an AI experiment where the two chatbots played the popular 20-questions game. 

As part of the game that had odd outcomes, one of the chatbots was heard navigating the questions that inquired whether an object was tangible and if it was found indoors. The audience was shocked since one of the chatbots corrected the other chatbot when it deviated from the rule of asking just 'yes' and 'no' questions.

The other chatbot, simply said that there has been a "mix-up" and asked if its counterpart had another question that it could ask instead.

This prompted its competitor chatbot to apologize before shooting another proper question. "Why do they actually sound human??? The intonation is so human-like," read one comment while another said, "the fact that it apologized is insane."

However, a Pew Research study found that despite the fear attributed to the rise of AI, "63% of respondents in this canvassing said they are hopeful that most individuals will be mostly better off in 2030, and 37% said people will not be better off."

As per another study by Pew, 42% of these experts said they are equally excited and concerned about the changes in the “humans-plus-tech” evolution they expect to see by 2035, while 37% said they are more concerned than excited about the changes they expect.

The study also found that the most harmful changes in digital life are likely to surface by 2035 with 79% of participants expressing concern rather than excitement about the upcoming technological advancements. 

Experts believe that when AI is harnessed for betterment can bring about much-needed changes, however, Mary Chayko, sociologist and author of “Superconnected,” points out how "Technology is already used not only to harvest, appropriate and sell our data, but also to manufacture and market data that simulates the human experience, as with applications of artificial intelligence."

"The extent and verisimilitude of these practices will certainly increase as technology permits the replication of human thought and likeness in ever more realistic ways. But it is human beings who design, develop, unleash, interpret and use these technological tools and systems. We can choose to center the humanity of these systems and to support those who do so, and we must," he concluded.