Jonathan Howell on the Usefulness of AI Chatbots with NewJersey.com

As the rapid development of artificial intelligence continues to simultaneously fascinate and frighten many, Linguistics professor Jonathan Howell discusses their potential and limitations in “Your ‘friendly AI assistant’ has arrived to your search bar. Here’s how chatbots work.”

Dr. Howell refocuses the conversation surrounding the technological revolution of AI chatbots by pointing out their inability to be very creative or conversational. He advises against interpreting their conversing skills to be anything more than a strategy of repeating past words and guessing future ones.

The ability to critically think still remains human and thus Dr. Howell says, “When it’s really important, you don’t want to end your search for information with the chatbot.”