Humans would do well by being cautious of AI, but should not stop using it: Stability AI COO Ren Ito

Artificial Intelligence has been the talk of the town, especially with the launch of ChatGPT and its newest version. However, the IT industry stalwarts have time and again clarified that one mustn't be afraid of AI and GPT models.

Echoing that thought is Ren Ito, COO of Stability AI, at the India Today Conclave 2023.

Ito said that humans would do well to be cautious about AI. But at the same time, there is no need to stop using it, he said. "This is exciting and scary technology. But instead of stopping the development of the process, there is a need to democratise it. The moment you see existential danger happening in an AI, you reserve the right to stop. This is the way to strike the right balance," he explained.

Further, Ito also explained how India can benefit from generative AI. "I think there is potential for India... The AI model can be like a brain buddy.".

"India's student-to-teacher ratio is low which means you need more teachers here. But then more than 80 per cent of kids have access to smartphones here. So, you can revolutionise education by bringing AI into it."

He emphasised the importance of muck-spoken generative AI. According to Ito, generative is different and better AI as it can learn from a data set and then can create something new. This is because, said Ito, "generative AI is trying to understand the relationship between data points".

He also explained in detail about Stability AI's futures plans. He said that currently, in the world, different companies are choosing different approaches to AI. While ChatGPT, which is a product by OpenAI, and the new Bing -- a product by Microsoft -- have been built using AI technologies that are closed, Stability AI is pushing for open-source AI technologies.