Gabriella Sandoval, Events Liaison and Manager
Beyond the continually evolving AI technology we have come to currently know and use, there have been various forms of evolution. From mechanical automatons, to artificial brains, to chatbots. It’s evident that the new, modern generation of AI has gotten better, faster, and stronger at a very rapid and astonishing rate. Now, in 2025, we’re at a point in time in which AI has the ability to generate videos based on prompts, and create music, storylines, books, podcasts, and pieces of art that look human-made all within seconds. According to the National Institutes of Health, signals from AI systems function at almost the speed of light. This is much faster than the human brain that functions with an average speed of 120 m/s, at most.
Possible Risks with Modern AI Features
With AI advancing so fast, anyone can do anything with almost no rules, and that includes misusing features such as AI generated voice memos that only require a clip of a person’s voice; or a video that only requires a photo or clip of that person. Compared to the use of voice cloning from 2019 till now, AI created voices have gotten more realistic. With these advancements, we must ask: Is it possible that we may reach a point in which voice memos can’t be easily distinguished between human and AI?
Many agree that technology that has the ability to recreate human voices and replicate human characters poses implications. As of October 2024, the success rate of voice scams has increased to 77%, leading to stolen credentials, data loss and more. The implications of AI generated video scams, which allows you to upload a video clip of someone, create an avatar of that person, and manipulate the script of that person to make that “person” say anything you want. We used to think that AI generated videos would never be able to mimic human emotions, and if so, there would be an uncanny valley feeling. But now, AI character generated videos are not only able to convey human emotions, but complex emotions now too.
character.ai
A popular app called character.ai thrives on their motto of “AI that feels alive.” The many features on this app allow users to chat with millions of AI characters including celebrities. There’s a feature that allows users to call these characters and have conversations with them for hours. Many argue that this app presents some concern, due to the risk of people gaining attachments with these AI “celebrities" rather than using this app unseriously.
Even moreso, the most popular AI chatbot on character.ai with over 170 million chats, is a character called psychologist; a character that will pretend to be your psychologist and give you real advice. While many can, and will, find this character helpful, there is no doubt that many find the existence of this feature uncanny. One question is worth considering: Does AI have the potential to create future generations that are less equipped with in-person social and communication skills?
The Next Phases of AI Evolution
There are seven stages of AI; with stage 1 being the infancy of AI, to stage 7 of the AI singularity, also known as the final stage. Currently, we are at stage 4: AI as a thinker, where most AI technology has unlocked the ability to mimic human capacity for thinking and reasoning. While it sounds crazy, it's true, AI now has the power to solve captcha tests and recently passed The Turing Test (which is actually insane!)
We’re very close to stage 5: Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). “An AGI system would be capable of understanding, learning, adapting, and implementing knowledge across a broad range of tasks, just like a human. It would possess self-awareness, consciousness, and the ability to understand and navigate the world.” Imagine living in a world in which robots operate similarly to humans not only physically, but also mentally; I’d rather not!
It’s suggested that every invention after AGI will be obsolete, due to AGI being every level above human intelligence. Let’s hope we don’t go beyond stage 5, because stage 6: Artificial Superintelligence (ASI) will be able to surpass human cognitive skills. ASI could mean that we can potentially be looking at a timeframe in which automation replaces human labor. As a result, this could lead to stage 7 which intensely advocates against technological growth that becomes uncontrollable and irreversible.
The Next Steps
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the company that developed ChatGPT, has raised concern over the dangers that AI may have on society. Now, as far as AI taking over the world, I don’t think we need to look that far into it at the moment, but if the creator of AI is warning consumers about his own invention, then that may be something worth considering. Aside from AI becoming too powerful, if AI is left unchecked, it poses risks of sufficient damage and harm.
ChatGPT is the fastest-growing consumer product in history and with that being said, there must be more rules, regulations, and restrictions set in place to ensure proper and safe use of AI technology.