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Artificial intelligence (AI) became a popular subject in 2023. Still, the technology has a long way to go to meet people’s futuristic expectations of human-like machines.
2023年，人工智能（AI）成为热门话题。然而，这项技术要达到人们对类似人类的机器的未来期望，还有很长的路要走。
ChatGPT was central to this year’s attention on AI. The chatbot showed the world recent developments in computer science, although not everyone understood quite how it works or what to do with it.
ChatGPT是2023年AI关注的焦点。这个聊天机器人向世界展示了计算机科学的最新发展，尽管并非每个人都完全理解它的工作原理或如何使用它。
AI scientist Fei-Fei Li suggested that 2023 would be remembered for the great changes in technology as well as the public awakening. It was a year for people to figure out “what this is, how to use it, what’s the impact — all the good, the bad and the ugly,” she added.
AI科学家黎翡翠（Fei-Fei Li）表示，2023年将被铭记为技术和公众觉醒发生巨变的一年。她补充说，这是人们弄清楚“这是什么，如何使用它，有什么影响——所有好的、坏的和丑陋的事物的一年”。
Concerns over AI
对AI的担忧
The first AI concerns of 2023 began soon after New Year’s Day. That is when classrooms reopened and schools from Seattle to Paris started blocking ChatGPT. Students were already asking the chatbot — released in late 2022 — to write papers and answer take-home tests.
2023年的第一轮AI担忧发生在新年后不久。那是当教室重新开放，从西雅图到巴黎的学校开始封锁ChatGPT时。学生们已经开始让这个在2022年底发布的聊天机器人写论文和回答课后测试。
AI large language models behind technology such as ChatGPT work by predicting the next word in a sentence. The models make such predictions after having “learned” the structure of a huge number of human-written works. The large language models often get facts wrong. But the results appeared so natural that it created interest in the next AI developments and possible uses for trickery and deception.
ChatGPT等技术背后的大型语言模型通过预测句子中的下一个单词来工作。这些模型在学习了大量人类写作作品的结构后进行这样的预测。尽管这些大型语言模型经常出现事实错误，但结果看起来如此自然，以至于引起了对下一步AI发展和可能用于欺骗和欺诈的兴趣。
Worries grew as this new group of generative AI tools produced not just words but also images, music and voices. They seemed to threaten the jobs of anyone who writes, draws, and creates music and computer languages. Concerns about AI tools fueled strikes by Hollywood writers and actors and legal disputes from artists to writers.
随着这一新的生成式AI工具组合不仅产生文字，还产生图像、音乐和声音，担忧情绪逐渐升温。这些工具似乎威胁着所有从事写作、绘画、音乐和计算机语言创作的人的工作。对AI工具的担忧引发了好莱坞作家和演员的罢工，以及艺术家和作家之间的法律纠纷。
Some of the most respected AI scientists warned that the technology’s progress was marching toward outsmarting humans and possibly threatening their existence. Yet other scientists called the warnings overblown and brought attention to more immediate risks.
一些备受尊敬的AI科学家警告说，技术的进步正在走向超越人类并可能威胁其存在。然而，其他科学家认为这些警告言过其实，并提出更为迫在眉睫的风险。
By spring, AI-created videos known as deepfakes
had appeared in U.S. election campaigns. Deepfakes are videos that contain realistic images but with digital changes to people’s actions and speech. One deepfake falsely showed Donald Trump embracing the nation’s former top infectious disease expert. The technology made it increasingly difficult to tell the difference between real and fake videos of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
到了春天，被称为深度伪造的AI创建的视频出现在美国选战中。深度伪造是指包含真实图像但对人物的动作和言论进行数字更改的视频。一个深度伪造视频虚构地显示唐纳德·特朗普拥抱该国前首席传染病专家。这种技术使得在乌克兰和加沙的战争真假视频之间越来越难以分辨。
By the end of the year, the AI crisis affected ChatGPT’s maker, OpenAI. The San Francisco-based company led by chief executive Sam Altman was nearly destroyed by disagreements over its mission.
到年底，AI危机影响到了ChatGPT的制造商OpenAI。由首席执行官山姆·阿特曼领导的这家总部位于旧金山的公司几乎因对其使命的分歧而被摧毁。
AI debates also led to new laws from the European Union and consideration from others, including the United States Congress.
AI的辩论还导致了欧洲联盟的新法律以及美国国会的考虑。
Too much excitement?
**过于激动？**
AI products released in 2023 have brought technology achievements not possible in earlier times. But the market research company Gartner says they arrive with “inflated expectations” and “massive claims” about its abilities.
在2023年发布的AI产品带来了在早些时候不可能实现的技术成就。但市场研究公司Gartner表示，它们带有“夸大的期望”和对其能力的“夸大的宣传”。
Gartner analyst Dave Micko said leading AI developers are pushing the latest technology with their current line of products, including search engines and workplace productivity software.
Gartner分析师戴夫·米科表示，领先的AI开发者正在通过他们当前的产品线推动最新技术，包括搜索引擎和工作场所生产力软件。
He said, “As much as Google and Microsoft and Amazon and Apple would love us to adopt the way that they think about their technology and that they deliver that technology, I think adoption actually comes from the bottom up.”
他说：“尽管谷歌、微软、亚马逊和苹果等公司希望我们采用他们对技术的看法以及他们提供技术的方式，但我认为采用实际上是从底层开始的。”
It is easy to forget that this is not the first appearance of AI in business. The technology has been used to help guide self-driving cars, compare objects and individual faces, and recognize speech in software like Siri and Alexa.
很容易忘记这不是AI在业务中的首次亮相。这项技术已被用于帮助引导自动驾驶汽车、比较物体和个别面部，以及在Siri和Alexa等软件中识别语音。
In 2011, Tom Gruber launched Siri, which was bought and used by Apple in the iPhone. At that time, it was the only major use of AI that people had ever experienced.
2011年，汤姆·格鲁伯推出了Siri，该应用被苹果购买并用于iPhone。那时，这是人们曾经经历过的唯一一次重要的AI应用。
But Gruber believes what’s happening now is the “biggest wave ever” in AI, launching new possibilities as well as dangers.
但格鲁伯认为现在正在发生的是AI的“有史以来最大的浪潮”，带来了新的可能性以及危险。
The dangers could come fast in 2024. Major national elections in the U.S., India and elsewhere could get flooded with AI-created deepfakes.
危险可能在2024年迅速出现。美国、印度等主要国家的国家选举可能会被AI创建的深度伪造视频淹没。
In the longer term, AI technology’s rapidly improving language, visual sensing and step-by-step planning abilities could create a kind of digital assistant — but only if given access to the “inner loop of our digital life stream,” Gruber said.
从长远来看，AI技术在语言、视觉感知和逐步规划能力方面的快速提升可能会创造一种数字助手，但前提是给予对“我们数字生活流”的“内部循环”的访问，格鲁伯说。
“They can manage your attention as in, ‘You should watch this video. You should read this book. You should respond to this person’s communication,’” Gruber said. He added, “That is what a real executive assistant does. And we could have that, but with a really big risk of personal information and privacy.”
“它们可以管理你的注意力，比如，‘你应该观看这个视频。你应该阅读这本书。你应该回复这个人的沟通，’”格鲁伯说。他补充说，“这就是一名真正的执行助理所做的。而我们可能拥有这样的助理，但有着真正巨大的个人信息和隐私风险。”
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Words in This Story
chatbot -- n. a computer program designed to converse with people
impact -- n. a powerful or major influence or effect
deception -- n. the act of making someone believe something that is not true
embrace -- v. to hold someone in your arms as a way of expressing love or friendship
manage -- v. to take care of and make decisions about something
respond - v. to say or write something as an answer to a question or request
