AI's Impact on Society: Lessons from Gutenberg's Press

The Gutenberg press transformed knowledge dissemination, similar to AI's potential impact on society's fabric.

### The Parallels Between Gutenberg's Printing Press and AI Innovation
* 📜  Johannes Gutenberg's printing press combined existing technologies and literacy trends to ignite an **age of scientific discovery**, paving the way for **textbooks, newspapers, and the internet**.
* 🧠  Like the Gutenberg press, AI is a transformative tool whose impact depends on its usage, with **$16 trillion in additional GDP expected to be unlocked in the next five to six years**.
* 🛠️  AI empowers businesses by **offloading repetitive tasks**, allowing teams to **refocus efforts**, and create **value with their ingenuity**.
* 🧰  Enterprises can leverage generative AI models and open-source projects to build AI on a foundation of **trusted data** that addresses their **specific business needs**.
* 🛡️  However, just as the printing press had the potential for misuse, AI models trained on datasets of unknown quality or origin can lead to **bias, incorrect claims, and toxic output**.
* 🤝  IBM, along with over 100 leading organizations, launched the AI Alliance to ensure **safety, security, transparency, and trust in AI** by creating benchmarks to evaluate **model safety**.
* 🌐  With collaborative communities, open-source tools, and trustworthy AI models, anyone can **harness the power of AI for the next revolutionary idea**.

(bright music) - [Narrator] Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press around 1440, but his innovation wasn't
creating new technology. His new machine combined
existing print block technology from East Asia and mechanical
devices first developed by the Romans for making
wine and olive oil. Moreover, his innovation launched just as literacy rates were on the rise. Those events ignited an unparalleled age of
scientific discovery, empowering people to share ideas and information farther and faster. Textbooks, newspapers, and even the internet have their roots in Gutenberg's printing press, but even he couldn't have imagined the legacy his inventions would leave, for better or worse. Today, businesses are primed
for advancements in AI to improve how we work,
live, learn, and connect, so what can society learn from the genesis of Gutenberg's press as AI makes its mark on the future? (bright music) (screen whooshes) (bright music fades) (bright upbeat music) Like the Gutenberg press, AI is a tool.

and the end result of working with it depends on how it's used. To help explain, here's VP of IBM Research AI, Sriram Raghavan. Just as opening up the technology of printing fundamentally transformed knowledge and dissemination, and then society as we know it, I think we need to think of AI in the same way. $16 trillion worth of additional GDP going to be unlocked in the next five to six years. That's enormous in terms of how it's going to change the fabric of society. And the creation of communities to develop the next generation of purpose-built, trusted AI models is an important next step. By offloading repetitive tasks, AI offers businesses a chance to empower their teams, refocus efforts, and create value with their ingenuity. That is the potential of an open approach to AI. With generative AI models, such as Granite, and open-source projects like InstructLab.

enterprises can build AI on a foundation of trusted data by deploying custom models that speak to their specific business needs. IBM and Red Hat have created an open source project called InstructLab, and the core of InstructLab is an approach that allows AI models to be developed collaboratively, allowing the innovation ideas of the community to evolve more. We released recently a family of models from our Granite family of models out in the open with an Apache license that gives developers, academic institutions, startups, governments across the globe, highly performant, state-of-the-art models that they can then use and work with. And we are very excited, again, by what a combination of open base models, such as our Granite models, and an open approach to model development, how the duo can really supercharge open innovation in AI. [Narrator] Just as Gutenberg's innovation helped unlock great prospects for the world,

the printing press also had the potential to be used nefariously. Disinformation, propaganda, and libel are the flip side of the coin from poetry, textbooks, and journalism. Other technologies have suffered the same fate. Television, the internet, and smartphones have all required some form of regulations and safeguards to maximize their potential while minimizing danger, and AI is no exception. While IBM publishes the data sources that train its AI, many models are still trained on datasets of unknown quality or origin. AI industry leaders like IBM understand how crucial it is to use trusted, ethically sourced data, free from toxic input so enterprises can avoid bias, incorrect claims, and toxic output. This is why IBM, in collaboration with over 100 leading organizations across industry, startup, academia, research, and government, launched the AI Alliance to maximize safety, security, transparency, and trust in AI. Today, in the world of AI, there is a lot of focus on quality.

but there isn't a consistent approach to evaluating safety, fairness, robustness of the models. And a big focus area of the Alliance is to create the best set of benchmarks by which to measure and evaluate safety in AI models. - [Narrator] With collaborative communities, open source tools, and AI models, anyone can harness the power of safe, trustworthy AI for the next revolutionary idea, and that, you can print. (bright music fades)

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The Impact of Gutenberg's Printing Press on Society and the Parallels with AI

Johannes Gutenberg's printing press combined existing technologies from East Asia and ancient Rome, sparking an age of scientific discovery and enabling the spread of ideas.

Similar to the printing press, the impact of AI depends on how it is used, with the potential to unlock trillions of dollars in GDP and transform society.

AI offers the opportunity to empower teams, refocus efforts, and create value, similar to the way the printing press transformed knowledge dissemination.

IBM and Red Hat's InstructLab for AI Innovation

IBM and Red Hat have launched InstructLab, an open source project for collaborative AI model development.

The project offers the Granite family of models with an Apache license for developers and organizations globally.

The AI Alliance, with over 100 partners, was also established to promote safety, security, and transparency in AI and to emphasize the importance of trusted, ethically sourced data to avoid bias and toxic output.

The Alliance's Focus on Creating Benchmarks for AI Model Evaluation

The Alliance aims to establish a consistent approach for evaluating safety, fairness, and robustness of AI models.

It emphasizes the creation of the best set of benchmarks for measuring and ensuring the safety of AI models.

The goal is to enable the harnessing of safe and trustworthy AI for innovative ideas through collaborative communities, open source tools, and AI models.