AI And Ethics

I just read a very good article on The Verge by Elizabeth Lopatto dated March 5, 2025 entitled: ‘The Questions Chat GPT Shouldn’t Answer’. It made me think about what sort of questions people are asking AI and why we would give them such relevance.

This story talks about ethics which made me realize people are asking about things like what they should do or how they should feel about the actions of others. Why in the world would we think that an AI which is not a live human would understand anything relating to feelings or morality.

If our youth is using this form of tech to get answers that relate to how they should act, we are in serious trouble. While I understand that they may have problems or issues to deal with, if they are not going to other people they trust to get answers, they could get advice that leads them astray or causes them actual harm.

Think about all the possible questions anyone could ask AI. The chances that you even covered a small percentage of likely prompts is very low. So how do we know how big tech is handling this. Are we going to hold them responsible if something goes wrong?

Doesn’t that seem too late and what good would that do since the damage is done. We have been concentrating on AI being used to help companies with the daily tasks and we are preventing prompts that could be from individuals intent on harming the country.

But if a person doubled down on the prompts and continued till they got the answer they are leaning towards which young people would do, how do we know that answer is measured as per ethical standards? We really don’t.

Since the way we phrase our prompts has a bearing on what comes up, it is similar to the algorithms being dished out to teens on Tik Tok who want to talk about suicidal subjects. There is no rational being behind those answers just a basic structure based on the material scanned originally when the AI was built.

To me, this means parents have to be more diligent than ever to protect their kids. Yes they will protest and hormones racing will cause issues. But better that than a situation you cannot reverse. Please be diligent and supportive with your kids. They are so naive and easily led astray.