Wharton says AI is like an ‘intern’ who ‘lies a little bit’

• Professor Ethan Morrick of the University of Pennsylvania likened AI to an “intern” who “lies a little bit,” according to a CBS report.
• Like interns, AI tools need guidance to make their output useful, Morrick said.
• His thoughts on AI come as users adopt tools like ChatGPT to make their work and lives easier.

An AI could become an employer’s intern rather than just an assistant, says one professor.

Ethan Morrick, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, said AI tools could be “helpful for a lot of things,” despite their tendency to get factually wrong. But he says it’s not that different from humans, especially those entering the job market for the first time.

“It’s best to think of it as a human being, like an intern,” Morrick said in an interview with CBS News this week when asked about the usefulness and limitations of AI.

Like interns who get overpaid to stay ahead of the curve, Morrick likens AI to “endless interns” who want to “lie a little bit” and sometimes make their bosses “a little bit happier.” I’m here.

Writing emails is one way AI can be used to “overcome obstacles in everyday life” and become “a better, more productive writer,” Morrick says.

But like interns, AI also needs guidance to make its output useful.

“It’s actually very useful across a range of tasks, but not by itself,” Morrick says. “You need help with that.”

When the insider asked for comment, Morrick referred to his earlier blog post that reflected that sentiment.

“I never expected to send out an intern’s work unchecked. At least I never would have cooperated enough with the other person’s work to understand that it didn’t need to be checked.” I didn’t think so,” Morrick said in a blog post. “Similarly, AI is not error-free, but it can save a lot of work by providing a first pass for tedious tasks.”

Morrick’s thoughts on AI came as generative AI tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT took the world by storm. As of January, over 100 million users have flocked to chatbots, some even using them as personal assistants to make their work and lives easier.

In fact, Mollick, who teaches a class on entrepreneurship and innovation, requires his students to use ChatGPT to help out in class. Still, he recognizes that chatbots aren’t perfect.

“AI will never match the best experts in the field,” Morrick said in an NPR interview. “We need to teach people to be experts.”