Could wound care benefit from the artificial intelligence storm taking place worldwide

​The buzz around artificial intelligence (AI) has been covered in previous editorials.1,2 In the editorials, I discussed how it was helping create and drive data driven wound care practices. This was expanded upon in a recent editorial by Cross and Harding.3

​Since these editorials were written, the buzz has certainly become louder, even if only in the public rather than the professional domain. AI has the awesome power to change the way we live our lives, in both good and dangerous ways. But are those in power prepared for what's coming, similar to where we find ourselves today with social media and any impending regulation.4 Let us hope so!

Chatbots and AI-assisted search are the new buzz within the AI field. You may have heard of Chatbot-GPT and how it will revolutionise our search capabilities, even with the potential to write up our research findings. Perhaps even writing your next IWJ paper. Students and researchers, particularly where English is not their first language, are excited. Teachers, assessors and reviewers are less excited. From writing stand-up comedy scripts to poetry and even generating visual images regarded as art, AI has come a long way recently. Machines, at least to the general public, have achieved creativity.5

Regulators and governments recognise this is the emergence of an extremely powerful technology; however, it can be used for both good and bad, and as such, it will require close monitoring and possible regulatory review. One of the main dilemmas is that many of the players in AI are the major tech companies, which are currently under scrutiny regarding social media regulation. The potential downsides of AI include the automatic creation of an ocean of disinformation across multiple social media outlets. The biggest concern is not its generation, but rather that they would be entirely believable and perceived to come from legitimate accounts. Even if the government succeeds in enacting new social media regulations, this may be pointless in the face of a flood of pernicious AI-generated content.

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