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Earlier this year, the potential for artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots to have negative outcomes was thrust before the world, making international headlines.

Months ago, a man in Belgium ended his own life, upon an AI chatbot known as "Eliza" apparently encouraging him to do so. In the wake of this man's untimely passing, the media noted his wife's claims that her husband would not have resorted to suicide without the prompting from "Eliza."

Today, people across the world must confront AI's potential impacts on people's individual lives, businesses, healthcare, and more. Many companies continue to embrace certain forms of AI. Whereas others remain a bit hesitant to rush in too soon.

Meanwhile, amid debates about the positives and negatives of AI, along with regulatory possibilities, one theoretical physicist is doing his best to put concerns to bed.

An interesting discussion

Michio Kaku, amid his work as a theoretical physicist, recently appeared on CNN to assure the public there's no need to worry about the aforementioned chatbots.

It is Kaku's view that the nature of chatbots bars them from posing serious societal threats.

While on CNN, the theoretical physicist claimed everything that emerges from an AI chatbot is a culmination of information found online. After acquiring this information, AI chatbots then piece it all together and pass it off to humans.

Furthermore, Kaku said the only information to come from an AI chatbot must first originate from human beings. On their own, he explained, chatbots lack the ability to differentiate what is correct from what is incorrect.

We'll have to wait and see

Kaku is one of many people who have worked to calm down people's fears about AI chatbots. However, as this technology continues undergoing development, some folks believe it may reach a point of being fully sentient on its own.

Likewise, questions about the possibility of chatbots malfunctioning or otherwise going haywire are very much part of the conversation.

Granted, AI chatbots, in their current form, come with many limitations. They are not on par with human beings, by any means. Though how long this remains the case is anyone's guess.

At the end of the day, the ongoing expansions of AI open the door to all sorts of possibilities --- many of which may not be good.