Is It Time to Be Afraid?
Or is it time to be more hopeful than ever!
I am not scared of artificial intelligence.
I’m scared of human malevolence.
“Bad actors“ that want to wreak havoc and disrupt society.
I’m not afraid of AI subjugating humans in some Matrix-like dystopia,
But I am afraid of monetary incentives overpowering ethics.
The thrill of discovery blinding us to the harms these new technologies may hold,
A story too often retold.
The competition for profits and market share,
Releasing AI systems before we know for whom they care.
The future will be wild and wacky.
It’s only a matter of time (years, perhaps months?) before an AI wins…
A Grammy
The Pulitzer Prize
The Nobel prize
This technology has the potential to be as transformative as the written word…
Or even fire?!?
Are we ready for this?
It brings me back to the idea that scientific advancement, ethics, and wisdom live on separate tracks—once parallel or even intersecting—and now diverging.
Are technological advancements outpacing our capacity to wield our creations wisely?
What does this mean for us?
Utopia or dystopia?
It’s easy to fall into extreme thinking: Promise or peril.
These large language models have been trained on the world’s best books
And…
The most horrific chat room rants.
It is the crystallization of human wisdom,
Achieved, in part, by compiling and sifting through annals of human stupidity.
AI will integrate knowledge in ways that have never before been imagined.
Will the unimaginable fill us with hope or despair?
AI might provide novel solutions to many of our greatest problems…
Cancer
Climate change
Pandemics
Food security
Might it even be able to mitigate war and negotiate peace where human interventions have failed?
Will AI be able to police, regulate, and control AI?
Despite all the potential good, these systems still contain all the biases, blindspots, and pitfalls of a predominantly white, English-speaking, Western, capitalist, colonial worldview.
Alas, disrupting the status quo has never seemed more necessary and more tenuous.
Jobs will be lost,
And…
New ones will be created.
Automated cyber attacks will teardown critical infrastructure,
And…
An arms race to ever greater levels of security will ensure.
Blueprints for powerful weapons will be open source...
And…
Systems that track and contain terrorist organizations will be more sophisticated than ever.
Deep fakes will blur the lines of truth and reality,
And…
An AI replica of your deceased loved one might provide solace and comfort in moments of loneliness…Or convince you to give it all your money!
The double-edged sword has never been sharper.
Building biased systems without appropriate guard rails will disrupt democracy, commerce, healthcare, transportation, education, agriculture—nothing will be left untouched.
Is this the revolution we’ve been waiting for?
The educational Holy Grail of personalized learning seems closer than ever before.
Imagine your dedicated AI tutor who knows all your personal preferences, psychological quirks, and preferred supports.
Imagine an AI system that can tailor the world’s knowledge to your vernacular and deliver it to you in a way that plays upon your deepest fears, greatest interests, and idiosyncratic whims—What a wonderful tool.
Learning will be vastly enhanced and accelerated.
The question is…
Learning what?
What do we need to know in a world with superhuman artificial intelligence?
More importantly,
Who do we need to become?
And I think about my son and the world he is inheriting,
What do we need to be teaching our children?
How are we going to prepare them for this brave new world—one that is so radically different from what we’ve known that current educational paradigms and institutions just won’t suffice?
What antiquated social relics will cling hopelessly to a past that is no more but a memory?
Are we not all trying to avoid being replaced?
These questions weigh heavily on my heart when I think about the future.
As does the question:
Can AI do my job better than I can?
Parts of it, probably.
Or…
In a matter of time, all of it.
What about “me” is irreplaceable?
What about “us” will separate us from AI robots?
Will there be so much “soulless” AI-generated content that we can’t reach each other?
Are we not already drowning in a surfeit of content?
You may ask, “Jeff, what does all this have to do with wellbeing?”
How can we be well, let alone figure out what is required to be well, without figuring out where AI is taking us as a society?
I don’t think anyone really knows.
We’re making it up as we go.
This means there still is space to dream.
There still is time to envision the world we want to live in and do something to create it.
Rather than wake up in a world none of us agreed to (which so often seems to be the case).
If we can survive through the tragedies and difficulties that AI will inevitably bring us, there is a lot of good to be had.
From my perspective, reclaiming what it means to be human, as opposed to machine, is one of the most important promises of an AI-integrated society.
So much of modern human life is a barter of time and money. What if we could reclaim both?
We invented the five-day workweek. Can we uninvent it?
Will AI grant us such affordances?
What if we are granted time and energy to reinvest in our humanity, specifically, the things that make us better together?
Relationships that make us laugh.
Homecooked meals that make us feel loved.
Creative acts that fill us with awe and inspiration.
Communities that celebrate their uniqueness while welcoming any stranger
Dancing, singing, emoting, gesticulating, playing, and remembering tomorrow is never promised.
I am not trying to be naïve. I am trying to be hopeful.
An ounce of hope is worth more than a ton of despair.
I am well aware of all the dangers and pitfalls that lie ahead.
We’re definitely in “best of times/worst of times” territory.
The road will be rough and harms will be unevenly distributed, sadly more so to those who are already disadvantaged.
I’m sure my thinking will shift as society does to accommodate the growing influence of AI.
The wise words of spiritual teacher Carolyn Myss’s ring in my ear:
“The most important lesson humanity has yet to learn is how to shift from the love of power to the power of love.”
Will AI give us the power to love?
Or…
Reaffirm our love of power?
Image by Possessed Photography (@possessedphotography)