Thoughts on AI

Posted 1 day ago

This is an unfinished post that I started writing on July 18. At the time, I felt like I spent a lot of time discussing just one of my concerns about AI. I wanted to sit on it for a few days. But I never came back to it. As I read through it again today, I thought it was important to go ahead and publish this unfinished post. I may or may not try to finish it later. But it is a snapshot of what I was wrestling with 4 months ago.

For several weeks, I have wanted to put together a position statement or personal declaration about how I was going to approach using AI. I have read some very good articles that have informed my thinking. Several people have written their own AI statements and I have found those helpful as I continue to think through the subject and figure how I want to respond. I am not sure I am ready to write a formal statement. But I wanted to try to write something to help me process my thoughts. It has been heavy on my mind recently.

Just another trend

I admit when I first started hearing the hype about AI a couple of years ago, I was skeptical. I have seen enough things hyped as the next best things only to see them fall by the wayside. Web 2.0. Cryptocurrency. Web 3.0. NFTs. This are just of a few of the things that I have been hyped in recent years. I thought AI was going to be very similar. I am still not completely convinced that it won’t be. But it does seem like it has a bit more staying power than some of these other things that I have mentioned.

AI is dehumanizing

I have many different concerns about AI. The biggest of these concerns is that it is dehumanizing.

  • AI is better and more efficient than me so it can replace me in my job. It says that I no longer offer enough value. It supports the lie that my value is equated with my productivity.
  • It provides such a big temptation to take the fast and easy path instead of committing to the hard, slow, and ugly work that it takes to build skills or gain valuable life experience. Easy does not lead to growth. Growth is an essential part of being a person.
  • Many are using it as a replacement for human relationship. AI feels feels more like empathy than what most people are experiencing today. But AI is not empathic. I believe we were hardwired for relationships. But we keep settling for poor substitutes. I think we should all become better at being human and not relegate that to technology.
  • AI seems to be a cheaper and easier solution. More companies are going to being employing AI for customer service in the future. Customer service already sucks and is very dehumanizing. Life is already too full of sludge. AI is just going to make it even worse.
  • AI is full of bias. All the ugly biases, inequalities, and prejudice that we humans have and practice have been learned by these models. It biases its output and continues to perpetuate its poison. It continues to put forward a view of what a “normal” person is or looks like which just continues to harm and exclude people that don’t fit that profile. Models are even changed (manipulated) to better fit one tribe’s perspective.

I am not saying AI is all bad or that it is evil. But I do believe there are a lot of things embedded into the ideology and use of AI that is dehumanizing and impedes human flourishing. This is a big concern for me.

“Strangely, life gets harder when you try to make it easy.

  • Exercising might be hard, but never moving makes life harder.
  • Mastering your craft is hard, but having no skills is harder.
  • Uncomfortable conversations are hard, but avoiding every conflict is harder.

Easy has a cost.”

– James Clear

Sources that have informed my thinking

Comment on this post