Who remembers books? Just kidding! But also… not really.
That mystical dimension before everything started finding us and we actually had to go looking for things.
On the daily, I say something either out loud or just to me, within earshot of my phone, iPad, or laptop, and here goes my tech, serving up ads, articles, and videos of that thing to me all day long. I know the first few times that happened years ago, I probably thought it was luck. Nowadays we all know our devices are intentionally listening to us. Annoyingly so. Intrusively, even. And not to help us but to sell to us. And by ‘sell,’ I don’t just mean parting us from our money. Information (to include lies) can be sold to us just as easily.
AI is the next extension, and while I use it here and there, it’s starting to weigh on me just the same.
And no one can convince me I’m overthinking this. For me, it’s quite the opposite, I’m on the side that we’re not thinking about it enough.
Environment, Be Damned
Do the quickest of quick searches on the environmental damage or turmoil these AI data centers are causing to the everyday lives of people who, out of nowhere, now live close to one or five. Bodies of water drying up, 24/7 lights being beamed into people’s homes, and energy bills reaching pure insanity. We’ve always had data centers, but AI data centers are not the same beast. Not even close.
I work in an IT environment, not as an engineer, but on the business side of things so I’ve not only watched but am working in this and experiencing this unfold closer than most. I’ve long since shifted from watching the explosion of AI with that initial fascination to a solid mix of wonder, caution, and some despair.
To be clear, I actually, really love tech. Give me a gadget that can improve my life, make things easier, faster, and so much better. Tech always felt like it was giving me back time… freedom from a chore that didn’t need to exist, or at least it’d be minimized. That’s anything from a washing machine to our mobile phones that are more powerful than those OG tower PCs. And I’ll street-fight anyone who tries to relieve me of my three, yes, three, Roombas! But AI… this initially sold as the next time-saver is advancing at a pace that feels almost impossible to keep up with, and every week there’s yet another headline about what it can now do that it couldn’t do the week before.
Me yelling: Like, slow down, bitch!
AI’s response: Hell no!
And at this point, can somebody please tell AI it doesn’t have to do all the things just because it has extra arms? Seriously, ‘A’, sweetie, luv… you’re killing me with the interesting extremities.
I’m still optimistic that AI has the potential to improve a lot of areas of our lives. Again, efficiency with the mundane is the key for me. Improving your original thoughts in seconds, pointing out patterns we might have missed and want to correct, if bad, or increase, if good. And clearly, I’m limiting it just for this initial post, but if used well, it’s an incredible tool.
Now what gives me extreme pause isn’t the technology itself, but how quickly we’ve started treating it not just as the quick answer to…well…everything, but the start.
Remember when you would create something from scratch, or at least you saw something and then fed off it, or used your experience to shift it into something else? Then AI came along and the hope, from me at least, was it would improve, tweak that. It carried who we already were forward.
And now?
- Need to write an email? Ask AI, first.
- Need to win an argument with some solid rebuttal points? Ask AI, first.
- Need advice about your marriage, your health, your career, your finances, or how to raise your children? Ask AI, first.
What are we (humans) doing? Where are we (humans) going?
Stop, Drop, and Scroll?
How have we become so captivated by what AI can do, that we’ve stopped asking what it should do, or what we should still be doing ourselves. Technology will always be relevant, but at this rate, will we?
Technology should be a gateway to change our lives for the better and I’m here for all of that… sign me up, for that. But AI, this one, feels different. It’s not just changing how we work and it’s past the point of beginning to influence how we think, it now seems to be embedded in how we learn, make decisions, and crazily enough, even how we form opinions.
A machine!
Someone, get Sarah Connor! Quick!
And then there’s the part where we remember AI was built by humans, so let’s not pretend it magically skipped over all of humanity’s nasty baggage. Racism, sexism, and all the other “isms” apparently hitched a ride too. Who knew even the machines would need to unpack generational trauma? Big, BIG AGE sigh.
Futuristic machine-takeover jokes aside, that should worry all of us, especially the next generation.
How many AI classes do you see popping up? Ones where you’re proficient in days versus years of schooling? Are you really learning? What are you learning? Is the machine now downloading to the kiddos… to us? Scary!
Remembering to Value the Human Experience
The ultimate experience, if you will, and yes, I am biased, is the human experience.
#TeamHumansAllDayLong.
I revel in the lush vibrancy of the human experience! The books we write or read, art we create, the music we make, the joy we spread, the culture we impart… I could go on and on… we’re simply unmatched.
Disclaimer: Unless the aliens land then, I may need to recalibrate these thoughts.
But until the aliens land… above all of the things I value most about being human is that we aren’t simply machines processing existing information. We hear, see, question, wrestle with ideas and thoughts. We challenge bullshit, work to have people hear us out, and draw on our experience. We either trust our instincts, or learn from mistakes, and then share those mistakes. And ultimately, all of this hits on the fact that because of this, we can change our minds.
Life isn’t a follow-the-dots art book, or a neat and tidy spreadsheet that if we keep going in order the correct answer will always reveal itself. We wish!
Life is messy, cruel, beautiful, hurtful, scary, joy-filled and all the things.
We’re going to make some shitty decisions. Sometimes we’ll trust our instincts and get it right. Sometimes we won’t. But we’ll learn from them one way or another. We’re going to fall in and out of love with partners and friends alike. But whatever comes our way, we’ll process it as humans do. With logic, humor, wisdom or the reckless abandonment of a ‘fuck it’ moment.
Sure we can use AI to bounce our original ideas and thoughts off. Check or test something out. Rewrite that note, email, or letter so it sounds how we want it, and still with no expectation on how it will be received… the reaction/receipt is still human. Unpredictable and unmanageable.
It might know in words what it is to lose someone you love, to forgive when it’s difficult, to question your own assumptions, but it can’t feel it. And that’s not the same thing at all.
AI has access to enormous amounts of human knowledge it has been trained on… (inputted human knowledge, I like to say) …, but it doesn’t have lived experience to spit out the right answer. For one, there usually isn’t a single right answer, so relying on it… well… that’s dangerous.
That’s why I hope we don’t lose the habit of thinking for ourselves.
And what will come after AI 5.0? Who knows? Forget it changing us into passive consumers with a sharper algorithm, will it be powerful enough to change life as we know it? And if so, how much worse?
Perhaps the skill we’ll need most in the coming years is to stay curious. Remember to experience human feeling and roll with unpredictability to become better humans.
I truly hope we do.
