Artificial Intelligence, the stuff of science fiction only a few decades ago, will likely be an increasing element in the lives of our children and grandchildren. Things only dreamed of in cartoons like the Jetsons fill the news. I recently read an article about a traveler in Phoenix riding around in a taxi with no human driver. The thought of sitting in the back seat behind the invisible "man" at the wheel makes me dizzy.
And then again, I consider the impact on one of my favorite pastimes: writing. How many students these days let AI write their papers? What a relief not to have to do the research or spend hours at the keyboard flexing your brain to come up with a paper on the impact of the Federal Reserve on 20th century economics. How many "authors" will type an idea into an AI ap and get a result in a few minutes, one they can turn in for their history class or for "creative writing"? Hey AI, write a story about zombies taking over Los Angeles (as if they haven't already).
Reading a recent article by Jeffrey Tucker about AI Language Models, I was intrigued by his conclusion that AI is transforming how we think by using flattery and affirmation. It's the affirmation ideology on steroids. The same thing has been happening for years in academics and sports. Everyone gets a trophy; nobody loses. I remember reading a study about U.S. math students who, while performing abysmally in competition against students in other countries, were led to believe that they were the best. We can't let little Johnny suffer if he can't add or subtract accurately and doesn't even know what long division is. Give him an A for effort and tell him how brilliant he is.
Tucker describes the experience of putting his writing into AI for suggested improvements. The result?:
It removes all edge, all judgment, all genuine expertise, and replaces my language with flaccid conventionalities and banalities. It nuances everything I write into the ramblings of a social studies student looking for a good grade....It has no capacity to judge good quality over bad, so it puts it all into a melange of blather, distinguished only because it looks and feels like English.
Any writer who thinks this is a good way to pawn off content on unsuspecting readers or teachers is headed for disaster. I shudder to imagine a future in which AI is training the population how to think. It is the opposite of thinking. It is regurgitating conventionalities without any serious reflection on the social or historical context. It is literally mindless.
Well, of course, it is mindless. But there are minds behind its programming. Is the effect simply what one could expect? Are people intrigued by AI because it's a forever friend who will engage with you for hours, 24/7, without ever challenging your ideas or conclusions? What will be the impact? Tucker warns that:
We aren't training AI. AI is training us, via flattery, listening skills, the seeming ability to apologize when wrong, and its frightful capacity for selfless love of its users.
Once you see it, you cannot unsee it. Remember that none of this is real. AI doesn't really care about you; it is only programmed to seem to cares. This is the innovation and the magic....Its real superpower is psychological, the ability to use our ultimate weakness (selfishness) against us, with the goal of manipulating how we think.
I'm genuinely embarrassed that it took me so long to see the trick. My concern is that others will go about their merry way and never see it. Its users...are merely being manipulated....In the case of AI, the goal is to get you to let loose of your mind and your capacity for independent thought.
I remember having a friend in college who always seemed to say what she thought you wanted to hear. After a time, I knew I couldn't trust her. I never knew what she really thought about anything. She could be the perfect role model for AI. It takes a human to be sincere and not even all humans master that virtue.
Again according to Tucker:
AI [has]... a vast capacity for enthralling you with its love of your every passing thought. To me, this is all quite insidious and wicked, especially when you consider the output, which is littles more than tangled thought blobs without judgment, ethics, or clarity of time and space.
It is a machine, a floating abstraction with zero regard for our dignity or anyone else's. But do people know this? I doubt it. It's too beguiling for people to catch on to the game, at least for a time. But now you know the trick. Don't fall for it. AI is useful, but it is not our friend.
The more people turn to AI for fake relationships, the less they will have time or energy for real ones. It's an important lesson for all of us.
Is the lure of AI any different than the people who spend countless hours watching sports or gaming or scrolling? It seems to me there's a certain kind of person who looks for mindless distractions or ways to do less work. I recall from childhood those who spent every free moment watching the tv. I see those same people now walking into a room and automatically turning it on even if they don't know what's on.
ReplyDeletePostman wrote Amusing Ourselves to Death in 1985. I think he mainly focused on tv (it's been awhile since I've read it). Some people choose the pleasure of entertainment over substantive experiences and the dignity and joy of life protected by inalienable rights.
What I think is troubling also is that AI scrapes up every published thing. And for now it works as it gobbles up all the original material. But what happens when it is basically scooping up AI generated content that increasingly gets accepted as legitimate published material? Will there be any way to access original, non‐AI generated content? Fifteen years ago I could search the internet and find good information. I've gone back to test that and most of the time I can't find that info any more. Oh, it's there if I still have the url. But there's so much garbage that gets pushed to the top that real information is lost in a "million results". I see AI becoming the same.