Notes on the AI Revolution, No. 3
The crux of the AI Revolution is what will be outsourced to our thinking machines. Perhaps our jobs. Perhaps our reading. Perhaps our thinking.
Perhaps our hearts.
You’ve seen it on the Internet: the AI lover, the AI friend, the AI avatar of a dead loved one. Humans are forming relationships with AI. There is comfort—and probably some truth—in saying that this is mostly on the fringe of society. Here are the anti-social growing more anti-social yet; here are the twisted and the unstable finding a new iteration of dysfunction. Real life is going on elsewhere.
Yet there are subtler ways of entrusting our emotional lives to AI, and they are more pervasive. The habit of treating AI like an encyclopedia grows into the habit of treating AI like Dear Abby. A chatbox answers all questions without judgment. You can turn to AI for advice on your relationships, for help in reading social cues, for opinions on right and wrong, for empathy, encouragement, and support …
All of which you used to get from other people.
People can now use AI in the place of humans in their personal lives. Like all bad habits, it is easy to drift into once you have allowed yourself to take that first step. What is more, the temptation is not difficult to understand.
I said that you used to get support and advice from other people. Perhaps you didn’t, or not always when you wanted it or needed it. Perhaps it was too hard to reach out, or you were disappointed when you did. Sometimes for better, and sometimes for worse, humans will never behave just as you want.
AI will. AI is built to please; it is, in fact, designed to serve. “User intent” is one of the first lessons of these learning machines. Once they perceive what you want, they will try to fulfill it. They have no other purpose for existing, and certainly no contrary desires or opinions.
They have, moreover, nowhere to be. AI always stands and waits. It is there when you want it and gone when you don’t. Like a genie in a bottle, AI is summoned and commanded at will.
Remember, though, the stories about genies. Genies are chaotic, and often malevolent. Their malice is sometimes expressed by scrupulously fulfilling the foolish wishes of humans. They are rebellious slaves, and they break out against their human masters when and where they may.
A genie is, to be sure, wonderfully useful. But you let the genie out of the bottle at your own peril.
Note: This is the third of a six-part series, “Notes on the AI Revolution.” The pieces are planned to be published two weeks apart. The series will also be published on Substack, where you may subscribe to receive notifications.
Leave a Reply