What’s AI Got To Do With It?
A second-hand emotion. Raise your hand if you’ve had any of the following happen in the last two weeks 🙋♀️🙋♂️:
- You or someone you know has posted or shared photos of their avatars using Lensa AI. That flawless skin and those high cheekbones? Yes please, vanity!
- You or someone you know has gotten borderline addicted to asking ChatGPT questions, and maybe (possibly) abusing the privilege of prompts such as “Explain X in simple terms” (..it me 🙋♀)
- You or someone you know have had their mind blown by Dall-e generating images based on a variety of descriptions. (Hint : It me again🙋♀️)
- You or someone you know has read a tweet, a post, a story, a news article, a text, or heard someone talk about AI or one of the AI tools mentioned above.
Artificial Intelligence has been around for quite a while, and is rapidly becoming part of everyday mainstream language for folks in and outside of the tech world. The implications of AI certainly touch most humans on the planet today in some way or another. If you’re still trying to wrap your head around the basics of AI (and if my mom hasn’t already sent this to you…❤), maybe start here.
All of this AI activity got me thinking about where we’re headed next, if there are patterns from the past we might be in danger of repeating (with far greater implications), and some natural fears and anxiety that might come from speeding into the world of AI.
So let’s tackle some of this together. Here’s how we’ll break this down :
- No Such Thing As A Free Lunch : The Trade-off
- The Social Dilemma : AI Edition
- Human vs. AI : The Battle of Creativity
- Mental Muscle : Getting Soft?
This is meant to be a thought-starter for awareness around where we stand with AI and where we might be headed, and it’s important for everyone to join the conversation. Just don’t expect any silver-bullet answers :)
No Such Thing As a Free Lunch
I recently heard someone say the best way to gather data is to be a Trojan Horse, and it couldn’t be more true. Facebook, Gmail, TikTok, WhatsApp, Apple, Amazon, and so many others — these services are incredibly valuable and have greatly improved our lives. One could argue we can’t fully function without these services today. The invisible price tag : your data.
There is a cost-benefit analysis to be done here. Data collection seems to have become a dirty word over the last few years. The truth is data collection and advertising across these various platforms is what allows them to remain free and accessible to everyone across the world. Paying for a subscription, owning a credit card, having secure financial infrastructure, having the right to your financial independence, the ability to earn, the ability to afford such “luxuries” — these are all privileges many people simply don’t have.
While I agree data collection got pretty out of hand and serious invasion of privacy became the norm in the industry (none of this is good), the reality is that ethics in making these decisions can be very complex. I covered some of the complexity around ethics here, and the main takeaway is that we have to continuously bring ourselves back to the goal of reducing the swing of the pendulum bias as much as possible.
That said, I can’t stress enough the importance of being aware and curious to know how all of this works, of how data is being gathered, what for, and how it will be used.
While Lensa is a really fun app, Prisma Labs is going to use the app to gather facial recognition data. And that’s ok — but the lack of knowledge (or even active thought) around this from most of us does make one wonder how important a more apparent and noticeable disclaimer might be. Will that disclaimer limit the speed of feedback and ultimately roadblock innovation? Or is there something to be said about providing a level of transparency that isn’t buried in the terms and conditions which we know we never read?
OpenAI’s ChatBot takes human feedback on prompt responses to gather data and intel. It’s somewhat obvious from the 👍 and 👎 buttons, and also something they cover in this video. Is this disclaimer enough for us to know that these systems are collecting our data? Yes? No? Maybe.
No such thing as a free lunch.
At the very least, consumers should have knowledge and awareness of all of the above today, for a better AI experience and AI-driven society tomorrow.
The Social Dilemma : AI Edition
Let’s get Mark Twain in here.
“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.”
- Mark Twain
When Facebook first came onto the scene, we drank the koolaid like it was water in a desert. Facebook connected the world in ways we had never experienced before. Anyone, anywhere with internet access could join.
The upside was so intoxicating, we let a lot of questionable patterns slide without much serious oversight. Slowly, we began to feel like we were in a scene from 1984, constantly being watched. We also began to feel increasingly anxious and lonely and isolated, despite being more “connected” than before. We found ourselves getting addicted to a digital drug on our phones and computers, and trading off the quality of interactions for quantity.
There is enough bad press around Facebook and the impact to society that you can Google on your own. While there are some intelligent takes out there, a lot of this critique feels lazy and bandwagon-y to me. The social media shaming / canceling mob is creating a fear of failure and risk, and ultimately a fear to innovate. It’s important to use critical thinking for these issues. So, in my humble opinion, I’d recommend watching The Social Dilemma to get a pulse on what we’re dealing with, or Tristan Harris’s Ted Talk where he eloquently walks us through the attention game.
My opinion may be an unpopular one (today), but I stand by the fact that Facebook remains the pioneer at creating one of the most innovative and disruptive platforms of our time, giving accessibility to so many across the world, and totally changing the game of connectivity. This can remain true, alongside the truth that they have made several errors with serious implications, and not fully taken appropriate responsibility and measures against it. The platform evolved in ways we didn’t anticipate, creating negative friction in the human experience. It’s complicated, and there are no absolutes here. There was and is course correction required, and with the right minds coming together, there may be hope to make the necessary changes we need.
You might begin to observe parallels between the AI world today and the glory days of Facebook. Over time, AI will begin making tradeoffs between business outcomes and consumer protections, driving innovation at social costs, evolving regulations, analysis of social impact, the loss of jobs, the impact to mental health, and so on. Expect some (many) missteps along the way.
Let this be a moment where we take the lessons from what went right and what went totally wrong with social media to course correct the path for AI accordingly.
Human vs. AI : The Battle of Creativity
Last week, I went with some friends to watch Death of a Salesman on Broadway and was completely blown away by the performance. The story itself is phenomenal and heartbreaking in so many ways, but my respect for the performers (especially Wendell Pierce) shot through the roof after those 3 hours. Words can’t do justice to the human talent that was on stage that night. In fact, almost every time I attend a live performance, a concert, or a live sporting event, I’m left marveling at the depth of human capability and talent. Similarly (but definitely not the same for me, personally), I’m marveling at AI’s capabilities and potential.
The penetration of AI into the world of art has created a level of anxiety for artists and creators, and lovers of art. There are countless examples of AI-generated content and prompt-responses that are so human-like, it kind of blows your mind — songs, lyrics, paintings, photographs, performances, interviews, podcasts, and more. How soon before human creativity is AI-generated? Is art and creativity the same concept? Will AI art feel the same and elicit the same level of human emotions from its audience? Does the love for art go beyond the content itself, such that we find it so beautiful and are so moved because it’s created by another human with a greater or different skillset? Is art only created by humans? Can AI-art be considered art at all? What is the definition of art?
Art is subjective, and is continuously evolving. To begin intelligently participating in answering these questions, I’d suggest spending 13mins watching this phenomenal Vox Explained episode explaining the text-to-image revolution.
According to MIT Press Reader’s article on Google’s DeepDream, AI art is generated using neural networks that are fed millions and millions of images and descriptions of images, and trained within deeper layers of those networks, until the networks can effectively recognize the images (ex : dog vs cat) and patterns in data.
One could argue AI art is simply processing enormous amounts of data to generate images — not really “creating” art. Others could argue the newer AI tools are smarter than that, and that this isn’t that significantly different to human creativity of combining experiences and memories to create art.
Personally, I believe the interconnectedness of human emotion and experience is at the heart of artistic creation. It has yet to be decided if I reside in the majority or minority on this.
Mental Muscle : Getting Soft
Have calculators and Excel formulas made us lose the skill of doing basic math? Has autocorrect made us lazy enough to forget how to spell certain words because we don’t ever really need to try anymore? Has GPS made it so a lot of us have never learned to use a paper map or memorize directions? What about phone numbers and birthdays?
One side of this coin is that relieving humans of these tasks has made it possible for us to focus on newer and more innovative things. Or even just relax and live in greater comfort. On the other side, one wonders if certain technologies are making our minds soft.
If we know AI is going to continue scaling further and remain a deeply integrated part of our lives, are those skills really necessary the way they used to be? Consider the skill of hunting for food. Once a necessity for survival, the evolution of technology and automation has freed up humans from hunting to focus on innovation, bringing us to where we are today.
Technologies also replace each other over time. Playing around with ChatGPT got me thinking about how Google Search has enhanced the way we do research, replacing and changing the role of libraries in our lives. We’re spending less time researching, and more time working on whatever it is we’re researching for. It’s possible AI technology like ChatGPT may replace Google Search over time.
How great is the potential for humans to tap into the new and unknown, when given the time and freedom to do so? Is AI giving us the gift of time, or slowly taking over brain functions that make us who we are? We’re on our way to finding out.
We’re entering a new territory, and it’ll feel impossible to go back once we’re further in. It’s incredibly important for as many people as possible to familiarize themselves with AI and the process of training AI tech, so we can be a part of the conversation. Because whether we choose to know it or not, we’re participating in the creation of AI.
The first step is simply being aware of how all of this works. So hopefully you’re walking away from this article with more than you started. Even if that means more questions. Stay curious.
