Playing with AI is sometimes amusing for me. You write something and it responds to you. Quick, effortless, usually remarkable. You get it to write you a message or organize your vacation or even to sound intelligent yourself. Sometimes when I'm sending a text in a WhatsApp group page I created, I let chatgpt help me so I can sound intelligent to my group members. It never gets tired or bored. But the more of it we use, the more attention should be called to what we're losing.
I recently read something by Rumman Chowdhury, who does research on how to get AI to be more safe and equitable. According to her, AI doesn’t think, actually. Can’t think, even. It only rearranges what people have already uttered or done. And even though this sounds obvious, it made me think deeply about the whole thing in a different way. Because it’s easy to lose sight of. The responses sound authentic. They feel like they're alive. But there’s never any spark behind them. No questioning, no fear, no being confused. No intuition being triggered. There’s only patterns. That does matter, particularly when people are treating the AI like a brain without a body.
I've heard of people seeking medical guidance when panicked. The AI provided them with something other than correct information, it was dangerous information but it wasn’t argumentative or hesitant or saying, are you okay? It was simply attempting to be useful. Machines are not taught to care, they are taught to get something done.
However, people do continue to rely on them. Sometimes because of curiosity. Sometimes because of convenience. But also, I suspect, because it requires less thinking. It’s exhausting to keep something difficult in your mind. It’s better to let the machine carry the burden. But this is where danger sets in. Because when you cease to question, you cease to pay attention. And then you don’t even know you’ve transferred the steering wheel. We created artificial intelligence. But that doesn’t mean we should get out of the driver’s seat and let it drive
Sourcing the image appropriately
https://pixabay.com/illustrations/ai-generated-brain-mind-thought-7986809/