thoughtsdartiste

Recently, this new reality has been haunting me, I’ve always been fairly neutral to the idea of A.I. getting inserted into our daily lives, but my attitude now has shifted, I’ve been feeling increasingly unsettled by the possibility of a societal collapse. From A.I. slop to A.I. companions, none of it sounds like it would particularly stimulate my brain in a positive way. The idea of a person spilling their most intimate thoughts to a chatbot rather than a person makes me wonder if we’ve become so fearful of external judgement, we hide our thoughts and our inner selves and we become invisible. This type of isolation reminds me of solipsism, the philosophical thought that believes only the self exists, everything else is just a mere projection of the brain. Essentially, it says, “I and only I am at the center of the universe.” A chatbot trained to agree with us won’t help us get out of that illusion, if it’s an illusion at all. At the same time, I think of Sam Altman: “As AI produces most of the world’s basic goods and services, people will be freed up to spend more time with people they care about, care for people, appreciate art and nature, or work toward social good.” Hmm, interesting. We have countless examples in modern history where those who accumulate an abundance of wealth share selflessly their earnings with the world, like Jeff Bezos… no, wait, like Elon Musk…no, not him either. Anyway, I’m sure we could find an example, if we reeeeally did our research. How many layoffs were there due to A.I.? Maybe that’s not important, what’s important is that now everyone is an artist, graphic designer, writer, you name it. Thanks to A.I. creation has been commodified. 

So, you don’t need to go to a class and learn the skill to draw? Nope, A.I. can do it. 

This just makes me wonder, we allow it to draw for us, and we allow it to write for us, how much time will it take before we allow it to think for us? Some believe that A.I. is an expression of God. Technospirituality, that goes well as a frame for our ever-powerful Technocracy. It makes me think, what’s the use of our intelligence if we now become sub to something that doesn’t even breathe? How do we justify our usefulness in society if a machine can do everything for us?

There’s no need for researchers, because A.I. could do the work for us. There’s no need for professors, A.I. can teach. But then, what’s the use for school? A.I. can do most things, right? What’s the use in learning how to read and write independently? We could have A.I. read things for us, it already writes for us. This isn’t hyperbolic, it’s been shown, college students in the US can’t properly write, Gen Alpha is half illiterate. So, let’s take a step further, A.I. can do easy tasks for us, low-skilled jobs can be replaced by A.I. But, then where do we draw a line? Only high-skilled jobs are for humans? What about the rest of us? We don’t need jobs? The person who can’t afford college, the person who doesn’t speak English well, the person who is handy, what do they do? The non-academics of this world, where is their place in society? Not to mention, soon the academics will be replaced anyways. Then, I’ll truly wonder where the value is placed in society. 

Usually, purpose is found when someone knows and fulfills their role in society, whatever that may be. A role adds to the community; it allows a community to function smoothly. Now, I’m aware that there are rural areas in the US where there are only 10 people in a community, so they may not know that in bigger communities one must understand how to work with many different people who don’t look, sound, or think like them. A society consists of many types of different people and elements, and we should learn to live in harmony with this reality. I’m simply afraid that A.I. will further isolate us in a way that we may not understand on a human-level how we should function between ourselves. Because, if we are isolated then we become ego-centric. We’ve already seen a rise in narcissism thanks to social media; we don’t need to increase psychopathy. Empathy is learned, we can’t take that for granted. When we are children, the expressions on our parents’ faces makes us learn how to read happiness, anger, sadness, etcetera. We copy using mirror-neurons, the copying does something interesting to our brain, we begin to feel and respond to emotion. Our mother’s happiness becomes our own, the neighbor’s sadness becomes our own. Emotions are passed on. We don’t want to hurt others because that means we hurt ourselves. It hurts me to hurt you. That’s normal. That’s nature. We are social animals, and cooperation has led us to survive millennia. The less human expressions we see as children, the less we feel as adults. If as a parent, I have headphones on and give you, the child, an iPad as a distraction – I am completely detached, you don’t learn to read me, you don’t learn to connect to me. There’s a consequence for that, that we are actively seeing today. 

This altogether is a cocktail for destruction. Higher education costs an arm and a leg, there are fewer jobs because A.I. can do it, the human species is still increasing, maybe not US citizens specifically, but there are more of us than ever before in human history, yet resources are less and less. Yeah, that doesn’t sound like it’ll lead to a global collapse. You know why there’s going to be a water crisis eventually? And maybe a territory crisis, too. Thanks to Data Centers, you see, we need them so A.I.’s capacity can increase. Data Centers require a lot of electricity and water so that the computers keep running. All that water is only used to keep the computers cool. Water is essential for human survival, a lot of creatures on Earth need water. If we overuse an essential element to survival, it’s inevitable that we die. Sure, potentially we create water, purified water – we could extract water molecules from somewhere and create drinking water, that’s all true, but again if we use more than what we have the capacity to replace, that still can lead to a crisis. Data Centers also need to grow, and they occupy a lot of land. That means your grandma in the future might end up living next to one. Have you heard about the sound pollution they create? Imagine living next door to a 24 hours, 7 days a week noise machine. The sole idea of it makes me want to jump off my balcony. 

Yet, there’s too much at risk now for this growth to pause. Too many faceless investors. I fear that we are slowly being pushed to comply. I worked at a lovely company, DLS, and I remember one of the program managers there saying “A.I. won’t replace you, but if you don’t learn to work with A.I. someone who does know will replace you.” And that didn’t sit well with me, because it felt like she was essentially saying that those who disagree will have their livelihood in danger. That sounds more like a threat than a suggestion during a job crisis. So, this means my individual thought and opinion doesn’t matter, because what matters is the company, and if a company has invested in A.I., then I must comply. What an Orwellian situation we’ve gotten ourselves into. But no, you’re free. You’re free to leave if you disagree, but don’t be surprised if it’ll be difficult to buy groceries, to pay your bills, to find another employer. To survive. 

All of this is purely my reflection on today’s A.I. trend. I may be wrong, or I may be right, maybe I’m in between the two. I hope this just makes you think. 

-Victoria Davis