Of Dinosaurs and Men -- and AI
Sometimes I feel like I’m living in a Jurassic Park movie. If you’re thinking this is going to be a column about how much my kids are like dinosaurs you’re wrong (but that sounds both fun and accurate so I’ll have to revisit that at some later date).
No, I feel like I’m in a Jurassic Park movie
in relation to the trajectory society is on with technology and artificial
intelligence (AI). Remember how in the original Jurassic Park movies, Dr. Ian
Malcom (Jeff Goldblum) keeps telling people that spawning dinosaurs and then
bringing people into contact with them is the worst idea in the history of
ideas? But everyone’s like, “nah, it’ll be fine.”
Then lots of people get eaten by dinosaurs.
Especially in the second movie, Dr. Malcom,
because he has seen firsthand what happens and has specific examples of dino
disasters, keeps sounding the alarm that this is a dangerous undertaking that
he wants no part of.
We too have the benefit of past experiences
with technology. We can look at the horrors of atomic bombs, the soul-eroding impact
of life in big cities, the dehumanizing of people on social media, the
spiritual decay of a screen dependent culture… Our relationship with technology
is broken. Dysfunctional. Abusive.
And yet, the Ingen representatives of our
day say, “yeah, but this time it will be different.” I don’t want to get chased
by the velociraptors of driverless cars. They laugh and say that’s not what’s
going to happen. Probably.
Let’s create a disembodied intelligence
that will facilitate every aspect of humanity without being human. What could
go wrong? Remember in Jurassic Park: Lost World when the camera guy stole the tyrannosaurus
rex’s baby? He was doing it to save the injured dinosaur (something about good
intentions here) but it resulted in the dad and mom T-Rex hunting down and
eating humans.
That’s what I’d describe as a foreseeable
consequence. But here’s the deal with AI and technology in general: though it
has beneficial consequences that are foreseeable it also always has harmful
consequences that are not. And the two are impossible to separate.
I’m basically plagiarizing philosopher and
technology commenter Jacques Ellul here (well not the stuff about dinosaurs). He
wrote many books in the mid 20th century and insightfully pointed
out that technology isn’t good or bad -- or neutral. It’s ambivalent. You get
good and bad effects with each technology that are inseparable and the tech
doesn’t care. We’re good at seeing the good things in advance, but the bad
stuff is not so easily seen before it’s a reality.
The real issue though is that once a
technology is introduced there’s no going back. Kind of like in Jurassic Park. Once
you’ve got dinosaurs on the loose you always have dinosaurs on the loose.
Which brings me back to my role as Dr. Ian
Malcolm in the 2025 version of AI: The Future Lost World. We’re unbelievable
deep down the rabbit hole of living life through technology. Surely though,
somewhere in our addled collective memory there are enough examples of how our
technological society is harming mankind that this would give us pause when it
comes to the final stage of technologizing man.
People are legitimately talking about
combining man and machine like this is a desirable goal. And remember, once you
become the Borg you’re always the Borg.
Just like Dr. Malcolm, I’m saying all this
for the sake of your kids (first movie) and my kids (second movie).
Children are already interacting with
OpenAI and have become quite adept at using it for school work according to
this report (OpenAI Usage Plummets in the Summer, When
Students Aren't Cheating on Homework).
Is this the outcome we anticipated?
Children are already turning to AI for help
instead of their parents. But AI doesn’t give the same advice as parents.
Instead it does this: Study says ChatGPT giving teens dangerous
advice on drugs, alcohol and suicide | PBS News
We haven’t lived with cell phones or the
internet for long enough for us to truly know the impacts these technologies
have had and are having on us. Yet we’re about to open the Pandora’s box of AI
like we know it’s going to be a good thing.
My favorite Dr. Malcom quote from Jurassic
Park is, "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they
could, they didn't stop to think if they should.”
Now would be a great time to heed that
wisdom.