Summary

Artificial Intelligence is a tool, the goal of which is to identify or generate patterns based on provided data sets. As with any other technology, this presents ethical considerations. In addition, sometimes in creating and using a tool, you become reliant upon it.

Definitions and Purposes

Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to the creation of computer systems capable of performing tasks that historically only a human could do, such as reasoning, making decisions, or solving problems. This is a logical follow on from the data revolution and data-ism. “If I could only collect sufficient relevant data, the data will tell me what I want to know.” “If only we had sufficient introspection, I would be able to know myself.”

To engineer is human. We find solutions to problems and then continue improving on those solutions as we evaluate the feedback we get. From basics, “If I wear a coat, I stay warmer - if I put on a thicker coat or have better insulation, I stay even warmer,” to things like, “We can increase safety from electrical faults in switchyards by laying a high resistivity surface material like gravel to reduce the risk of shocks to humans around the grounding system.”

Artificial Intelligence is being used to identify and generate patterns to help humans be more effective. For example, AI is being used to read medical images like cancer screenings. AI is helping discover new materials or new ways to use old materials. AI can generate entire essays, outlines and bibliographies for students (this essay/blog post was not generated by AI). Companies like AWS and GitHub now have products like “CoPilot” and “Code Whisperer” to help people who code do better at coding.

Technology and Ethics

Any tool can be used for good or evil. A knife can be used to spread butter or kill things. Here we can also explore the Supplemental Power Paradox (where tools can make us stronger, but also dependent on them), when artificial means probably ought not be used, and considerations for remaining human.

Examples of the Supplemental Power Paradox have already been mentioned in this post. People already turn to the internet (particularly YouTube) for learning all sorts of things in an on-the-job or just-in-time manner. “How do I replace the mixing cartridge in my bathroom shower?” or “How do I take this particular model of widget apart without breaking it?” Even before the internet, students using the calculator need to know if the answer the calculator gives them is “in the ballpark” of the answer they’re looking for. Today, there are many engineering problems that require computers to solve the problems, e.g. finite element analysis of electromagnetic, thermodynamic, or structural models, fluid-structure interactions, non-linear non-uniform stratification of target geological features, etc.

There are some elements of being human that ought not be replaced by artificial intelligence. Some of those fall into categories of “caring for our neighbor” and “training for virtues and skills.” It is important not to medicate some pain and grief in order to healthily grow and recover as a person. There are some online mental health counseling services that do not actually have a real person on the other end. Screens and virtual meetings are already a disruption in the normal means of human communication and interrelation, then to add an AI language model to counseling services removes the humanity from the interactions altogether.

Transhumanism

This process of externalizing the processes of thinking and decision making is driven by a fixation on “the process” and “data driven decisions.” It allows the users the thought of being able to blame the data, model, or analysis of both rather than taking responsibility for the choices and consequences. When you externalize the process, you don’t get to sit and mull over the problem, the means by which you arrive at the answer or choice to decide.

People have a hard enough time with logic most of the time. Articulately expressing ideas, original or not, is becoming more rare. “Everyone and their mom” has a blog, podcast, or YouTube channel these days. We could say a couple things about that: it is a manifestation of the nature of humanity to be social and creative creatures, and these societal depositions though not generated by AI can be trained on them.

Humans are social creatures that were made to live in connection with one another, and those connections are best made in-person. There is something to a handshake or a hug that just cannot be replaced. A visit to the doctor these days is sometimes just a doctor filling out the report while they are talking to you and then often tell you what the systems says rather than using it to inform their patient care. The doctors have their own efficiencies to solve: getting to all the patients that have chosen to come to their practice in a timely manner and attempting to give them good medical advice.

Some of this Transhumanism and “Digital Self” is fueling the global mental health and identity crisis. The movies “The Matrix” (1999), “Surrogates” (2009), and “WALL-E” (2008) may have been a reductio ad absurdum or appeal to the extreme examples, but they illustrated several points where humans really do crave human-human physical interaction. “The Metaverse - where we make our own reality” (2021) is another example where ambient details about users drive algorithms and behavioral alignment with the systems. However, these systems still lack things that the human body needs: Food. You cannot eat in virtual reality.

The Return

Live Events have no match in virtual reality, no matter how hard Meta tries. Drinks, meals, sporting and musical events, live and in-person cannot really be replicated no matter how haptic feedback and chemical concoctions are improved. AI could probably get to the point of discrete sampling and sample generation, but it still wouldn’t be the same. In live events, you get the body language, the scents, the scenes, the energy of crowd or the silence of solitude, the creativity of the live music or the extraordinary, undeviating, nonfluctuating consistency of recordings. I may find a very specific arrangement or recording of a piece that I really like, but seeing, hearing, smelling something performed live and in-person evokes different, deeper, and more substantive emotions than any recording or piece generated by AI.

There is certainly a place for AI, the same way there is a place for vehicles and differential equations. However, AI lacks any true emotional core. “The Park Scene” in “Good Will Hunting” (1997) has an analogous sentiment: “You’re just [an AI]. You don’t have the faintest idea what you’re talking about.”