by Eric Schenck
The last few years I have been deep in the world of artificial intelligence. Using it. Reading about it. Learning from people who are experts.
What follows are 15 random thoughts about AI. What it means for us, what the future might look like, and different things I’ve reflected on recently. Some are negative. Some are positive. Use them as thoughts for reflection, or if nothing else – a little entertainment.
(Disclaimer: I am not a professional. These are the opinions of an amateur that’s interested (and skeptical) of AI. Please keep that in mind.)
1) Right now, every incentive is to make AI look like it is absolutely necessary.
This is the first idea I want to start with. These days, the only economic news that seems to matter is how companies are adding AI to their products.
Just follow the incentives. There is more money to be made (and invested) when companies overstate the value of AI. Just something to consider the next time news of the latest AI accomplishment makes you feel anxious.
That said-
2) More people should be using AI.
Think about people that hated on the internet. Or a couple thousand years ago, that were skeptical of books. We reflect on that now and laugh.
How horribly outdated, we say.
But that’s exactly what’s happening with AI right now. Most people aren’t using it for anything substantial. The obvious risk here? That those people refuse to learn a technology that will eventually become necessary, and get left behind as a result.
(Imagine not knowing how to access the internet now.)
If you aren’t using AI for anything, start. Even just once a week going back and forth with ChatGPT can start to build the skillset.
3) The school system will be forever changed.
I think of schools and how inefficient they are. (The “modern” school system was designed to fit into an industrial society.)
But what if each student had their own AI-powered teacher? What if we got rid of our “go as fast as the slowest student” system – and replaced it with “go as fast as your custom-made AI teacher lets you?”
Each student would learn in the way that was perfectly suited to them. Not just the average intelligence of their class.
The implications of this could be huge. School less as a place of learning, and more as a place for kids to socialize.
4) We will eventually have the world’s first “one person trillion dollar company.”
This person probably already exists, and they are probably a 16-year-old that is currently obsessed with AI.
This is absolutely mind-blowing to me. Companies used to be these giant things that needed massive teams of people to keep going. But with an army of AI agents? The very definition of “company” will likely change.
That’s the exciting, optimistic idea.
The more negative one:
5) Technology reverts to the intelligence (and ambition) of the person using it.
This is something my sister told me. I’ve been thinking about it a lot recently. With the internet, it has never once in human history been easier to:
- Learn whatever you want
- Make more money with a business
But how many people actually do that? We instead use the internet to watch mind-numbing cat videos. It’s tempting to think AI will make us all hyper-capable. But just look at everything we already have access to that we underutilize.
6) “Earned opinions” will become ever-more powerful.
Anyone can drop in a prompt with an AI tool and have a well-argued “take” 30 seconds later.
But what you can’t fake? Having actually been in the room, taken the risk, and lived the consequence.
Lived context will matter more than the sentences that describe it. From selling something, to bonding with people, to everything in between. Personal stories will take on a whole new level of significance in how we interact with others.
7) AI will make content that is even more addictive than it is now.
We’ve all noticed it. Stand at a bus station, or in line at the grocery store. Or waiting for literally anything. Look up from the phone that you are probably using. You realize everybody is doing exactly the same thing: watching 30-second videos.
If you think people are zombies on a constant content drip right now – just wait for videos that are hyper-targeted to your personal preferences. A bit negative? Maybe-
But I also think something else that gives me hope:
8) We will start to crave imperfection.
Think about people that like vinyl records. Their reason for enjoying it? Usually something about it sounding more “real.” In the context of AI, here are the four steps I’m looking out for in the next decade:
- AI tools will get exceptionally good at creating things that we like (books, movies, songs, TV shows, etc.)
- We will love this for awhile because everything is “perfect”
- We will start to get burnt out about the ever-higher quality of everything we consume
- We will gravitate towards imperfection and start to crave it
This is kind of already happening (“AI fatigue” is real.). It gives me hope that the future remains human-centered.
(Of course, the obvious question: will AI start to purposely make mistakes in the content it creates in an effort to sound more human?)
9) Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Think about 2015. Just ten years ago. If I showed you ChatGPT then, and you saw everything that it could do, you’d think I was a magician.
What happens when that trend doesn’t slow down? How will hyper-advanced AI 30 years from now (or 100, or 1,000) completely outpace our ability to understand it?
And if it takes on some kind of self-control – how could we even begin to comprehend why it does the things that it does? A scary thought indeed.
10) AI is showing us how much of our self-worth is tied to being “useful.”
Do we need work to be fulfilled? It’s certainly the only way we have gotten by as humans so far. But does that mean work is actually truly necessary? I don’t know.
If a tool can do 70% of your work in 10% of the time – how valuable are you? This isn’t just an economic question. It’s a spiritual one too.
11) One of the worst things about AI is that it doesn’t call out you on your own bullshit.
The great thing about interacting with humans? They do call you out.
Or at least, they have the power to, by:
- Telling you that you suck
- Making fun of you for your weird opinions
- Confronting you about your “crazy uncle: beliefs
I think there is actually a lot of value in this. You don’t want to be surrounded by “yes men”.
But AI? It doesn’t do this very well. 20 minutes with ChatGPT, and you start to believe you’re the smartest person ever, and that all your ideas are gold. This is dangerous.
(There are some best practices that encourage AI tools to push back a little, but most people don’t actually use these.)
12) AI might cure the “epidemic of loneliness”.
There are people everywhere that lack social interaction:
- Old people in nursing homes
- Single adults that don’t have kids
- People working in remote corners of the world
But with AI? We finally have somebody to talk to, and the better it gets, the more “human” it feels.
Is this ideal? No. (Just look at the movie “Her”.) But it is something, and it’s something worth reflecting on.
13) Will we eventually be considered gods to the robots of the future?
As humans, our belief in a god essentially boils down to this:
We revere whatever the power is that created the conditions for our existence.
But if that’s what we are to whatever superintelligent AI robots come next? Might they not view us as their gods?
I try not to think too much about this one…
14) The new status symbol will be a more analog lifestyle.
Handwriting. Cooking from scratch. Reading a physical book. Spending more time outside, and less time in front of a screen.
AI will start to seep into everything we do. Our lives will become even more digital than they already are, and doing things slowly will start to feel a bit radical.
Will this be performative? Perhaps, but I welcome it.
Lastly, and probably most importantly:
15) We are at the very beginning of AI, and anybody that tells you they know what’s going to happen is full of shit.
It’s a scary time to be alive. For me, it’s also an incredibly exciting time to be alive. How many humans in the last 200,000 years have been able to say that they saw the world change with their own eyes? We can say that.
But whether that’s good or bad?
I guess we’ll see!
Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now.