The Pitfalls of AI: Have The Machines Already Taken Over?
We’ve all seen it. The scorched earth images of our Post Apocalyptic World. Orange skies, crumbling buildings, black smoke billowing in the distance, and the “just dirty enough to be attractive” protagonists that are always clad in khaki and carrying endless supplies of Ammunition. (Seriously though, who is still manufacturing commercial-grade ammo after the apocalypse?)
It is this dark future that we have all resigned ourselves to. We all seem to anticipate waking up to this smokey khaki-filled world where we are forced to become part of a traveling band of marauders just to stay alive. But what if we have already woken up there and just haven’t realized it yet?
In all of these movies, there is one pivotal moment where the machines rise against the humans to remove our inefficiencies and save us from ourselves. But what if that moment happened years ago and no one noticed?
In an instant, I can peruse the profiles of thousands of potential partners, but it is harder than ever to find a good date (just ask your single friends). Online learning platforms are ubiquitous today, sharing information that has historically only been available to the most elite of our society (free classes from Harvard University anyone?). We pride ourselves on our “connections” and our “followers” yet we are the first generation in history to have need of the phrase “Cyberbully” much less the need to enact legislation against the phenomenon.
The increased reliance on technologies is slowly eroding our ability to create genuine connections, to think deeply about new information, and to respectfully communicate our opposing beliefs. What if we acknowledge these parallels as they are? Every anonymous left swipe is a step closer to the scorched sky, the endless hours on social are the crumbling libraries, and every faceless negative comment on a viral video is another puff of black smoke released.
“This is the way the world ends, not with a bang, but a whimper” — T.S. Eliot
The good news is it isn’t too late to fight this dystopian future. We have the ability every day to fight against this dirty beige existence. We fight it every time we choose to spend an hour with a new idea instead of a new influencer. We fight it every time we extend grace to a friend that attempted a bold new business venture and failed. And we fight it every time we are able to separate a human being from their point of view, because while not every opinion deserves respect and validation every human being does.
