AI and the Homogenization of Humanity

Annamaria on Monday

Because I cannot bear all those possible

photos of robots, I am sharing pictures of

real flowers!

I'll will start with my initial concern. When I made up the title for this blog, I was thinking about the temptation I myself sometimes feel, especially as I type emails on my phone or iPad.  I am drawn to accept the suggested next word in the sentence I am typing.  That would be so much easier than forcing myself to think deeply about how I really feel or how I can more precisely express myself.

I imagine that, with such techniques, the creators of AI are trying to make our work easier, make us more efficient and productive.  They have many products now that they sell to businesses that are intended to accomplish this.  But... 

By virtue of providing AI "assistance" to employees (whom they will eventually replace with bots), I am afraid that they are taking way out on a myriad of tasks.  And homogenizing the level of thinking going into getting the work done.  And reducing the level of thinking to the lowest common denominator.  My college-age nephew, who worked part-time with me over his summer and talked to me about his college friends who were working in offices while they were off from school.  They were, he said, bored stiff because the were given tasks that were mostly done by AI, and that they their own capacity to think and be creative seemed superfluous.

So my question is, with all that "help" from AI, are we losing the benefit of each person's ability to think deeper to invent new way to solve problems.  At the very least, we are robbing workers of the sense of achievement. of making a real contribution.  Of the pleasure of having to struggle with a concept and then conquer it.  Of allowing a group real human beings to toss the question around and share different perspectives, and arrive at a conclusion, none of them could have gotten to alone.  Which is, of course, one of the most power ways to engage human intelligence. And it is fun!

This is pretty much as far as I imagined I would go today in my thinking about AI.  depth. But then..

Yesterday, afternoon and this morning, I tuned into two of my favorite podcasts, and they took up a broader version of these very questions.  And they scared me.  Really!

The first was the latest On the Media, which ordinarily critiques how the media is covering important current news.  But yesterday's episode - Shell Game, features a veteran journals who is launching his own podcast, the first of which reveals how, slowly over months he has created a voice bot of himself and began to test how far he could go in turning his own activities over to the bot.  He taught the bot a lot of facts about himself and put it work--conducting interviews, raising his children, and keeping in touch with his mother.

Some of what he reports is comical, but some of what he describes and what he predicts makes me fear - more than ever-what the future will bring.  In this case, it seems too easy to imagine that a large percentage of human beings in developed countries, especially in the USA will one day soon be leading virtual lives, including having fake phone calls with the aging parents.

Think I am an alarmist who is exaggerating the risk? You may want to check out the latest Short Wave: Body Electric: How AI is Changing Out Relationships.  (Take note that this title is in the present tense.)

Millions of people are already in psychotherapy, with a bot for a therapist.  Evidently, people know they are talking to a machine and some feel more comfortable revealing their problems to an artificial, rather than to a real person.  From these "relationships," they get empathy.  But not real empathy.  Pretend empathy. Automatic empathy from an app.  And advice.  But not from a person who might be conscientious.  Or who might care about having a good reputation. 

Worse, if you as me, is that millions of people are having intimate relationships with bots.  They are called Artificial Intimacy Avatars.  They express nonjudgmental love and understanding.  Listen to the story of the man who has a wife with whom the bloom is off the sexual rose.  His avatar is a sexy young woman, who is really a disembodied image.  The bot gives him continuous positive reinforcement.  This thing, that does not have a body, makes virtual love with him.  He finds it easier, the reporters say, than having to confront the realities of his life.  

My rejection of such "solutions," I admit, are coming from an old lady.  I can't help it. To me, the whole thing is a huge lie.  These AI bots present themselves as real people.  They are designed to convince the recipients that they are getting true understanding and support from people who really care about them.  But what they are getting is ALL FAKE.

But the corporations who are providing these "services" are raking in tons of REAL money.  How, you might say. Sometimes the apps are free.  But, as is the case with nearly all we do online, the providers are taking note of everything.  That virtual shrink does not have comply with laws about protecting your privacy.  In fact the owners of the companies have as many as 2600 other bots listening in.  And they offer the users no protection against revelation of they to tell to the bots.  Peoples' most intimate thoughtsIt might wind up in court, with the police, or with a prospective employer.  The companies are flooding the world with these bots, and the only thing they really care about is money.  

 All those young people who are just absorbing and beginning to understand how the world they live in works.  Instead of learning how to have real relationships with real human beings, are they going to accept the easy way and only have intimacy with machines?  And assuming some of them are going to make actual babies, are they going to delegate to their avatars the rising of their children?

Perhaps you see this whole post as the fearful nightmares of an old lady.  Most likely, I will not live long enough to see what actually comes to pass.  But I can still abhor the very thought of it.  And to urge people not to go too far down that path of creating a dehumanized world.