I find it curious to see everybody talking about AI on LinkedIn and other platforms; positing questions about writing in their voice and the authenticity of commenting as an individual versus using an artificial intelligence app to generate your comments (or framework of your comment) or your blog or your content in general.
This seems like the absolutely wrong debate to be having. Perhaps the red line in AI has already been crossed and we've let it go too far, but it's up to each of us as individuals to decide where our “line in the sand” will be with using this evolving technology. However, this may be a very hard line to draw as an individual if your company is encouraging you to use AI to complete certain tasks faster or to always adopt the newest versions of artificial intelligence, think (not too far off) working with robots. I, personally, utilize Chat GPT like I used to use the thesaurus app or how I used to Google things like “ideas for…(fill in the blank)”. It streamlines the process of combining several searches and combinations of words to create things like headlines for blogs, for example, also hint, hint. I will not work with robots, I hate having things like Alexa around that are listening apps, and worry that creativity will be abandoned to A.I. setting humanity back rather than moving it forward.
The conversation should have been and should be why didn't/don’t we stop to evaluate new technology’s impact on humanity? Like we failed to do with so many other technologies. A recently released book by Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation, highlights how smartphones contribute to our youths' sadness and mental illness. It goes on to suggest some hard-and-fast rules for smartphones and technology with kids. So too do we need hard and fast rules with technologies like artificial intelligence. We have seen tech leaders like Elon Musk sign open letters calling for the pausing of “giant AI experiments”; signaling that it would be wise to think before we leap, rarely having been done in the journey of human advancement. Is it not the ‘progressive’ thing to do, to pull in all the research of the dangers of technology, the pros and cons of regulations, the psychological impact, the potential for more strained relationships between countries, and more before we just accept any level of artificial intelligence?
I can hear people already saying that “it is ignorant to push back against the tide of technological advancement”; embrace the new technology or you will be left behind”; but I am tired of being bullied into blindly following technology. It is like when people try to shame you into using Apple products, which I still think is borderline a cult. Like all technology is or becomes, just because the guru says it doesn’t mean it is true or right, and just because computer engineers can build it and coders and code it doesn’t mean it is good or right.
Until more of us stand up to say enough, A.I. will continue to grow and evolve, replace jobs, and sow more chaos. Perhaps it is just part of our humanness, finally played out to destroy ourselves.
Perhaps artificial intelligence is our tower of Babel. But this time we're not trying to reach God, we are trying to create a god. Let's not waste our time debating if individuals or brands should use A.I. to write captions on LinkedIn, Google, or wherever. Because that seems like the least of our problems. When it comes to artificial intelligence, it's time to elevate the conversation and utilize all the history that we have. Look back over how other technologies have impacted our social lives, our unity, our health, and the beauty, the holiness that is our humanness.