AI & Humans – How do we co-exist?
The world is rapidly moving towards an automated & robotic future. The effect of this accelerated growth of technology on our environment and world is the hot topic of discussion. May be more relevant topic will be to discuss the changes we will have to make to our lives due to advancements in AI.
Aren’t we all annoyed at the constant jab of being replaceable by AI towards the artists, developers and other semi-essential class of workers who work hard to make a living?
AI seems to be specifically aimed at replacing a very targeted group of working class folks. I for once am thrilled at all the art that AI is creating trained at the expense of the art of current artists, struggling to make a living. Replacing the customer service agent who interacts with the frustrated customers for the issues in the product that may as well be introduced by the use of AI by the development team to build the new features. The new line of iphones or horde of android phones boasting AI features that no consumer demanded yet it is shoved down the digital throats of the users. It’s as if the Tech giants decided that AI is the new frontier and we all have to accept it and adopt it at the expense of our lifestyles. My question is simple – Do we have to drastically change our life for AI or can it meet us halfway?
Probably, there is a better use case somewhere out there in the world for AI to make our lives better, our existing life without having to change every facet of it. Are the AI makers going to take that route? Definitely, no.
If we have learned anything at all from the big internet boom of early 2000s is that the big tech corporations will always find a way to exploit the average population at the expense of their physical and mental health to a point where an entire generation is dependent on the big tech software for trivial decision making of their non-trivial lives. May be, the idea to write this article was also influenced by an ad I saw on Instagram which was fed to me as a result of my internet activity on my phone and other apps like X. Do you recognize this seed of doubt in your own ideas and work? This is what the new age combination of AI and Internet manages to do to our thinking.
I know, all this seems like a very long winded way of saying AI is bad, big tech is bad, should we go live in the woods?
Let me assure you it is more than that. I have been working in the tech industry for 15 years. I have seen most of it, the way it evolves, worked on solutions and then seen them become invalid in the tests of time. There is only one thing that matters and it has always been the case, Evolution. The age old answer to our existence. The evolution of us as beings from being barbaric survivalists to sophisticated innovators and explorers of space, its all a result of being independent and free thinkers with an ability to acquire and master real world skills. AI in its current form can barely scratch the earth’s surface to uncover resources required to help us make a living. But if you have followed the big tech news, you would think AI is at forefront of everything and we might as well pack up and go back to living in the woods.
I am not just criticizing like an average internal rambler for the sake of it. I want to present with solutions or at least try to understand a way to share a common ground as a veteran tech enthusiast between old tech and new age AI tech world. I appreciate the use of LLM in my day to day work. As a Data Engineer & Analyst running a consultancy, having a LLM on my machine is like having a sparring partner for everyday work. Am I going to replace a team of Data Engineers with bunch of AI Agents, short answer no. I might encourage running the solutions through the models for any issues before deploying it on production.
For my hobbies and passions, I am a classic rock kind of guy so I don’t even appreciate the auto-tuned mess that is modern music, so I will never replace my Led Zeppelin and classic rock collection with slop made by AI. Similarly, there is no replacement for a thought fully created masterpiece like Lord of the rings, the book and the movie, that makes original thought and writing of a visionary more accessible to a avid movie goer and a reader. I might use AI to make some marketing content for my consultancy business but then I am not going to pretend that the movies made by AI are in same realm as the average movie made by artists.
I think we are all looking for some perspective and expectation management in our day to day lives when it comes to using technology. I don’t want AI to summarize my emails and texts to me or constantly try to guess my words I am texting or suggest places to visit or eat out. If I have learnt anything from the scandals of data mining from tech companies is that they want to tap into the thoughts and minds of people just to drown the masses in consumerism. We have wholeheartedly allowed them to do so, at the expense of our individualism or the very essence that makes us humans.
I am a tech enthusiast and I want to co-exist with the technology and not constantly have it replace all my interests and hobbies, dare I say my friends & life.
I am curious to explore more of AI and new tech and see how the balance is maintained between consumer and creator.