One Moth’s Takes on the AI Debate
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past decade, you’ll be aware that technology took a massive leap forward in the last few years, and many advances in robotics and programming that seemed impossible — just the stuff of science fiction — are now in fact taking shape in our everyday lives. This includes using artificial intelligence for all sorts of tasks, mundane and specialized, and a lot of people have very divided opinions about this.
I’ve been turning the various points over in my mind a lot. As a creative myself, I’d be foolish not to pay attention to the recent discussions on whether AI programs are actually stealing existing content from artists, on the copyright infringement issues, and the concern that AI might possibly replace humans in this field one day.
I support the necessary conversations being had, in all sorts of fields, about where we draw the line, what’s considered unethical, when we’re putting profit above morals, and what the cost could be.
On the one hand, as someone who’s disabled and chronically ill, the idea of technology that actually helps us in our day to day lives finally becoming accessible to more than just the extremely wealthy is quite appealing.
On the other, I’m rather skeptical about the entire concept.
Mostly because we already have a big dose of AI in our daily lives, and it’s often far from helpful.
If anybody’s been on hold with the customer service department of any major company lately, it’s pretty clear that the bots instructing us to select this or that option have no real interest in finding an answer to our question.
When a pre-programmed machine malfunctions and can’t print our receipt, deactivate the lock, update our account settings, gives us an inaccurate translation, or doesn’t transfer our important voicemail to the correct extension, this makes life so much harder.
The question of whether humans may come to rely on technology too much is a moot point in 2023. We’ve been there for a while now.
The notions we need to be pondering for 2024 and beyond are if we’re expecting technology to take over, rather than assist with our mundane tasks, and how much we should trust it to do so.
When it comes specifically to art, some of the most emotionally-impacting movies and music of the past 60 years have been produced with the assistance of the latest technology of the time. All the humans involved were given their proper credit for the work they did. The tech was seen as a tool, not as the thing that was expected to do the heavy lifting.
This is where I believe practices and viewpoints are changing. Professional artists of all disciplines are expressing the concern that they’re valued much less than the machines (who don’t ask for a living wage). Complaints about unfair treatment by the big bosses of the industry are exploding. If these concerns are ignored now, it will mean a crap-ton of problems later.
We’re on the verge of another massive shift in the culture, and some people are hoping that AI can play a big role in adjusting inequality and increasing opportunities and quality of life in so many ways. I’d like to be an optimist about the possibilities. But to do so, I need to be a realist on the potential negatives.
Right now, there is no easy answer. The misuse of AI to increase the spread of things that aren’t true has already had a very bad affect on society. People are legitimately worried about self-driving vehicles failing, or medical robots malfunctioning. This entire experiment still has a lot of bugs to fix.
I don’t have any words of wisdom to offer on how we correct without growing pains; those are inevitable, I feel.
Maybe the best thing we humans can do in the midst of learning to live with AI is to support each other.
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