If you have been watching the cricket world cup, you have also been bombarded with ads from Gemini asking you to stop debating and simply turning to AI for any question. I have been silently watching how AI is steadily creeping into our social lives for the last 2 years and it is time to speak out.
We need to seriously start questioning the second order effects of AI on our minds - both adults and children - and our society. Nowadays, critiquing AI has become the easiest way to be excluded and ignored. But, as several panelists in the AI research symposium at the AI summit said, skepticism is a prerequisite for good science.
The constant pressure to do more with AI incentivises the delegation of thinking, the core skill for knowledge workers, to AI. Sycophancy is making everyone think we are geniuses and no longer need to put in the work of doing our research or struggle through articulating an idea before something novel can emerge. The struggle is a feature, not a bug.
With the rise of loneliness globally, people are turning to AI as a companion and forming a "bond" with their GPTs. Who wouldn't like to be told they are right 100% of the time by their partner? But real relationships are messy, inefficient, and frustrating because humans are messy and driven by emotions more than we want to admit. AI has created an illusion that we can have a "perfect relationship" with no conflict, leaving us more disconnected than ever before.
Beyond our connection with each other, we have lost our connection to nature. Nonsensical images and videos are being generated without any consideration for the amount of resources (water, electricity, land etc.) they consume.
The "dead internet theory" (rebranded as "AI slop" after ChatGPT) suggests that most of the content online is generated by bots and trolls, while most humans remain passive consumers. This matches my personal experience. I know so many thoughtful people with very deep and nuanced perspectives who don't have an online presence or never voice their opinion online.
But we can no longer remain silent. Any advanced technology comes with a potential for immense good but also immense harm. It is up to us to decide which one we harness. Social media, on the surface, was a much simpler idea than AI. Yet, two decades later, we are still not able to control the negative impact it continues to have. AI is a much larger beast. One which is growing by the day.
I feel very lucky to have grown up in an era without AI. All the struggles that came with it helped me build the skills needed to thrive and gave me the opportunity to flesh out my craft. I feel worried about the children growing up in the era of AI. Not the top 1%. They will thrive. But everyone else.
We need more voices joining the conversation. We need you and me. Both.