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Okay, HI. This is an impromptu blog post spurred by my recent deep dive into AI and ensuing existential crisis that so far has lasted 48 hours, so if you’d like to skip this one (we can’t *all* be spiraling into existential mode, for goodness sake!) (but if we did, it would make sense!), I completely understand.
I wanted to share some human thoughts about AI, ChatGPT, and all the rest because it feels so top-of-mind and even though I was originally going to share something different today, it would feel a bit disingenuous because I think I need to talk about this right now.
So. This weekend, I read two funny articles about all the tech hoopla (read in the voice of a 25-year-old grandma) happening in our world:
Alex Dobrenko’s i refuse to talk to you w those stupid ass ski goggles on your face, a hilarious and cheeky response to Apple’s shiny new VR glasses that made me laugh out loud. (Please read this, it was so good.)
Great Job Nat’s What does it mean to be human?, another piece of comic relief centered around a Big Question: in a world where the cognitive abilities of AI will likely supersede that of humans — and where AI also, potentially, will possess emotion and consciousness — what remains special about being human?
Is it, as Nat suggested, knowing which squares have stoplights?
On Sunday night, I opened my journal and tried to untangle my thoughts.
Can AI feel anxiety? Can it feel joy?
How do we define ‘feel’?
Where does spirituality fit in? And handwriting? And waking up on Sunday, the soft rise and fall of breathing?
What about soccer practice and ice skating and holding hands, and smelling flowers?
What about dogs?
Will I have a wedding? Will my writing matter?
What will happen to the world I love?
What will happen?
In an effort to answer the last question, I typed into ChatGPT — I know, I know — How do you think AI will change the world?
He offered a handful of mostly positive scenarios, like improved healthcare and the creation of more sustainable cities. But at the end, he added: “While AI holds immense potential, its development and deployment should be guided by ethical considerations, transparency, and human values to ensure its responsible and beneficial integration into our society.”
Underline! Highlight! This, I think, is The Whole Point. AI could be amazing, helping us solve the climate crisis and terminal illness and collective problems too big for us to face alone.
But first, we need to teach it moral codes and value systems that reflect the best interest of humanity.
And that is the tricky part.
As humanity, what is our shared value system? We are made up of infinite cultures and beliefs and worldviews, each of them interesting and imperfect in their own ways. If we must model the ethics we want technology to adopt, what are those ethics?
This is why AI is dangerous: in the hands of our darkest impulses, it could be catastrophic.
But if modeled on the best of humanity — our kindness, our empathy, our integrity — it could usher in an era of unprecedented progress and healing.
So part of the predicament is human nature itself.
Oh, humans.
In an interview last week, Mo Gawdat, former chief business officer of Google X, shared his concerns — emphasizing it’s not so much AI he’s worried about, as it is how humans will use AI. The technology is moving so fast and becoming available so quickly, and as the old adage goes, “with great power comes great responsibility” - Mo Gawdat ( - Spiderman).
Of course, as Gawdat chuckles, there’s always the possibility that humanity will come together (“don’t quote me on this!”) and halt development until we have a better understanding of how we can safely use the technology for our common good. A slim, slim possibility. I am not a foreign policy expert, but I know the likelihood of the U.S. and China calling a truce on the AI arms race and becoming besties is not huge.
And, Gawdat points out, even if these global powers did become BFFs, there would still be some 17-year-old developer in some basement advancing AI technology, and do we trust them? Er, no.
So basically: ready or not, AI is here. It’s happening, baby.
This could be good, or bad, or who knows! The biggest certainty, as always, is that there is so much uncertainty!!!
It is all so much to digest. On so many levels.
There’s the professional level: Oh god. If AI is going to replace marketing jobs in the next 5 years, why do I even bother?
And the existential level: If AI replaces our utility, WHAT IS MY PURPOSE IN LIFE?!
The personal level: Will I be able to have children? Will the people I love be safe?
Even as I opened Google Docs to write this, my brain asked: Is there a point? Wouldn’t ChatGPT do this better? Are we fooling ourselves?
To which I said: Maybe?
No one really has the answers, and humans hate dealing with uncertainty. For our brains, being unsure of the future is even more stressful than knowing something bad is definitely going to happen. So maybe that’s why this whole AI business is so unsettling.
When faced with so much uncertainty, it helps me to shrink the future to what’s right in front of my nose — to focus on the next right thing. Yes, sometimes I doubt whether my skills will be necessary in two years. But that’s then. This is now. To soothe my brain, I turn to small actions I can take today to care for my present and future self.
Present self: I will continue applying to jobs and learning and growing professionally. I will put down my phone and go outside and spend time with people I love.
Future self: I will try to stop being a curmudgeon and embrace (a.k.a. reluctantly poke around) AI tools like ChatGPT, because knowing how to use them will help me be better at my job. Plus, we all have that one part of our job that we dread, so maybe ChatGPT can help with…like…that part?
Okay. Feeling better, hopefully. And moving onto our unique humanness.
Human connection is, by definition, irreplaceable. It’s also essential to how we live, from raising children to leadership settings to finding meaning in our time here on Earth.
What does it look like? You tell me! I think it’s laughter, and hugs at the airport, and falling in love, and opening the door, tossing the keys on the table, and announcing I’m homeee! It’s the buzz in our feet when we hear a song that makes us need to dance. It’s blowing out birthday candles and squeezing hands under the table and I’ll stop here because I think you just know when you feel it.
And then there are things like hope.
When I asked what gave him hope for the future, ChatGPT told me: “As an AI language model, I don’t possess emotions or personal experiences, so I don’t have feelings like hope.” And that, friend, is where we differ.
Emotions are hard to define. The American Psychological Association calls them “a complex reaction pattern, involving experiential, behavioral and physiological elements.” AI might have those in the future. But there are also different interpretations.
In her book Atlas of the Heart, researcher and professor Brené Brown maps out eighty-seven emotions and experiences that define, in her words, “what it means to be human.” She writes about places we go when we seek connection, for example, like belonging, fitting in, insecurity, invisibility, and loneliness.
Which makes me wonder, will AI ever feel the self-conscious blush of insecurity? Or the warm glow of belonging?
Again, who knows!
What I do know is that our human experiences and emotions are not only unique, but are essential to our connection and creativity. And that’s why they are so important.
Our human experiences and emotions are not only unique, but are essential to our connection and creativity.
Like, cool, AI can make art. That’s wonderful! But isn’t that art a bit devoid of meaning if it’s untethered by lived experience? When Drake raps about The Six, it’s because he’s from Toronto. But when AI makes a Drake album about The Six, it’s like uh…have you even been there?
And while it takes me approximately a bajillion times longer to write a blog post than it would ChatGPT, I’m going to keep doing it, because writing connects me to my own heart and soul and all the human bits of those reading too. Even if our creative response is painstakingly slow by comparison, it’s a worthy endeavor, because our creativity is our love is our joy is our connection: it’s our humanity.
So: we must share our feelings!!! And our art, and our experiences, and our hope!
This is how we connect with each other about everything, the good and the bad and the scary, and especially the mystery of the future. This is how we engage with the present, and share our stories, and treat each other with kindness.
We are capable of so much love and goodness.
This is how we hold ourselves to higher standards; this is how we model the values and ethics that we want to shape the world.
This is how we say “I am HERE!” — through our love and our presence and our gifts.
We must keep on loving and connecting and creating. (Even if no one sees it, even if a billion people see it, even if AI makes a weird auto-tuned version of it.) Through all the uncertainty and change, we must, we must, we must. ❤️
That’s all I’ve got today. Maybe it was rambly and imperfect and scattered, but then again, maybe that is the point.
I love you with my whole human heart,
Eden
I haven’t read much about AI so far because it’s scary and I’m an ostrich, but I really loved this post.
I have read a lot of articles about AI and I have to say - I think this is a GREAT article.
You sum up so many important points about the alignment problem (how to align AI to have human values) and what our ethics and values are.
About the value of art to the creator and art made by humans that others humans can relate too.
And so many other well made points.
And you write it all in such a fun and engaging way. Very enjoyable read indeed.
P.S - incase you haven’t seen it Alex Dorbenko also wrote a piece called something like “will everyone kindly shut up about AI” which is hilarious.
P.S.S - and if your interested I also wrote a piece about AI that takes a rather different approach to the topic - it’s on my substack (sorry for the shameless plug)