I often get asked, “Is AI good or bad for humanity?” Unfortunately, I never know how to answer it properly. I answer differently every time, in fact. Depending on what I’ve been thinking and on what I’ve read most recently, sometimes I lean towards “good” and other times I lean towards “bad”… But I’ve been thinking about this more and more, and I think I now have an acceptable answer, and it’s one that merges two sentences from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s book called Flow. In the book, of course, Csikszentmihalyi talks about something else completely. He talks about the flow experience and says that, like everything, flow isn’t “good” in itself. It depends on how, why, and when it’s used. And I think the same goes for AI. First of all, “it is an illusion to believe that any solution is beneficial for all people and all times; no human achievement can be taken as the final word.” But at the same time, “if mankind had tried to ban fire because it could be used to burn things down, we would not have grown to be very different from the great apes.”
Category: Reflections
The Paradox in What I Do
There’s a paradox in what I do. From 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM, much of my work focuses on helping people understand how they can leverage AI in the workplace. Broadly speaking, I build programs, run projects, and deliver workshops that help government entities (and, occasionally, individuals) adopt AI. That’s what I do during the day. In the evening, however, I do the opposite. I talk about the dangers of artificial intelligence. I look at the power mechanisms at play, the politics behind the technology, its psychological and sociological implications, and the (possible) dystopian futures every new update unlocks.
But although what I do under the sun and what I do under the moon may appear to contradict one another, a second look reveals what I’m really after. I understand that we are living in liminal times and that AI will give birth to an unimaginable world that we’ll need to adapt to and live in; therefore, I aim to help individuals remain human, retain their ability to think, preserve their freedom, and find ways to live meaningful, fulfilling lives in the age of AI.
I understand, however, that what I do during the day may indirectly contribute to the things I criticize in the evening.
And, of course, I teach, and I learn as I go. What AI can do today is only a fragment of what AI will be able to do tomorrow. This means there’s something new to learn every day, something that can make our lives better, and something that can make our lives worse. And, at least for now, I’m keeping an eye on things.
When Love Stands in the Way of Progress
Every other year or so, I end up reading E. M. Forster’s short story called “The Other Side of the Hedge.” Although it’s more than a hundred years old, it’s as if it were written yesterday, addressing hustle culture and, generally, all the other success-first ideologies of today. It questions our compulsion to keep moving forward no matter what in order to achieve something. It is one of those stories that makes us stop for a moment and think about the hamster wheel we’ve been put on. It asks us to cool down and have a refreshing drink. And in that pause, we find the space to raise important questions again, which had dust settle down on them ever since we graduated from university and entered the workforce.
Why are we conditioned to worship productivity?
Is what we call progress really progress or a simulacrum of progress?
…
One of my friends is so addicted to work that spending time with his family feels like a waste of time for him. All he wants to do is “keep building” his body, his business, etc. He never says it like that, of course, but you can infer it when you read between the lines of what he speaks. When we’re having a beer, he (almost exclusively) likes to palaver about his adventures at the workplace, and he’ll talk and talk as a toddler babbles in his crib after a long day when it’s his bedtime. And whenever he talks about family matters, it’s always how time with the wife and kids, chores, and errands kept him from what he wanted to achieve during the week, the month, the year. It’s as if, using different words, he’s always saying, “Only if I didn’t have a family, I’d attain my dreams.”
My friend, as you see, is a proud man who has his eyes set on business objectives; everything else is an obstacle getting in his way. Although there was a time when he claimed that getting married and raising children he loved was the dream that he was after…
It’s funny how what you do turns you into someone who does that thing. My friend worked hard to start a family. Then, his family became the thing that kept him from working hard, which was something he initially did to achieve the initial dream — starting a family. He worked hard for such a long period of time that he became a person who works hard for no reason but vaguely defined progress.
And now, it’s like he’s constantly trying to “get back on track” because life interfered with business, leisure interrupted work, love stood in the way of progress…
Some people (have been programmed to) believe that the good life is achieved when, in reality, the good life is practiced. Improving your life materially is often necessary for most of us, but it’s only one part of the game. We must also be present spiritually to reap the joys we have planted.
