For all those who haven't heard: After almost two years (or perhaps even more) @ecotrain is back with it's Question of the Week, where thoughtful Hivers can answer a typically interesting and thought-provoking question each week, and more importantly engage in discussions about their answers in each other's posts. This week's question has to do with Artificial Intelligence and our thoughts, hopes, or possible fears about it.
Have I Ever Tried It?
One of the things in the prompt post is asking us about our personal experience with AI. For me the answer is a clear and definite yes, however, I have to admit that it's nowhere as deep and intensive as for many other people. After an initial attempt to try Midjourney and ChatGPT I realized that I needed to look deeper into them, and take some time to experiment and get to know them thoroughly. This undertaking I ended up pushing further and further out in front of me, until it disappeared in the black hole we call "one of these days". Why that happened is a mystery of itself, since normally I am all about getting to know new things, especially if they claim to be intelligent in any way. So what was the reason for my reluctance?
The Fear of Liking it Too Much
At this point I am not even certain if this is my actual objective reason, but somehow I have a feeling that my reluctance to immerse myself too deeply in AI tools is similar to why I never got into massive multiplayer online RPG games (like that usual suspect you're probably thinking of), or why I never took ecstasy (XTC) a second time after trying it once in my youth. Knowing myself, I guess I could just see me sliding off into a direction I didn't want to go. Now this might make sense in the case of drugs and computer games. But what about an AI program?
Well, as you can see here, I enjoy writing. Expressing my thoughts in words, meaning the properly chosen words, maybe even going back to make some changes, possibly even polishing it until I am satisfied... This whole process fills me with a certain pride of accomplishment. And with each step toward improved quality along with convenience this sense of achievement would diminish bit by bit.
Already Too Far Down the Road
But wait, could it be that I have entered that slippery slope already? After all, any spelling errors, whether they are harmless typos or things I ever bothered learning, are automatically corrected, or at least called to my attention. If I want to publish a multilingual post, all I need to do is copy-paste the text into a translator, which does a fairly decent job (compared to only a few years ago), so all I need to do is a brief proof-reading. As for the illustration of my posts, whenever I don't use my own photos, I add images I find online (like the ones here are from MidJourney, created by others, as my subscription is no longer active). So looking at it rationally, there is no reason for me not to make a better use of AI.
What About the Future?
But enough about me. What about the rest of the world? Where is this whole trend going? Today it can generate incredible images (with an extra finger here and there), and write our essays for English class (with only a few redundant phrases). However you would be a fool to assume that this is where things will stop. Self driving cars are a hotly debated topic already, though currently I would feel much safer taking an AI driven train. But things tend to improve, so I bet in the near future the machines will have learned to do individual tax returns, manage take-offs and landings at airports, and perform heart surgery. Not only that, but I see AI just as likely to design and manufacture its own tools for the heart surgery, take charge of everything at the airport, from the planes to the luggage conveyors, and possibly even streamline the corresponding laws relating to those tax returns. (!!!) So what was the point again of having people?
Using Tools Instead of Letting Them Use Us
This leads me back to my original reluctance mentioned in the beginning of this post. Once we have accepted that AI is bound to radically change the way we live and work, the next step is to embrace those changes for the better. Just like the question raised by @ecotrain , whether we are allowed to use AI for posting in the QOTW, or Hive in general, or whether we should be, I would say it depends on how well we have worked with it. Because there are certain things the individual human being is much better at than a machine, albeit with excellent learning capabilities. If the human behind the AI just leans back and lets the machine do its thing, the results often do not even come close to fulfilling their purpose. This is why, I believe, posts that rely entirely on AI are generally disliked: simply because they suck, and not for reasons of envy.
A New World Full of Potential
So let me finish off this post with some of my visions of the future, where humans and AI have achieved their full potential. It's a bit hazy, I guess, but I guess you can see the rudimentary outlines: First of all, every type of job, profession, or public office would be taken over by machines, since everything that can be done, will be done better. The only thing left for us to do is to steer these machines, tell them what to do, which direction to go, relying on what basic principles. In the end this could be a key in how wealth is distributed, how systems are governed, and how the massive problems around the world are finally cleaned up, once and for all. What follows, could be a great age of stability, where our creative minds and our highly developed technology could achieve what we can not even dream up at this point. And to consider how close we are actually to this kind of utopia (if we don't destroy ourselves on the way there), is deeply impressive.