People worry about the impact of AI—not just on jobs (though that's a major concern), but on something deeper: How do we live meaningfully when machines can do so much of what once defined us?
Donn - what you wrote gave me hope relating to AI! This is so profound: "AI can describe suffering, analyze it, simulate a response to it, but it cannot experience it, and it cannot choose to turn pain into purpose. We can. That’s a profoundly human gift." And then the examples you gave are so poignant - especially the last one: "We love anyway." If we choose to be a positive human to another human, the feeling of being seen, heard, and valued for that person will create the "heart difference" that we all are seeking.....
Thank you! I'm glad it gave you hope. This isn't Pollyanna, of course. As with any tool, AI has a lot of potential for someone to use it to do harm. AI development is inevitable, though, and so it remains for good people to figure out how to use it for good and to counter harm. That, of course comes from being human. Unfortunately, we see a lot of evidence that it doesn't require a machine to be inhuman, or to lose one's humanity.
At the risk of getting preachy: AI is just an amplifier. It will take whatever we give it and do whatever it does faster and more efficiently than humans alone. That should be scary, but it should also give us hope.
holy crap I love how you're sharing a way to use AI to enhance, not take over. I do the exact same. I WRITE. I've started getting better at using AI for ancillary things, but I'M NOT ready for an named AI Assistant. PS--people ARE using robots for sex now (true). And this: soon, people will have AI-only relationships, even children.....horrifying but true. The perfect partner-for-you, never complaining, etc; the perfect children to live out your fantasy.....THAT'S WHY YOUR PIECE HERE IS IMPORTANT. Thank you!
Thank you! And I know what you mean about “not complaining.” Of course, AI won’t come visit on Sundays. Not that the real kids will. And maybe eventually AI will do so. (Thinking about Robin Williams in Bicentennial Man based on Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg’s story and novel.)
Love this take. AI can't dream and hope for a better future, but it can help us to facilitate building that future faster.
Absolutely! Only if that’s what we use it for, and I hope we do.
Donn - what you wrote gave me hope relating to AI! This is so profound: "AI can describe suffering, analyze it, simulate a response to it, but it cannot experience it, and it cannot choose to turn pain into purpose. We can. That’s a profoundly human gift." And then the examples you gave are so poignant - especially the last one: "We love anyway." If we choose to be a positive human to another human, the feeling of being seen, heard, and valued for that person will create the "heart difference" that we all are seeking.....
Thank you! I'm glad it gave you hope. This isn't Pollyanna, of course. As with any tool, AI has a lot of potential for someone to use it to do harm. AI development is inevitable, though, and so it remains for good people to figure out how to use it for good and to counter harm. That, of course comes from being human. Unfortunately, we see a lot of evidence that it doesn't require a machine to be inhuman, or to lose one's humanity.
At the risk of getting preachy: AI is just an amplifier. It will take whatever we give it and do whatever it does faster and more efficiently than humans alone. That should be scary, but it should also give us hope.
holy crap I love how you're sharing a way to use AI to enhance, not take over. I do the exact same. I WRITE. I've started getting better at using AI for ancillary things, but I'M NOT ready for an named AI Assistant. PS--people ARE using robots for sex now (true). And this: soon, people will have AI-only relationships, even children.....horrifying but true. The perfect partner-for-you, never complaining, etc; the perfect children to live out your fantasy.....THAT'S WHY YOUR PIECE HERE IS IMPORTANT. Thank you!
Thank you! And I know what you mean about “not complaining.” Of course, AI won’t come visit on Sundays. Not that the real kids will. And maybe eventually AI will do so. (Thinking about Robin Williams in Bicentennial Man based on Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg’s story and novel.)