Humanity and the chaotic neutrality of AI
Another title for this post could be, how I learned to stop worrying and love AI.
There has been a lot of discussion about AI in the past few months as the technology becomes increasingly accessible to the public. Some are excited. Some are worried. Some mistakenly expect it to replace humans far beyond its current capabilities and others are fighting for their livelihoods. And then there’s everyone else who falls somewhere in between.
Technology is inescapable. It has been since humans discovered how to start their own fires.
At the end of the day, technology - including AI - has always been chaotic neutral. A tool whose harm or benefit depends entirely on its users and administrators.
In the world of AI, there is a thirst for objective interactions rooted in good math and science - good meaning it meets the standards of rigor in methodology and analysis. Emerging studies are showing that many people in the workplace would prefer interacting with competent AI rather than their boss, a coworker, or a therapist when asking for help or monitoring their mental health.
Help-seeking is an act of vulnerability. Vulnerability is harder when something is at stake - a relationship, a sense of self, a reputation, a job. It’s much easier to be vulnerable with a machine than another human being who influences you in some way. Human connection is tricky like that.
Here is another inescapable truth: Humans need each other.
No matter what tools we have at our disposal, this remains true. Whether we want it to be true or not is another matter, and ultimately irrelevant. Say what you want about soft sciences like psychology and sociology, but our biology and neurochemistry back this fact up as well.
The way society currently operates, one might think that needing each other is a problem that must be solved, like some sort of malady or system error. But this is a problematic perspective rooted in a flawed premise.
As we ride the waves of technological advancement, the question has never really been, “what tool will save us from ourselves?”
From where I stand, holding out for a hero always leads to disappointment. Not to mention disempowerment. Even if humanity self-sabotages its way into oblivion, some version of us would evolve to live on. Much like the living descendants of dinosaurs. If oblivion arrived tomorrow, I wonder which biological imperatives would survive in our descendants?
The question we need to be asking is “how can we use these tools to bring us back to ourselves?”
What legacies of resilience might we pass on that counteract the epigenetic traumas?
Interpersonal connection is the much needed antidote our systems and structures are struggling with. It’s a struggle for many reasons, many of which significantly damage trust, safety, and reliability. Repair is possible, but it requires genuine effort along with the thing everyone loves to dread: vulnerability.
Strengthening skills for healthy human interactions is critical for conquering fears of vulnerability and building connection without compromising ourselves in the process. We have a plethora of tools to help us with this. Let’s use them to bring us back to each other.
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