I’m late to the game, because I’ve always been a procrastinator.
So writing about AI’s artificial “intelligence” might be an antiquated subject at this point.
Nonetheless, here’s my take:
So, I’ve recently got into the whole “AI” thing. I’m trying to be trendy, while simultaneously doing my best to use it to my benefit like everybody else is. I have friends who are like, "I use AI like a personal assistant."
That’s the entire concept of technology; to use it and not let it use you.
The biggest problem with the rapid advancement of technology has been it’s ability to corrupt the human condition. This isn’t to say it’s “innately” motivated, or been programmed to do such (while the latter is certainly up for debate), it’s just to say that the human condition acts as a vacuum and technology has overwhelmingly filled that void.
I have solicited AI’s opinion on a number of things over the last few weeks. From financial advice to updating this blog to image creation.
It’s very odd to me that I can have dialogue with a specific AI (Gemini, for example) and get what I consider to be some pretty decent analysis or advice, then the next day use the same AI to revisit the information, and it’s like I’m talking to something/someone completely different. The responses are totally different.
It reminds me of “tech support” from the early 00s. You know, when you had a problem with something and you called the toll free number associated with the American company and a barely-fluent Indian answers after 30 minutes on hold. You spend the next 10 minutes asking the question like they are 5, only to finally get “I understand. Hold on one minute while I transfer you to that department.” This continues for however long you are willing to play the game, before you finally hang up.
For the most part AI just seems like a more personable version of a search engine.
Honestly, the only difference to me is that AI gives specific answers or recommendations as opposed to the selections that require autonomy that the search engine provides (pre-censorship Google was probably superior to modern Gemini in practicality and efficiency). It’s like AI takes the thinking out of it, and relieves any analysis paralysis.
Allowing AI to think for us is certainly an area for concern. Particularly when we know that AI is indoctrinated.
For example, yesterday I was writing a piece on MLK, and I wanted an image of MLK waking up from a nightmare. Gemini refused to make the image. When it finally agreed, it presented an image of MLK looking as if he was startled in his bed with a caption over his head that read “I have a dream!” It refused to create an image of him waking up from an obvious nightmare.
How weird, right?
I guess MLK isn’t allowed to have nightmares in cyberspace? Or AI is “smart” enough to know what I was getting at, and refused to participate in thought-crime.
Btw, if you’re curious of what I was “getting at,” MLK’s “Dream” was a Nightmare! is the piece in reference.
If you check it out, let me know what you think.
Nonetheless, I started thinking about what AI actually is, as opposed to what we tend to think it is. Or, more specifically, the common perception of what the average person has about AI. Now, maybe I’m projecting some here, but I think we have this idea that AI is some super-duper “brain” that someday might take over the world because it’s a superior version of human intelligence.
Did artificial sweetener replace sugar?
Did artificial grass replace grass?
Is there anything artificial that is better than the real thing?
It’s funny because I actually just typed that question into my search engine (I didn’t want to ask AI), and the only thing it came up with was... you guessed it, AI:
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Efficiency: AI can process information, generate content, and make decisions faster and more consistently than humans in specific tasks like data analysis, language translation, or image generation.
Scalability: AI systems can scale to handle millions of tasks simultaneously—something impossible for humans.
AI hasn’t done anything for me that a basic search engine couldn’t do. I take that back, the AI Suno created a few songs for me. That was pretty cool.
But, if Artificial Intelligence is objectively better than Human Intelligence, it will be the first conquest for artificial superiority.
What say you?
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