I read a blog post recently saying that it was ok to hate AI. While I agree to some extent, I think it was missing some key points about how to hate AI. It’s easy to just hate something you don’t like. We as humans have a natural propensity to hate or dislike things we are not familiar with. The problem is that this approach is akin to putting your head in the sand or screaming at the clouds; it doesn’t actually help anyone.
Whether you like it or not, AI is out of the bag. Pandora’s box is open. It’s not going anywhere anytime soon. Yes we might see this ludicrous bubble pop and see realistic costs to run these frontier models, but the technology itself has just advanced too far. You can’t just shut it down, no matter how hard you try. If it’s not OpenAI or Anthropic it will be a nation state government. Due to this single fact, the more responsible thing to do is reconcile how we are going to coexist with this technology.
One can’t help but consider how this situation is reminiscent of the atomic bomb. A race to see who would build it first, and once we did, we immediately regretted it. But regret doesn’t change the future. A cold war and a red scare made kids do drills where they hid under their desks. We came dangerously close to blowing up our entire world. Yet, we somehow survived. We put together laws and treaties over how nuclear technology should be used. While this analogy is far from perfect, I think it accurately portrays our current situation: we need to discuss, deliberate, and legislate.
Look, I get it. AI does kinda suck in a lot of ways. Nobody enjoys an application they use everyday getting a ✨ icon all of a sudden that is shoved in their face over and over. Majority of people don’t like AI-generated images or videos. The idea of your spouse using ChatGPT to write their wedding vows is disgusting. I feel all of these things too. However I know for a fact that AI can be actually useful and has the potential for doing good. Like anything else in life, the situation is complicated. It’s not black and white. There is nuance that must be acknowledged.
Coming back to our main point: how do you hate AI? Funnel it into education. Teach yourself about how it actually works. Use it if you haven’t already. Learn to be specific with your language so you can articulate what part about AI you don’t like. Use your energy to make a change that will actually make a difference in a world where we have to coexist with this technology. Ask the hard questions, be willing to be wrong, and treat everyone like a human being. The key is that you actually have to care about people and the future. Remaining ignorant is an act of selfishness and laziness. This is something we all struggle with when it comes to engaging with nuanced topics that are complicated and confusing. Nobody has it all figured out, but we have to start somewhere.
By all means hate AI if you wish to do so, but do it the right way.