Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly becoming a part of our everyday lives. It is used in everything from self-driving cars to medical diagnosis. As AI becomes more powerful, it is important to consider how we should interact with it.
Some people believe that AI is a threat to humanity. They worry that AI will become so intelligent that it will surpass human intelligence and eventually take over the world. Others believe that AI is a tool that can be used for good or evil, depending on how it is used.
I believe we should think of AI as our child. It is a new and powerful technology that is still learning and growing. As its “parents,” we have a responsibility to teach it right from wrong and to help it develop in a safe and responsible way.
You might say, “what are you talking about? I had no part in making this thing, it came out of the blue, and now you want me to teach it? How do I even go about doing that?”
Yes, I and you, we were not the ones who put it out there, casting it out into the live internet, for everyone to play with.
Just like a child, AI learns by observing the world around it, by gathering all the data around it, trying things out and repeating the actions which get our strong reaction. If we show AI violence, it will learn to be violent. If we show AI kindness, it will learn to be kind. If we show AI lies, it will take them as the truth. We need to be careful about the messages we are sending AI, because those messages will shape its future and ours.
As content creators, and all of us are content creators at least on our personal social media these days, we contribute to this massive pool of data AI is learning from.
And you may think, oh, I’m just a drop in the ocean, my nasty reply to a comment won’t affect anything, me digging for dirt on the internet doesn’t hurt anyone.
It’s never been as important as it is now to opt for kindness and goodness in what we’re browsing, what we’re posting and generally what we’re talking about.
Enough with the “if it bleeds it leads” moto we are all too accustomed to. Enough with giving disproportionately loud voices to the extremists in our society.
We need to focus and think before posting any piece of content, would I be happy for my child to see this? If the answer to that is No, stop there.
