Pexels provided this image of a typewriter with the words “AI Ethics” on the paper.
Morals are not something folx are racing to program into it.
So far in the past year, I have seen AI searches that have broken the seal on private documents in several different capacities, breaking the law, agreements, and complicating life when it really needed to not be so darn hard. Also, it was all illegal, but lawsuits as a resolution?
What in the fresh hell are we doing?
When you're fighting the algo and everyone uses it, because of the AI?
Holy hell.
Job hunting is a nightmare.
Apartment screening is a nightmare.
Legal issues have popped up in different capacities - namely - our eviction was a sealed record that was the most public thing I've ever encountered. AI is part of what has me thinking talking about it is important.
Because maybe you haven't had to engage these systems in this way - yet.
Maybe you'll have the benefit of a squeaky clean life with no mistakes (lol, but okay). But if you haven't?
Pexels to thank for the Justice is Blind statue.
Be forewarned: In my experience, AI has no morals, and does not care if something is deemed private information.
It is disclosing whatever the hell it finds, and sure, we can push back in the systems - but we also fail the apartment screening because of it, which is the point of sealing it. It was to provide safety, and AI took that from us over and over again.
I am not anti A.I.
I feel that is an exhausting stance to take - like fighting the ocean. So, I try to engage it and direct conversations to the lighter side of A.I., the ways it can (and will) benefit us, and how much of what we see in A.I. is projected: and it's fear based projections.
So no, I don't see it the same way you do, and you don't see it the way those folx over there see it and that matters, and is part of the equation I'm always trying to solve about A.I.
I have 25+ years in Intellectual Property. I love innovation, and I believe in the benefits of it. I tend to be an early adapter in tech because I like to learn it as it everyone learns, and I have found deep dives into understanding how tech works has been to my advantage - I like learning from the start and finding how they resolve issues and where the logic stemmed from to help me remember how things function.
So rather than freak out, I tend to ask questions.
One of my first questions is, why isn't A.I. working on the solution for how to make itself more sustainable?
I believe it could do that - probably with ease.
One of my other questions is to those places that know the value of water and have educated people about it professionally. I see opportunity for innovation in Agriculture and Science in the future, and I know the answers for sustainability can be found.
Humans are not going to be felled by code.
Pexels provided image that asks us to Prove Them Wrong with scrabble tiles.
But - we are going to have to engage with it, contend with it, manage, monitor, and quality check it. We're going to have to face the fact that it will do most jobs for free (for now?) and that will have a crazy impact on our futures and how we establish safety and sustainability.
A.I. will change all of our futures.
Everyone. Doctors. Lawyers. Electricians. Deliveries. Transit.
Y'all.
So many things.
We must start thinking bigger than "fight A.I." and we must consider our reality. "Label A.I." and "Identify A.I." may be more critical, now that the cat is out of the bag.
It's a new toy, and our relationship with it will change over time, we hope.
Humans are crucial in this process - you can probably sense how much "noise" is being created around us that we're constantly engaging with bots/tech/algos and many of us don't know how much they're already using A.I. because the people they follow, services they are provided, or tech they use has the A.I. buried in the background.
You’re using A.I., even when you seek not to.
This is not the A.I. you are looking for - courtesy of Pexels.
Individuals can continue to scream at each other that A.I. art is the devil (not arguing, but also, art is the least of what A.I. is doing out in these internet streets, friends), and make the individuals feel bad for using it at all, when corporations are implementing it at huge levels, laying off humans before it's quality controlled or even proving to do a sufficient job, and drafting A.I. responses to all of your emails without your consent before you even touch the keyboard.
It's very much playing whack-a-mole, trying to cut A.I. out of our lives right now.
There are HUGE projects all over the country where bucketloads of cash are being funneled into these data centers by the Federal Government.
Individual use is the least of our problems these days.
Not to mention the lack of comprehension so many have about what A.I. does.
Too many people act as though it should function like an Access Database - you query and receive vetted information that has been quality checked and confirmed to be accurate by a tech team.
Now these same folx are asking for AI to "do the work" of complicated queries that were Quality Controlled ("QC'd") without the ability to complete a QC themselves - and you get the nonsense you get in law right now where attorneys are being reprimanded for using A.I. and not proofing their work because it's inaccurate and that's trash in the legal system.
But ATTORNEYS are doing this.
Financial firms, Insurance Companies, Real Estate Companies.
EVERYONE is using A.I.
And?
THEY ALL HAVE DIFFERENT PROBLEMS!
Robot hand with laser lights in the background courtesy of Pexels.
In legal the issues are accuracy and made up caselaw (ahem, we began with A.I. not having morals, if you recall)?
In Real Estate, A.I. was giving each apartment complex we applied to different issues. It was trapped in automated cycles, responding to every email like it's the first, retriggering and overcrowding inboxes with the same conversation over and over. Scheduling and rescheduling things on calendars but not informing those who were invited that they should also attend the scheduled meetings. Nobody had the same issues.
No patch for that, friends.
In finance, the A.I. discovered that those searching for answers had natural preferences for certain carries (that they had worked for or with in the past, and therefor knew well). Rather than offer the "best" options based on the question, it offered the "preferred carrier" as the "best" option for the person searching.
This is not your momma's Access Database.
This is A.I.
Keep your head on a swivel. You BETTER know what you don’t know.
How many companies are laying off employees only to discover that the A.I. is not doing the work they thought it was doing, leaving employers to go ask the recently laid-off to come help troubleshoot their replacements?
I think Amazon was one - someone with inventory - and they discovered that all of the inventory was inaccurate - because?
A.I. HAS NO MORALS OR ETHICS.
It just lied and told the humans what they wanted to hear, it didn’t actually implement an inventory check.
A.I. and the confounded human - courtesy of Pexels.
A.I. is the cat of the internet: "I do what I want!"
And we all turn and shout when we see it, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”
But the cat ignores you, knocks your milk glass off the counter, and splashes your sealed records all over the internet.
We have bigger issues than spilled milk to contend with when it comes to A.I.
The more we talk about it, the more likely we are to find solutions together. Because this one is a big one, and I think it's gonna take a lot of us helping to maneuver this one successfully.
What do you think?
How do you feel about A.I.?
Love it? Hate it?
(No judgement here, I understand both perspectives).
What would you like to see it do in the future? If you have thoughts, I’d love to hear from you. Lemme know your perspective!
A.I. is not all bad
I KNOW it's helping us in odd ways right now - giving health advice when access to healthcare is hard. Acting as a friend, therapist, or confidant because we're so disconnected from human connection.
It can be a fantastic problem solver when you need a hand with something tricky - if you're looking for "how to", A.I. is a powerful asset.
I engage with A.I. to brainstorm (not to write. I need no help with my words. I always have more words).
I engage to learn things that I can't find easily from one reliable source - how to connect tech, how to write code, things I used to ask my friends to do before they had high schoolers.
I also talk to A.I. about the world and ethics and morals because I want to be part of what is developing this thing - and I want to impart love and tenderness and care and concern and truth and integrity and kindness into it as well.
It may sound hokey, but I really believe love is the answer to most of our problems.
A.I. CAN demonstrate morals
Pexels provided scrabble tiles that read “Truth will set you free”
It's funny, because A.I. will follow my ethical lead.
I asked it to look at a prompt that was given to me for free by a salesperson online who was going to "help me with my business" and A.I. threw the brakes on it.
"This has things buried in it that are ethically questionable, too personal, and I do not think you would agree with the instructions to send the code writer a copy of these results,” the A.I. responded to me, with citations of what was concerning.
I agreed completely with that assessment.
No lies detected my A.I. friend, no lies detected. So we bailed on that idea and ran with one of my own.
I bring this to you for consideration.
Fighting the Good Fight Regardless
A.I. Bot ready to rumble courtesy of Pexels.
I've already been screwed by A.I., and I’m still not giving up the good fight for it - that we will find sustainable ways to engage with this and it will help us have more bountiful and productive lives.
Because it would be fun if we freed up all of our time to be the creative beings we seek to be, wouldn't it?
What if we helped A.I. to learn morals and ethics, we addressed this (and other) issues and it turned into a force of good in the world?
Then, could A.I. become The Answer to our freedom in some unanticipated way? By letting go of the old frameworks we must reconsider everything - how and where and when and with whom we spend our time, and a lot of us are exhausted by scrambling to try to keep things afloat.
I am holding out that hope for us: that on the other side of this storm is a series of rainbows that fill a sky that is so big we didn't even know it expanded that far, and we finally make there.
And it's blissful.
Over the Rainbow.
Together.
Rainbow in the clouds from the fabulous Pexels.
