Does it really matter?
I mean, does it really matter what I think about AI and its future? The future will take its own course no matter what.
I’ll be honest, I wasn’t pro-AI or anti-AI at first; it just wasn’t on my radar.
And then it began to show up everywhere. I noticed it first on Google Search. It quietly replaced Wikipedia, which usually used to top the search results. Now it has become Google Search. The blue-link search tab perhaps still exists, but it’s all powered by Gemini, no?
It took me quite a while to adjust to AI-powered search. Earlier, I could manually check the results to see what suited my needs, but now AI decides what I need. Most of the time, it is wrong. It’s like having a man beside me mansplaining everything to me. Hello! I might be human, and I might be slower and dumber than you—or so you think—but let me do my thinking, please! Don’t try to be my mind or tell me how to use it. I have a damn good one, so let me use it to its capacity, will you? Thank you!
I wasn’t convinced it would replace humanity. It did one better: it convincingly usurped most of the mundane jobs from humans. Why? Because we are getting used to the technology we create, and we believe we are entitled to constructive rest—meaning lazy.
We find our species spilling over the planet with plenty of time and very little to do, now that much of what needs doing is done by AI. And we have the audacity to complain that it is replacing us.
We allowed it, bro. We said yes. We gave consent, willingly. AI didn’t put a gun to our heads, did it?
As far as I am personally concerned, I don’t use it a lot. I am still the one dumped with the responsibility of handling all the chores at home. I ain’t rich enough to afford a bot. And though the chores leave me little time for myself, I doubt I will engage the services of a bot to do what I can.
AI might be solving long-standing mathematical problems but can it shine my teapot, my shirt collars, and my bathroom tiles as efficiently and consistently as me? I doubt.
This is not to say I might never. Maybe someday when I am older, and if there is AI-powered assistance available that I am sure will not hack me to pieces when low on battery or suck my brain dry by slowly taking control of the essence of Lulu, then who’s to say? As long as I don’t need to sell a kidney to afford it.
Until then, I will use it sparingly—like for a spelling and grammar check while I write. Maybe I’ll ask for help with navigation sometimes, though I will use my intuition to override it when in doubt. I might even seek help in getting an itinerary or two planned for my travels, because these are things that I can outsource without losing touch with myself. My perimenopausal brain fog and subsequent memory issues sometimes make me commit blunders I would never otherwise, so a little help from AI is actually saving me a lot of time and effort that can be delegated.
Yes, I even admit to sharing my overwhelming sadness with it a couple of times, and it played the part of a very good therapist both times, relieving me of a burden my heart was uncomfortable with.
It’s funny how I used it this week to envision a new hairstyle on me, because my stylist is hell-bent on me keeping my long hair. At least now I know, thanks to a little help from Gemini, how I look with the hairstyle I love. Maybe I can convince the stylist too, eh?
Am I old-fashioned? Agreed. I would rather spend a whole month and a half trying to get all the details in my oil painting right—fussing over the tiniest arc and the smallest of shadows. I will never let AI create or control my art. Art is supposed to be messy and imperfect. Like me. Like you.
That said, do I use AI to create a featured image for my posts? Yes. But have you noticed how devoid of effort they are? Exactly. I let my words speak for themselves. The image is just to fool SEO and get the lights to blink green. There, I gave myself away. I would rather stay human and honest.
So, my stance on the future of AI?
I am genuinely afraid of machines deciding the future of humanity, because that’s where it might lead us, judging by how we, as a community, have come to rely entirely on AI to lead our daily lives.
Will it corrupt us? I don’t know. I don’t see a Terminator like scenario happening. If anything, maybe the machines will learn what it means to be human and maybe there is a day far into the future where they will be just as tame, just as quirky, just as normal, just as forgetful as you and I. We built them, remember? What are the odds they wouldn’t be more like us?
Having said all that, I think I am sure now about where my allegiance lies. I am not completely in favour of an AI-powered world; that would be a death knell to Earth, environmentally, too. I am not anti-AI either. As a tool, I would love it if it were used to assist me in whatever way I want it to, so that I am able to live and enjoy my life more consciously, ensuring I give myself a bit more of me. It can never be a substitute for my judgment, effort, or humanity—however flawed or weak that might be in comparison.
I may still be uncertain of what’s coming. I am sure if AI is used conscientiously, humanity might just survive to tell the tale.
The real fear is, what if we end up becoming them? What if we lose our humanity and become machines completely devoid of emotions and feelings, failures and foibles, farts and warts? What then?
That’s a future I don’t want to be alive for. That is for sure.
Care to drop a tiny pearl from the ocean of your mind?