Parasite AI
Artificial Intelligence is killing us, if not in form, definitely in essence. Our humanness is being eroded by our willingness to abdicate the responsibility inherent in our natural intelligence. Of course, the human ego mind that mistakenly thinks it possesses true intelligence is the main culprit. And that deluded mind insists on creating a thing in the digital universe that we actually deem ‘artificially intelligent’. Talk about a mirror! And we are betting our future on this creation.
I recently changed my search engine to a platform which does not default to using AI, and I notice my mind becoming less passive, more engaged in the search. I’m not automatically handed an answer. I’m required to use my natural curiosity to entertain possibilities which may call me out of my habitual assumptions. Of course, the internet is only one avenue for my inquiries. I always prefer to simply notice the analog world around me to discover what I am seeking.
This morning, as I typed these words while sitting in a little alcove, inside a library filled with analog words, I had an epiphany: AI is actually a parasite. It sucks information from us via thousands of websites in order to offer its version of what we are looking for. Those sites, products of human research, insight, and sweat, are receiving fewer views. Eventually, they will die. An example is the admittedly imperfect Wikipedia, a product of actual people researching. Now that site is not getting the views it relies upon to exist. Can it survive the parasite?
I find it humorous, although darkly so, that AI is the brainchild of many huge egos in the digital world. So, you could make the case that ego is the parent of AI, and this ego teaches AI all it knows about existing. AI must parasitize existing information to be, just like the ego feeds on our need to exist. The comparison is obvious, or at least, it’s obvious to me. They are actually creating toys for children powered by AI and infused with artificial breathing and warmth. They will tell our kids what they want to know without any heart, without any love (although the toys possess an algorithm of a digitized notion of love).
So, there you have it. The old comic strip, Pogo, is famous for the expression, “We have met the enemy and he (she, they, etc.) is us.” Enough said. Maybe we are descending down deep into a cave, doing battle with a perceived enemy, cutting off its head, and finding our own face staring back at us (sorry for parasitizing Star Wars). Maybe we will survive decapitation. I’m not so sure. I pray that the analog Earth, and the love it engenders, will survive our artificial intelligence.