Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already here. We’re applying it every day. We just don’t think about it for the most part.
As AI takes up more space in the news, we wring our hands. It bothers us, taking control from humans, likely eliminating more menial jobs and thrusting us into the ever-unknown future. What happens next? The predictatologists are predicting, and perhaps they have slightly informed opinions, but who really knows?
At this point AI inroads into our careers and lives has already occurred and it will dig deeper. Take the case of a writer, someone who tries to make a living by applying the written word in creative and unique ways. Writers entertain, inform, report, tie facts together, make sense of the world.
Currently, AI takes some of those functions away, albeit the basic ones like standardized phrases and responses that can be determined by prior use. An example is your email or text messaging and how you reply to someone.
I noticed this several years back. As I typed a note to a friend, one, two or even three words would pop up as a way to finish the sentence I’d started. The software program in Microsoft Outlook decided on the most likely following words and laid them out there for me. Since I didn’t know what was going on at the time, I never hit the “tab” key to use their selections. But, I certainly could have, and I imagine many people do.
There’s a degree of righteousness I feel for still never having applied the tab key. “Those bastards aren’t going to put words in my mouth” is my sentiment. Yet, I know AI’s claws are edging closer to digging into each of us.
As birthdays crop up or work anniversaries on Facebook or LinkedIn, we are exhorted by their programs to send a specifically tailored message developed by their software engineers. “Have a good one” or “congrats” or “enjoy your day” all might be choices just waiting one click away for your finger to tap and send and connect to your friend or colleague, letting them know you’re thinking of them when you really aren’t.
Because if you were, you’d send a personal note. You’d capture something in the relationship the two of you had and add that to your message. It would be funny or incisive or tell a story only the two of you remember. That’s worthwhile, meaningful communication.
To me, on the AI/software front relative to communications, that’s where the problem lays. Sure, you can tap a basic all-in-one message and you can apply a framework to a news story about a fire because certain standard issues tend to arise and would be included in the first couple of paragraphs. To dig into the meat is a whole different story. You must research, connect quotes, go to different sources for information and figure out how to tie it together.
Maybe AI will get there some. I don’t know. I’m not the person to ask.
What I do know is that us humans have a deep need to connect interpersonally and we do a much better job of that than a program written in code does. That’s not going away.
As AI takes up more space in the news, we wring our hands. It bothers us, taking control from humans, likely eliminating more menial jobs and thrusting us into the ever-unknown future. What happens next? The predictatologists are predicting, and perhaps they have slightly informed opinions, but who really knows?
At this point AI inroads into our careers and lives has already occurred and it will dig deeper. Take the case of a writer, someone who tries to make a living by applying the written word in creative and unique ways. Writers entertain, inform, report, tie facts together, make sense of the world.
Currently, AI takes some of those functions away, albeit the basic ones like standardized phrases and responses that can be determined by prior use. An example is your email or text messaging and how you reply to someone.
I noticed this several years back. As I typed a note to a friend, one, two or even three words would pop up as a way to finish the sentence I’d started. The software program in Microsoft Outlook decided on the most likely following words and laid them out there for me. Since I didn’t know what was going on at the time, I never hit the “tab” key to use their selections. But, I certainly could have, and I imagine many people do.
There’s a degree of righteousness I feel for still never having applied the tab key. “Those bastards aren’t going to put words in my mouth” is my sentiment. Yet, I know AI’s claws are edging closer to digging into each of us.
As birthdays crop up or work anniversaries on Facebook or LinkedIn, we are exhorted by their programs to send a specifically tailored message developed by their software engineers. “Have a good one” or “congrats” or “enjoy your day” all might be choices just waiting one click away for your finger to tap and send and connect to your friend or colleague, letting them know you’re thinking of them when you really aren’t.
Because if you were, you’d send a personal note. You’d capture something in the relationship the two of you had and add that to your message. It would be funny or incisive or tell a story only the two of you remember. That’s worthwhile, meaningful communication.
To me, on the AI/software front relative to communications, that’s where the problem lays. Sure, you can tap a basic all-in-one message and you can apply a framework to a news story about a fire because certain standard issues tend to arise and would be included in the first couple of paragraphs. To dig into the meat is a whole different story. You must research, connect quotes, go to different sources for information and figure out how to tie it together.
Maybe AI will get there some. I don’t know. I’m not the person to ask.
What I do know is that us humans have a deep need to connect interpersonally and we do a much better job of that than a program written in code does. That’s not going away.