By K J Foxhall 
As the ‘AI boom’ (as we like to call it) transitions from a futuristic whisper to a deafening roar, society finds itself at a crossroads, and the pressing question is; ‘how is humanity actually reacting to this shift?’
If we peel back the layers of hype and hysteria, we find a society divided into what can best be described as a high-level traffic light system.
The Red light represents the resistors, those completely against the integration of AI, fearing a loss of control or a shift in the fundamental fabric of mental effort.
The Amber light belongs to the indifferent. These individuals use AI as a background utility, much like electricity or a toaster, devoid of any emotional connection.
Then, there is the Green light who are the enthusiasts who are not just using AI, but are actively enamored by its potential to reshape the world.
We could certainly dive deeper into these categories, however, as we move past this initial reaction, a deeper, more unsettling theme emerges. The debate is shifting away from whether AI is ‘safe’ and toward a much more human concern or ‘authenticity’.
The Ghost in the Machine
The headlines are already beginning to reflect this tension. Consider the recent case of a student who graduated, only to have their degree revoked two hours later after their university audited their ChatGPT history. How true this is, we are not sure, but let’s remove AI from this story for a moment. There have always been students cheating at school. I am sure we all remember one or two from class who were feeling the pressure and taking an alternative route to what they hoped would lead to success. But AI didn’t invent the ‘cheater’.
Dishonesty has been a staple of the human condition for centuries; people were cheating on exams long before the first line of code was ever written. AI is simply a more efficient vehicle for an old habit. The true risk isn’t the presence of the tool, but how much of our own unique voice we are willing to surrender to it.
Polluting the Well
One of the most tangible threats of the ‘AI boom’ is the ‘pollution’ of our collective data. The internet, once a place that required at least a modicum of effort to populate, has become a vast, unverified frontier (excuse the pun, those that know, know what we mean here). Because AI tools have free reign over this data to train their models, they are essentially drinking from a well that anyone can poison.
In a professional setting, the risk remains manageable because of the human firewall, the standard practice of checking work before it reaches a client. But in the public sphere, we could well be dealing with a ‘hallucination’ crisis (again if you know, you know).
AI is in essence a servant, an assistant designed to provide an answer. It is there to emphasise you, not replace you.
Hollywood hysteria vs. the digital organism
Are we becoming ‘hyper-AI-chondriacs’? Our collective anxiety often feels like it was scripted in Hollywood. There is a part of us fed on a diet of dystopian novels and sci-fi films that almost wants the robots to take over. I certainly know of a few people who would try to not look happy if the zombie apocalypse happened, I do not want to think about their reaction in the event of an ‘AI takeover’.
In reality, AI is far more mundane and far more dependent on us than we realise. We are seeing lawsuits emerge claiming AI has caused personal tragedies, but these cases often ignore the human element. If you prompt an AI long enough, it will eventually tell you exactly what you want to hear, and there are absolutely further questions that can be asked concerning the safeguarding of people, but that topic is for another time.
The Realms of Perception
This brings us back to the core issue, in our opinion, and that is bias and authenticity.
We are the owners of these tools. We tell them what to do. But we must ask ourselves, do we want the truth, or do we just want a digital organism to validate our existing perceptions?
If it is the case of helping us with an essay, then we will want the sourced and cited truth, but for other things, like when we go looking for a particular topic, it is a bit like the perception of the brain, AI may show us what we want to see.
Now, we have built an electronic mirror to do lots of things for us. As we navigate this boom, the challenge won’t just be managing the technology, it will be maintaining the integrity of the person holding the prompt, and ensuring the prompt owner has the responsibility to check the output for accuracy.
Image source: Image by Muhammad Afzaal from Pixabay