HA! You are correct. Thanks for pointng that out! And thanks for following along with my writing and work. I appreciate you!
Perhaps I'm just old and crotchety at 44 years old 🤣, BUT I think my concerns are well founded. And they are just my opinions, I realize. But having studied the effects of social media, technology, and the Internet on human development and our brains for my doctoral dissertation ... this feels very different to me.
For starters, the technology today is developing far more rapidly than the Internet developed, social media developed, etc. Andrew Yang who was a Presidential Candidate in 2020 and helped found the “Forward Party” recently said that he attended an AI conference and that the upcoming "AI Boom" will give us more technology and more content in the next 6 months than what we've seen in the last 10 years.
My concerns are tied up in the rapid development of the technology and the unintended consequences that will come with it. One of the things I had to wrestle with in regards to my doctoral work was the consequences the Internet and Social Media has had on our brains, nervous systems, personal interactions, etc. and those consequences are things we are only NOW beginning to understand all these years AFTER those things have existed and continue to develop at rapid paces.
No one can deny the POSITIVE things the Internet and Social Media has brought to our lives, but that doesn’t necessarily outweigh or solve the problems that came with it.
AI, I think, brings a lot more baggage with it as it’s rapidly taking jobs away from people, impacting the environment with data centers that are putting out extreme heat while taking resources to cool them and power them, etc. One of the things that Yang brought up is that the AI that is coming down the pipeline will be able to do coding and whatnot that computer engineers currently get advanced degrees to do - not only is it doing the job that designers can do or writers can do, but it will also be able to build it’s own code. It’s incredible technology, but have we measured the cost? Are there safeguards in place? Is it being used to just “help” people do their jobs or will it eventually do those jobs for people? And as that starts to happen, what will that do to people in an economy that is already crippling people’s incomes and budgets? What will that do to the economy as a whole?
And then our brains and development - if you look at Social Media and the effect it’s having on our kids, books like “Anxious Generation” and “Stolen Focus” take a deep dive into the real problems that technology is causing children and teenagers who are regularly exposed to the technology at too early an age - depression, anxiety, inablility to focus, lack of friendships, limited creativity, etc. If AI is thrown into the mix, how will those already negative effects be compounded? What other consequence are lurking? Are safeguards being implemented for kids? Or will AI eventually make it’s way into apps and technology that is designed and geared towards kids? And are there laws in place to protect people, but kids especially, when AI is used to manipulate their pictures so they are placed in compromising positions?
There are lots of questions! And like Yang brought up, the tech is developing at a pace so rapid that we can’t possibly address those questions. The reality, many experts say, is that the people developing and funding the technology don’t care about the impacts as much as they care about being a leg up on other countries and people who are developing similar technology - the AI Boom is similar to the Space Race, racing forward to see who can develop it faster and better.
Anyways.
That’s a little more of the background to what’s going on in my head. Perhaps my doctoral research around these topics has caused me to ask more questions than most people would, HA!; but I think they are important things to consider.
Thanks again for sharing, my friend. I appreciate your perspective!
Ugh same here. I don't feel like there's enough urgency as to what these centers are and will be doing to the environment, our resources, etc. Very sad, very scary 😞
I love your content hence why I’m here and will continue to follow your content but in all honesty the points you bring up on this subject matter
are the same points that were brought up when the internet first came out. Welcome to the twenty-first century!
HA! You are correct. Thanks for pointng that out! And thanks for following along with my writing and work. I appreciate you!
Perhaps I'm just old and crotchety at 44 years old 🤣, BUT I think my concerns are well founded. And they are just my opinions, I realize. But having studied the effects of social media, technology, and the Internet on human development and our brains for my doctoral dissertation ... this feels very different to me.
For starters, the technology today is developing far more rapidly than the Internet developed, social media developed, etc. Andrew Yang who was a Presidential Candidate in 2020 and helped found the “Forward Party” recently said that he attended an AI conference and that the upcoming "AI Boom" will give us more technology and more content in the next 6 months than what we've seen in the last 10 years.
My concerns are tied up in the rapid development of the technology and the unintended consequences that will come with it. One of the things I had to wrestle with in regards to my doctoral work was the consequences the Internet and Social Media has had on our brains, nervous systems, personal interactions, etc. and those consequences are things we are only NOW beginning to understand all these years AFTER those things have existed and continue to develop at rapid paces.
No one can deny the POSITIVE things the Internet and Social Media has brought to our lives, but that doesn’t necessarily outweigh or solve the problems that came with it.
AI, I think, brings a lot more baggage with it as it’s rapidly taking jobs away from people, impacting the environment with data centers that are putting out extreme heat while taking resources to cool them and power them, etc. One of the things that Yang brought up is that the AI that is coming down the pipeline will be able to do coding and whatnot that computer engineers currently get advanced degrees to do - not only is it doing the job that designers can do or writers can do, but it will also be able to build it’s own code. It’s incredible technology, but have we measured the cost? Are there safeguards in place? Is it being used to just “help” people do their jobs or will it eventually do those jobs for people? And as that starts to happen, what will that do to people in an economy that is already crippling people’s incomes and budgets? What will that do to the economy as a whole?
And then our brains and development - if you look at Social Media and the effect it’s having on our kids, books like “Anxious Generation” and “Stolen Focus” take a deep dive into the real problems that technology is causing children and teenagers who are regularly exposed to the technology at too early an age - depression, anxiety, inablility to focus, lack of friendships, limited creativity, etc. If AI is thrown into the mix, how will those already negative effects be compounded? What other consequence are lurking? Are safeguards being implemented for kids? Or will AI eventually make it’s way into apps and technology that is designed and geared towards kids? And are there laws in place to protect people, but kids especially, when AI is used to manipulate their pictures so they are placed in compromising positions?
There are lots of questions! And like Yang brought up, the tech is developing at a pace so rapid that we can’t possibly address those questions. The reality, many experts say, is that the people developing and funding the technology don’t care about the impacts as much as they care about being a leg up on other countries and people who are developing similar technology - the AI Boom is similar to the Space Race, racing forward to see who can develop it faster and better.
Anyways.
That’s a little more of the background to what’s going on in my head. Perhaps my doctoral research around these topics has caused me to ask more questions than most people would, HA!; but I think they are important things to consider.
Thanks again for sharing, my friend. I appreciate your perspective!
Thanks, I had already deleted it from my phone . I am concerned about the AI centers also using our resources necessary for living!
Ugh same here. I don't feel like there's enough urgency as to what these centers are and will be doing to the environment, our resources, etc. Very sad, very scary 😞