Aye Yai Yai A.I.
As if we don't have enough to worry about already.
I don’t have to tell you that the state of the world isn’t great. There’s a lot that keeps me up at night, but A.I.’s advancement and what it means for the future has been close to top of mind for the last several months. I’m haunted by Jia Tolentino’s prediction that by the time my kid is a pre-teen, he’ll likely be able to put his crush’s head on a porn star’s body and it’ll look, like, real. There’s the toll it’s taking on the environment and the increasing automation of the work force. Higher education is a mess and, surprise, surprise! A recent study found that Chat GPT erodes our critical thinking skills. A.I. is literally making us dumber and yet, the powers that be keep on keeping on.
It’s so Pinky and the Brain, evil-geniuses-try-to-take-over-the-world that it’s hard to believe it’s real life. We’ve seen the movies. We know how this story goes. For the love of God let’s stop while we’re ahead! I zoom out and try to imagine our collective future as a whole and I think aye carumba, this doesn’t feel good, better to zoom back in. So I do, and then I think, ok, on a micro scale, how do I keep my kid’s brain cells intact in the midst of all this? Right now, this is my main concern.
I’ve been thinking about a story a friend of mine told me not so long ago. She and her four year old son were using ChatGPT to create made-up animals and he was eating it up. He kept shouting, “Now do an elephant and a cheetah! Now a lion and a dinosaur!” things like that. It was so benign and joyous, but then something shifted for my friend. Her enthusiasm turned to unease. She stopped the game and said, “This is fun, but I need you to know that A.I. doesn’t have the imagination that you have. It can make these things, but you are so much more creative! It will never have the brain that you do!” (I wish the NYU student who uses three different A.I. assistants to write his essays could understand this.)
I don’t think you can’t ever engage in games like this, but I do find it interesting the way it sparked something in my friend. Letting A.I. bring her son’s creations to life, instead of, say, asking him to draw them made her feel like she was cheating him out of an experience. The only way to make it right was to assert his human-ness, something I think a lot of us have been doing in the face of all this.
Personally, I’ve opted out of using A.I. to the best of my ability. It’s in my Google search engine like it is for everyone (you can’t turn it off completely, I’ve checked) and I do rely on Otter to transcribe my interviews for Sitting Outside My House on the Phone because, yes, there are ways to use A.I. responsibly, but that’s it. I don’t use Chat GPT. I just don’t go there. Period. The end. It’s a lot easier for me to not share A.I. with my kid when I’m actively not engaging with it. This might be too hardline for some people and hey, I’ll never say never, but it’s what feels best for me right now.
Secondly, and I don’t mean to sound preachy here, but I think we need to lean into more ideas like parents banding together and agreeing not to buy their kids smart phones until a certain age. Why can’t we do the same thing with ChatGPT? Parents unilaterally agreeing to not give their kids access to it or any other A.I. assistants?
mentioned this Atlantic article in one of her recent newsletters that proposed getting a landline instead of a cell phone when your kid asks for one and I thought that was a pretty brilliant way to use something ‘novel’ as a means of enhancing conversation skills and connection without all the other stuff.
My husband keeps saying that the new generation is going to rebel against A.I. - I hope that’s true, although I’m skeptical. I keep saying I need to switch to a flip phone, but the convenience of an iPhone is so hard to pass up I haven’t done it yet - imagine if I had more of a relationship with A.I.
I haven’t been a mom for that long, but one of the most important lessons I’ve gleaned thus far is to let my kid experience struggle for himself, for him to understand that there is a process that occurs between here and there and to skip out on that process is to sell himself short. This is what builds character. It’s what builds resilience. It’s what makes us human. A.I. might be everywhere, but with a little effort, I don’t know, maybe it can be nowhere, too.
xx
C
Ugh, thank you for writing this!!! I’ve been thinking about it, too. I see positives and negatives, but mostly I feel uneasy about it as a whole.
My mom sent me an itinerary this morning for her plans with Soleil today and was excited to share that ChatGPT made it for her — I think it was the first time she used it? The schedule seemed fine, I guess, but it made me feel sick to my stomach. On one hand, just straight up gave me the ick. On the other, my mom found it so helpful. I’m constantly feeling mixed up about it! And actually, I’ve used it to make an itinerary, too — once while on a vacation, and it almost directed us to a) a bookstore that never existed, and b) a bakery that had burned down a year prior. Didn’t use it again until another friend recommended it for generating toddler-friendly meal ideas. Tried it, didn’t like it, moved on.
I’m also constantly like wow did I choose the worst time to pursue writing again??? I'm grateful to have a home on Substack, but the rise of AI makes me wonder how many writing jobs will be available when I'm ready to get back into the paid workforce.
P.S. Your title, chef’s kiss. The last line, chills.
P.P. S. I hope your husband is right.
This is so good Courtney. I really feel you in the fear. My husband works in AI and I struggle to ask most days about his work because I find it terrifying and makes me want to run away to an off grid farm. I’ve accepted, like your otter example, that there are some use cases where it’s valuable — especially as a mum trying to “multitask” different activities with work — and I’m also obsessed with the landline idea! I’m SO conscious atm about my daughter seeing us on our phones — I’m even thinking a screen schedule at home for adults?! 🤣 I tend to agree with your husband though — I think future generations will see the damage technology has done to the world, like we now look and see the impacts of certain industries. I see my job as making sure my daughter knows how to think, feel and create, then hopefully the rest won’t be so bad 🤞🏼