Al is nifty. It’s been useful to me. But I do wonder what how it could affect our culture – because if AI continues on its current path, it will.
Anytime there’s a significant change in the way we live it causes a cultural shift. We are hearing more and more about the many different ways in which AI has been changing our world. AI been a ubiquitous subject of posts and significant amount of them are about how AI can’t do what humans do. But it’s more than just AI naysayers having a field day. Take a closer look and you can see the subtle underlying sense of fear in those reactions
Much of that fear of AI centers around job security. It the same kind of fear that comes with the threat of unemployment caused by recessions and outsourcing to other countries. The difference is those job losses aren’t a commentary on our personal abilities. It’s just tough luck. This is a fear that is about being replaceable. It’s the sense that there’s something out there that’s better than you. It’s smarter, faster, tireless, and doesn’t complain. But most of all, the ability of something to replace you at your job means the ability to erase a big part of your sense of who you are. Our jobs play a significant role in our self- identity. We define ourselves and each other by what we do 40+ hours a week. “I’m a cx designer” “I’m a social media strategist” “I’m a project manager”. The first thing we usually ask each other at a social gathering is, “What do you do for a living”. Some of us think we are safe because we are in professional arts. That is, until we find out about something like AIVA, the AI that composes emotional “original and personalized” soundtrack music.
The most common feeling expressed by people who can’t find a job, get fired, or can no longer work, is one of feeling lost, without purpose, or meaningless. They also feel angry, humiliated, and insignificant. What’s important here to understand is that the destruction of a self-identity is a form of death because the “you” that you know no longer exists. And if that part is dead and gone, it’s no wonder AI is causing a fair amount of alarm.
Fear is a powerful thing and, for better or for worse, it’s been the driving force behind every horrific war in world history. I say “for better” because fear (and a healthy dose of courage) resulted in some good things like ending slavery, and liberating countries as in the case of WWll. In other words, I’m not saying that AI will be self-identity Armageddon and we on a one-way trip to an AI dystopian world. But we’d would be remiss to think that our culture couldn’t be somehow affected by AI.
AI has to gather a lot more momentum before it can have any significant effect on our culture. If that happens, I have no idea of how our culture could change. All I know is that it will. For every action there’s a reaction. It’s Newton’s Third Law. You can’t argue with physics. Well, I guess you try, but you’ll lose every time. It’s like Star Trek’s Scotty says “Ye canna change the laws of physics”. So, if AI continues to spread and pick up steam, I can’t help but wonder about AI’s cultural effect. I guess we will find out soon enough.