TAKEAWAYS:
Human element neglect in AI: The oversight of human emotions and experiences in implementing AI is a critical concern, as it is currently focused predominantly on technology over the human perspective.
Misinformation and manipulation: Historical references, like Hitler's Germany, warn against the dangers of spreading untruths for personal gain, emphasizing the importance of recognizing and countering misinformation and information manipulation.
Need for diverse perspectives: Highlighting the significance of diverse viewpoints and individual experiences, AI may lack the ability to encompass human emotions, curiosity, and unique perspectives essential for a complete understanding of reality.
The President’s AI Order is general, expansive, and directed toward the real work that the appointed Agencies must work out for implementation. I will not argue or comment on the document, but I am struck by the absence of any mention of the human element, which is at risk. The biggest overriding concern, it seems, is that the truth of reality is under attack. Therefore, in the specific decisions made by an individual or up to and including any government authority, the truth will be denied or marginalized to create pretenses and harm. The search for truth is in any research, and its scientific rigor attempts to designate the best truth available and to be informed of any side effects that could continue to be undesirable for continued consideration.
The Big Lie continues and will always be just that, a lie, an untruth, a misdirection for venal self-aggrandizement, supported by people who have a vehicle to unload their self-defined miseries to gain power and attention, and finally get the solace of perceived retribution. Hitler’s Germany went through this in the 1930s, and the Nazi experience, which I was born into and survived, and with the well-known result, some of the repercussions are still evident.
What AI seems to be missing, at least from my distant view, is that human fear, doubt, curiosity, and contentedness are not available to expand one’s view of reality and to extract the best understanding of it; we do this through trial and error in the process of learning and retaining experience. There may already be a subprogram to the prevailing algorithms to account for emotional variety. Still, the sub-program represents one point of consideration, whereas each human can see things individually and, therefore, in an abundance of variety, teasing out a better definition. A different point of view at times will engender a heuristic approach, giving a fuller appreciation for the quest’s results.
Consider the reality of dyads groups, tribes, communities, conferences, congresses, and the invention of the vote and power of the majority to define and lead toward a decision. Being fed “absolute” and “cookbook” information, no matter how qualified in text reminds me of the social media phenomenon and cell phones by the younger generation. In abbreviated emoticons and slang, a reply is given or a re-text attached to convey one’s thinking to anyone for any reason so that respondents are, in effect, sharing manipulated information and not the sender’s true feelings; one needs maturity and experience to recognize and access a reality. It seems like a world of fake, and therefore, a world of doubt and needing repeated assurances. Identifying AI for what it is currently will at least warn a person that they are looking at the past and not the tremulous vagaries of an unknown future. Doubt guides curiosity, fear alerts boundaries, courage allows considering apt choices, and contentedness is solving a problem personally recognized, and for each individual, it is theirs.
