Andrew Binstock, an open-source software developer, is a former editor-in-chief of Java Magazine. Early in his career he was head of technology forecasts for Price Waterhouse.
In 1999, when the internet was becoming popular, but the web was still very immature, Price Waterhouse was getting a lot of pressure from clients to forecast what effect the internet and the web would have. Our reply, which I think has been validated, is that the internet would make you more of who you are. That is, if you’re a hard worker, it will allow you to do more work. If you’re lazy, it will help you find ways to be even lazier. And if you love to cook, you’ll be able to cook in ways you never thought of, and so on.
Today, we are in the same place in relationship to AI that we were in 1999 with the Internet. We’re on the threshold of enormous changes and upheaval. As with the Internet, those changes will reach every corner of our lives. And they will impose responsibilities on us. If I were pressed to make one safe assumption about the effects of AI, I’d say: It will make you even more of who you are, but it will require more from you than the internet required.
Chief among those requirements will be new responsibilities: in the workplace and in the larger consumption of information in daily life. Mark Twain once observed, “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes”. It is going to be very important not to be part of lies’ rapid travel, and to be faster at helping truth put on its shoes. How do we avoid helping a lie travel? The first thing is not to share content whose veracity we don’t know. Not on social media, not on email, not in spoken word. This seems like an obvious thing until some unusual piece of information comes our way that happens to fit our preferred narrative. Then we want to share it with everyone.
The age of AI will bring wonderful developments but will impose a series of disciplines on thinking people who will need to improve their skills in the workplace and to improve discernment in all other areas, especially online. The latter requires effort. And like you, there are many times when I and others would like to share something without having to verify sources and check details. Careless sharing of this kind, as well as intentional sharing by bad actors, is how lies get halfway around the world so quickly.
Video at: https://bit.ly/3v2UB3q
