Embracing Uncertainty in the Age of AI
AI– Artificial Intelligence. Most of us have literally seen that movie. The first Terminator movie was shown in 1984 and Ahnald, the Terminator, said, “I’ll be back”.
I’ll be damned if he wasn’t right! Chat GPT was released in late 2022 and people who wonk much more about this stuff than me started freaking out. Is Ahnald really after us (again)?
When someone yells “fire” in the moviehouse, you don’t contemplate whether or not the fire is real. You just run like crazy. So, I have been running away from this AI thing, loping along in the full stampede.
Lost in the Stampede
Stampede loping often affords me quality time to think. Maybe I am just a babe in the woods, but I am not as worried as they say I should be. Why?
Because humans are well-versed in navigating the unknown, so it’s in our DNA to grapple with doubt, stumble in the darkness of uncertainty, and emerge stronger for it. This feels way too uncertain and that may be our best defense.
To be human is to be uncertain. As much as we might hate it….it’s true.
AI will soon give us explanations with such certainty, that we must remember what it is to be uncertain to retain our humanity.
What does that feel like?
The fear of being lost.
The embarrassment of being wrong.
The uncertainty of having to make choices that aren’t so obvious.
There’s more. The moniker for Carlos V, the Spanish King who oversaw both the Rennaissance and the pillaging of the New World, was “Plus Ultra” meaning, there is always more to explore, discover, and understand. There’s always more. The human in you knows this. AI doesn’t yet.
To be human is to be uncertain.
As my best self, I feel most human when I encounter and set out to accommodate this uncertainty. From what I know about AI algorithms (so far), their linear lineage does not accommodate this.
What Would Anthony Do?
Anthony Bourdain, the famous chef who traveled the world extensively, didn’t think like AI– if anything, he was one of the world’s greatest experts on the human experience.
Bourdain in Paris
So, it’s instructive to recall what he said about planning a trip to Paris:
The absolute worst thing to do when you come to Paris is plan too much. Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe, stand in line for hours to experience what everybody (and your Chat GPT) says you have to. Me? I like to take it easy in Paris, especially if I’m only in town for a few days. Most of us are lucky to see Paris once in a lifetime.
Make the most of it by doing as little as possible. Walk a little, get lost a bit, eat, catch a breakfast buzz, have a nap… Eat again. Lounge around drinking coffee. Maybe read a book. Drink some wine, walk around a bit more, eat, repeat.
AI would never give you this sort of advice. Only one of us flawed, crazy, uncertain, non-linear humans would opine like this.
So, if we were to think of ways we have a ‘leg up’ on AI, I speculate, this is one of them.
And there’s more!
If accommodating our uncertainty is more human, it also points to how we are less artificial, while maintaining a certain type of intelligence.
Maybe this is where we fit in the future.
In this vision of the future, we are not slaves, nor perhaps are we masters.
It’s not comfortable to think that we might be accomplices, fait acomplis.
But tell me how it might be otherwise, that this might not be the best outcome?
Yes, we humans are the uncertain ones; yet our ability to navigate the maze in synergy with AI, which may know more of the details but not how to get out of the maze, could offer a potent fusion. This balance between our human adaptability and AI’s command of information may illuminate the path to a brighter future.
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