truth⚓︎
How will humanity build & use AI?⚓︎
Some say the technological age calls upon us to adapt at a much faster rate than ever. Our worlds are being shaped and reshaped by technology. Creativity flows more freely, easily, and with tremendous scalability. Human thought can make it unto a digital canvas at a moment's notice, and new breakthroughs are making the process more dynamic.
The printing press, and then the internet, freed books.
The digital camera, and then cellphones, freed photography.
Each technological breakthrough has been a tool that could offer more freedom, but only when held by those who value freedom.
Is AI freeing us? It depends on how we choose to develop it and how we choose to use it.
There has always been a fight between control and freedom. Books have been banned or taken down from online stores. Cameras can capture memories or spy on us.
Many ethical concerns surround technology, yet it also holds the possibility of freeing some aspect of our lives. It all depends on the road forward. It is a complex rabbit hole filled with more questions than answers.
Information has always been controlled in some way over the centuries, as they say, the winners of wars are the ones who wrote the history books. The darkest of times are the most silent, the ones that host the majority view as the sole source of truth, though it has nothing to do with truth itself. Information is more likely to be suppressed in conflictive and difficult times, and yet that is when it's needed the most.
Controlling a story and making it one sided paints a flawed picture of reality. It can be used to place blame on others rather than on the real issue. It can fear or anger that often leads to giving up freedoms. It can also be used to quiet opposing points of view in order to keep power.
Control of information is often a clear lack of transparency. It sits on murky waters no longer based on truth nor perspective on the complexity of a situation. It seeks to control while advertising freedom or safety, but it is neither.
As AI makes a stronger dent into our lives, many questions arise on both the benefits and the tradeoffs.
If AI is based on a large sample of the internet, does it truly reflect humanity, or only the voices of those who have had access to technology and whose voices have not been censored? Does it reflect real human thought and experience or does it pick up on the emotional reactions sometimes fueled by algorithms shaped to generate engagement and attention, instead of critical thinking and deeper learning. If it has wide access to the internet, how much is it gathering about us and for what purpose?
Does it reflect every voice, or is it as selective as our history books? What biases is it selecting?
Can it be open and transparent? What happens when it is held by the hands of the few with hidden biases, agendas, and incentives? If its workings are hidden from our view, how can we know why it is trained?
Is it a way to let more of the minority voices have a say and a freedom to express their thoughts? Or could it be used to spread a majority point of view at a much faster scale? Could it be used to diminish minority voices, setting them on a path to silence? Will it spam most of our sources of information, making it hard to arrive at what is real and trustworthy?
Can it help make self expression easier for the masses, or will it make a homegenous fabric of images, words and videos, representative that which those who control the inputs want to be the "truth"?
As technology has advanced, we have also become more sedentary, will we let it turn us into mindless couch potatoes, or will we appreciate the sun shining on our faces and dive deeper into learning?
Could it help us dig deeper or express more complex ideas? Or is it more likely to prevent us from seeing the truth or digging for it?
What happens when you know someone has lied to you, not by mistake or ignorance, but on purpose? Are you be able to trust that person?
What happens when we cannot trust that AI tells the truth? When it is neither open nor transparent. When we do not know how and why it is being programmed? What can we do when its development can be more about control than freedom?
Like in much of the freedom tech ecosystems, we need AI alternatives that offer the openness, transparency, choice, and diversity of tools, so we are not dependent on centralized parties that can control most of the information we receive. Truth matters. Critical thinking has always been an important skill, but are we arriving at a time where technology will test how we receive that information and what we choose to believe more than ever before? Can we BUIDL something that carries the principles we value that support our freedoms?