I have talked about these issues for over 10 years, starting with the release of my 2016 book, Technology vs Humanity (aptly subtitled ‘the coming clash of humans and machines’) www.techvshuman.com
In this episode, compiled from some of my best talks on #digitalethics in the past 2-3 years, I ask how we can keep stay human in a hyper-connected and AI-driven world where everything is monitored, tracked and cognified, exponentially. How will we protect what makes us human aka the #androrithms instead of reducing everything to its algorithmic value?
I argue that technology’s power has already outpaced our ethics, reminding the audience that intelligence isn’t consciousness, and that AI can solve many practical problems but cannot feel, imagine, understand, experience or care. But emotions, and embodiment, is required to create.
To me, digital ethics is about keeping humanness alive and resisting the urge to put machines or algorithms inside of absolutely everything, to put efficiency over humanity. We are already living in a world that is increasingly hyper-connected, where everything is monitored, tracked, and datamined – I think it is safe to say that the power of technology has already surpassed the scope of our ethics.
It’s easy to forget when talking to a frontier LLM, but we need to remind ourselves that AIs / Machines / Digital Entities do not feel, they do not and cannot have hunches, they don’t truly understand, they don’t imagine, and they do not and cannot care – but they are very good at simulating all of it, and therein lies great danger.
Intelligence is not consciousness (solving problems vs subjectively experiencing the real world) and the real world is far larger than what the AI perceives, and emotions, existence and embodiment are requirements for creation. In our future with AI, we should pursue the magic, dial back and avoid the manic, and ban and eradicate the toxic.
Let’s flip the old tech mantra on its head: we shouldn’t move fast and break things, but rather move fast to fix things.
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