Deep Shallow, Large Narrow
We have arrived in the age of Deep and Large things. There is Deep learning, Deep fake, Deep web, which I am promised is also a dark space, and of course, Deep data. And then there is the Large Language Model, the power cell that is driving the overdrive of Generative AI — chat GPT, Bard, etc. for the uninitiated, me included.
And yet as we go large and deep on everything AI, and data, we seem to be gradually losing the ability to listen, comprehend, and respond. Especially comprehend! Increasingly, with every emerging generation, the foundation that determines our ability to comprehend complex concepts, and nuanced contexts and have meaningful thoughts is depleting. We seem to be moving on to a paradigm that is determined by mechanical actions and peer-defined or media-defined outcomes. Automatic Vacuum cleaners with AI clean like a professional. I have experienced about 4 of these machines and none of them can decipher a door from open space without crashing into it. But we think it must be true because Google, or wherever you get your AI-generated marketing, said so.
A recent quote I read from Yannis Yortsos, dean of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, aptly describes the constraint that AI presents in spite of all its deep and large capabilities. He says, “AI systems today can converse with us to order a book, find a song, or vacuum our floors. But they do not have the common sense to know that we read books for learning and for pleasure, that music relaxes us, and that tidy homes are more enjoyable.” So being reliant on AI to make our decisions for us is leading us down a path that prevents us from the nuance of experience and feelings that make us distinct from one another while being able to collectively demonstrate shared sensibilities.
AI has gotten sophisticated. And incredibly good, when compared to the days when excellence in Excel-macro skills looked good on a resume. But Artificial General Intelligence does still elude us. And that is because AI is the equivalent of a lesser man’s impression/imitation of a classic, in any form. The human brain is not just a set of synapses and pathways that combine to form consciousness. It is so much more! The human brain captures expressions, experiences, context, and circumstances, and the flexibility, versatility, and efficiency of comprehending and synthesizing variances in outcomes for the same input signal based on the wide spectrum of impressions the external world imprints on the canvas that is the human brain.
I don’t know whether AI will take over the world like the movies portray. Whether such a takeover of the world will be friendly through the friendly C-3PO and R2-D2 or if Agent Smith will consume human existence, I do not know. But I do know that we have to consciously protect our own minds and those of our offspring from being reliant on AI to do our thinking for us. Because that is a sure way to accelerate to our doom. We should not let the deep and large AI objects/entities make us shallow and narrow enough to become incapable of the basic capabilities of rational decision-making.
