Understanding AI

I think it's a mistake to conceptualize AI systems as partners, as if they have a will of their own. I don’t think of my pet, my phone, my calculator, or the temperature knob on my stove as partners. I don’t think of any AI system as a partner. The moment we anthropomorphize technology—as if it were a person—we attribute will where none exists. In ... See more

This shift in perspective clarifies that humans have always used technology to increase our ability to control our environment. There are few biological or physiological differences between ancestral and modern humans; instead, the relevant differences are improved knowledge and understanding, tools, technology and, indeed, AI. In a sense, modern h... See more

In this world, control is primarily in the hands of people and organizations; indeed, a greater and greater proportion of what people do in their jobs is AI control.

We articulate a vision of artificial intelligence (AI) as

normal technology

. To view AI as normal is not to understate its impact—even transformative, general-purpose technologies such as electricity and the internet are “normal” in our conception. But it is in contrast to both utopian and dystopian visions of the future of AI which have a common ... See more

Perhaps what we are witnessing is the birth of a cosmopolis characterized by a vastly deeper and more comprehensive kind of fixity than that introduced by print technology. An articulation of civilizational memory so rich, deep, and alive, it constitutes something like a planetary awakening, not merely into a new consciousness, but a new memory of ... See more

But even when AI becomes more sophisticated, it will still be backwards looking, relying on an analysis of things-already-done. There’s certainly some truth to the claim that ‘everything is remix’ (Harry Potter = Star Wars; Jaws = Beowulf). But only some. It’s perhaps more accurate to say that ‘everything is remix + experience’. Truly creative peop... See more