By Eli Amdur
Relax. Artificial intelligence (AI) is not taking over the world — yet. Yet? Make that for a long time. You, your family and your business are not in danger – yet.
Like with any other major innovation in human history, life as we know it will change, mostly for the better. But what gets all the attention? Fear of loss. Loss of jobs, loss of relevance, loss of community. What history has repeatedly proven is that more progress comes from these milestones than does destruction. But that depends on how we use them.
Case in point: social media. Nothing ever changed so much of the world so fast than did social media. Nor did anything ever make such a mess of things. On the contrary, there’s the PC. When IBM introduced the model 5150 on Aug. 12, 1981, the world literally went nuts. People were either in awe (in awe of 64K? Really?) or in panic mode: “The computer will take my job …” Remember that? Well, not only wasn’t that true; the PC industry created 40 million jobs and improved at least that many more. Again: that depends on how we use them.
So here we are, having witnessed four of the most significant civilization changers that ever took place — the PC, the web, social media, and AI — and we’ve seen that what happens depends on how we use them, yet we’re panicking again.
Calm down. It’ll be a long time before AI is smarter than we are — if ever. Here’s a story.
A couple of weeks ago, I signed up for AI — and it took me just four minutes to catch the first untruth. I asked the bot, “When did Albert Einstein meet Sigmund Freud?” Back came this answer instantly: “Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud met on several occasions to discuss various topics, including science, psychology, and philosophy. Their most notable meeting took place on February 27, 1927, in Vienna, Austria.”
Two sentences, two mistakes. According to Richard Panek, author of the fascinating 2004 book “The Invisible Century: Einstein, Freud, and the Search for Hidden Universes,” the two met only once (1927); however, they met in Berlin (not Vienna), at the home of one of Freud’s sons. Subsequently, Einstein was asked if he’d consider being psychoanalyzed; he quickly replied, “I should like very much to remain in the darkness of not having been analyzed.” Freud reflected “He understands about as much about psychology as I do about physics, so we had a very pleasant talk.”
And that was that. But as these two giants made significant discoveries of things forever invisible but verifiable, relativity and the ego, it’s reasonable to suspect that there were more meetings. So what’s correct? I’ll go with the scholar on this one. The two did carry on a correspondence through 1932, but that one visit in 1927 was the only time they were in the same room together.
What’s the point here? Simply that AI. which has — in no time flat — gotten in your face, is also
sneaking up behind you. That immediate, well-written tale, complete with folksy asides and embellishments, made it appear authoritative. Had I not read Panek’s book, the bot would have put this one over on me.
In the world of generative AI, in which content is generated, this is called hallucinating. AI simply made up parts of the answer and then kept going.
Why can AI get away with this and more? Never mind the sinister humans purposely trying to overturn the current world order. Let’s just stay with the more innocent stuff for now.
Take your pick of any or several of these: (1) Lack of critical thinking, which seems to have evaporated from school curricula at all levels. (2) Laziness or inertia. A body at rest tends to stay at rest unless … You know that one. (3) Indifference. If we don’t care, it just doesn’t matter. Any result is OK. (4) Intellectual malaise, self-inflicted, mostly. (5) Comfort, the need for an answer, no matter its veracity. (6) Obsession with technology. Just gotta have it, no matter what we do with it. Let the Joneses keep up with us for a change. (7) Atrophied attention spans. Jack Russell puppies pay attention longer than most of us, and we’ve got instant gratification suppliers like browsers and apps to thank for that. (8) Thinking it’s all one big game. It’s not.
We should be aware of this, and if we are, we’re way ahead of AI For now.
Eli Amdur has been providing individualized career and executive coaching, as well as corporate leadership advice, since 1997. For 15 years he taught graduate leadership courses at Fairleigh Dickinson University. He has been a regular writer for this and other publications since 2003. He can be reached at [email protected] or (201) 357-5844.
