As a proud member of Gen X, I can remember life both before and after the boom of the Internet. I can still hear the screeching of our dial-up Internet and the seemingly endless supply of free AOL (America Online) discs coming in the mail. It seems like just yesterday.
Since then, I, along with the rest of the world, have watched the digital world grow exponentially.
A Whole New World
Now we have come to the age of artificial intelligence (AI). We welcomed Alexa and Siri into our lives with open arms, grateful for the help they offered us. We all wondered how we had ever made it to our destinations before and forgot how to convert measurements for cooking. And then the AI train kept moving down the track, picking up speed.
Suddenly, I started to realize that whenever I would think of something I was interested in or was considering purchasing, that item seemed to show up in my social media feed or Amazon suggestions. I know it is because I have at some point entered information that cues the algorithms that now basically track my life, but it still feels a bit unsettling. Yet it makes sense, considering how many customer rewards programs we all have probably signed up for without even thinking about what information we’ve been giving out.
And then there is AI in the restaurant business. Recently, I stopped at a local fast-food restaurant with my kids. After ordering, my son informed me that the “person” taking my order was not actually a person, but rather an AI-generated voice. I could have sworn it was a real human being.
Then, the other day when my husband, Mark, and I were at a restaurant, a waitress took our orders, but our food was delivered by a robot—a literal robot. To say it was a little shocking is an understatement.
And every time I sit down to write—even this very column—I am asked if I want AI to write it for me. It feels like there’s no escaping it.
Tread Carefully
But while I appreciate many of the benefits of AI, it also makes me somewhat uneasy. And here’s why. As anyone can see, we are already losing many of our personal connections with each other. I see it with my own kids, who would prefer to text or email someone with a question than pick up the phone and call. So, introducing something else that allows us to avoid true communication seems like it could have a negative effect on us all.
How we embrace technology and maintain our humanity can be a both/and situation, though. We can look to AI for clues on how to do that. AI can accomplish many things and perform many functions. But without human creativity, cooperation, and ingenuity, there would be no AI. Without either element, it doesn’t work.
We need to remember that, at our core, we are people of community, based on real, personal connections. We need each other. That’s something technology can never take away—if we don’t allow it.
