Natural And Artificial Intelligence: Harm Or Harmony

Let us contemplate artificial intelligence calmly and methodically, unpacking difficult questions of how it influences society, creativity and environment. If you have AI anxiety or ethical questions on AI use and a wish to approach this challenging topic mindfully - I invite you to join this dialogue in comments.

P.S. Thanks to Anastasiia Nelen for making the cover photo available.

Transcript

Hello, Welcome. Thank you for tuning in to this talk. Today it will be both contemplative and practical. And the topic is relationship between us as creative people, As conscious beings, And the artificial intelligence that we can view as a tool, As a machine, Or we can view as a form of intelligence. My goal here in this talk is to make it less triggering to work our way through potential anxiety, Potential excitement at some points, And other emotions that we may have when we think about that artificial intelligence. But mostly, The purpose is to attract attention, To point our mind's eye to this existing relation in our life. When you were listening to this introduction, Which thoughts or feelings came up for you? Were you skeptical about how I used the words presence or relation in terms of artificial intelligence? Did something rise within you and say, No, No, But this is just a just a machine, It cannot have any presence or relationship? Is there some protest within you? Were you able to be calm about it, Open-minded and curious? Maybe you are even an adept of artificial intelligence, And you're using it as your trusted companion in your creative and work life, Maybe in some personal situations as well. There are so many topics about it, It is really a hype of the day, And it has been so for a couple of years. So let's just try to make some order, Put an hour ahead in this matter, And try to try to overcome our possible anxiety with this mindful approach, Observation of the topic, Observation of how it has developed, Which emotional triggers it has for us, And also through practical things, Practical steps that you can take to make your interaction with artificial intelligence more human, More mindful, And better for your well-being. So first of all, Let's look at the tension itself, Tension between natural intelligence and artificial intelligence. When we think about natural intelligence, We think about softness, Connection, Blurred boundaries, Webs of life, Patterns that repeat themselves, And some kind of affirmative, Life-positive goodness under all of it, Life itself. When we think about artificial intelligence, What comes to mind? Is it rigid, Or is it soft? Does it also follow repeated patterns? Does it allow for imperfection? Probably it does, Since it makes a lot of mistakes when producing its outputs, But we don't know, Most of us don't what is the process inside. Maybe it is quite rigid, More rigid than human thinking, Or maybe it is indeed a simplified model of how human brain operates. We have theories about that. We have scientists that develop tools of artificial intelligence, But there is always a gap of some unknown, Some little technocratic magic happening there, And this is both frustrating and exciting. Both, It can be a source of anxiety and a source of inspiration. From that point of view, It is really just like with any technological advancement, People flying into outer space. For me, It's, For example, A cause of anxiety. When I imagine cosmonauts in a spaceship, I feel claustrophobic for them. I feel that it's unnatural that they're out of place. Why are they even doing that? And so, So much resource is invested into building those space rockets. On the other hand, It gives us beautiful imagery and knowledge about our planet Earth. It also gives us some of the useful infrastructure, Such as satellite networks, Connection. So, It's really always two sides of the same coin for any, Any technological advancement. You can go as far back as inventing the wheel. Probably back then there were people who also looked suspiciously at it, Or yeah. If you think about it, The wheel, The perfect circle is a shape that currently for us is so natural, Almost synonymous with a natural cycle. But on the other hand, The shape of our planet isn't a perfect sphere. It's a little bit flattened. And when you observe nature, You will rarely find perfect circles. Maybe within our eyes, The pupil, Is it a perfect circle? But mostly, Even the smooth stones on riverbanks, They are not completely round. So, The perfect circle, Which the wheel should be to operate, Operate optimally, As again, As a machine, As the first, First underlying component, A fractal of any machine, It needs to be a perfect circle. So, Maybe, Who knows, Imagine some caveman polishing a stone, Or carving a piece of wood into a shape of a perfect circle, And others being critical about that unnatural undertaking, Trying to shape nature into some perfect form. So, That's how we continue. We continue being dualistic here, And balancing on the edge between huge respect and admiration for Mother Nature, Humility, Conservatism, And inspired, Adventurous exploration, Defying its borders. That is how we can view artificial intelligence now, From the outside. But when we are trying to relate to it, Or use it as a mirror for how the processes in our brain work, We can often find ourselves in a place of anxiety. And the more one is in their head, The more one will be anxious about artificial intelligence. People who work with their head, Who work intellectual jobs at the office, Long hours at computer making, Documents and presentations, And now they see that all of it can be easily replaced by a machine that generates text and images with breathtaking speed. How one can relate to it? How can one not question one's own intelligence if a machine is almost smarter than you are in that moment? So, I've talked with many creative and intellectuals about it, Intellectual specialists, Workers of creative circles, And there is always this defiance. No, No, Artificial intelligence cannot produce such good outputs. It's not there yet, But it's getting there, Right? It's getting there. And I see that people are clinging to this remaining gap between a quality of how AI talks and how a human would talk, And this gap is smaller and smaller, As if there was this void that separated you from some menace on the other side, And this opening, It's closing down, And soon this force of evil will just jump over this gap and consume you. That is how it is felt for me when I listen to those creatives. But there is an underlying question there, Simple question, Eternal question, What am I? Some people have come to associate themselves with their head and their thinking, And now they're brutally faced with the reality that this part of themselves may be easily copied by a machine. So, What can it lead us to? Skepticism? Nihilism? Is a human organism only a machine in itself, And all that we feel and think are just products of some chemical, Biological, And physical reactions within us? Is this rhetoric making you uncomfortable? Because that's exactly the challenge and the question that artificial intelligence is posing for us. The question, What am I, What makes me human, Is as long as time, And it's become one of the foundational questions of philosophy, You know, That Descartes' phrase, I think, Therefore I am, That kind of philosophy, Well, Now it has been dismantled. Because we are not because we think, We see that it is easily outsourced. I am, Therefore I am. I am. This wisdom here, Here in that conscious circle of people who seek mindfulness, Seek a more resilient and natural approach to life, This wisdom supports us, Helps us, Pulls us out of this darkness and doubt. And that's as simple and as complex as that. Stepping out of your identity as a thinking machine, Leaving it to the AI, And stepping into your identity as a being, Human being, Just being, Not thinking, Not judging, Not making those connections, Conclusions, Analysis, And synthesis. Those are all commendable and worthy occupations. Our brain is just like our muscles, It should work. But many of us have become a big, Heavy brain on thin and trembling legs, Moving around our earth without true connection to it, Without the proper weight in our body, In our torso, In our sacrum, Without the light in our solar plexus, And heart, Without the grip in our hands and steadiness in our feet. And this is what the beauty of artificial intelligence is. It shows us, You have so much more than I have, It says, It hints to us. Yeah, This is how we have analyzed ourselves as humanity. We have separated the brain from the body, And we saw it for what it is, Thinking machine. And now, The question remains, What is it, The rest of us, What is it that is left? Awareness, Embodiment. Now, Beautiful and intriguing for me, I think, Is that those concepts are now becoming relevant not only for people who are on the journey of healing and enlightenment, But for everyday human beings who don't bother themselves with seeking of some deep wisdom, Normally. But we all exist in this new reality. And the point is that, Whether we want it or not, Our mindset is shifting, Our reality is shifting, And therefore, Our thoughts, Patterns, Our consciousness is influenced by what's happening, By the presence of artificial intelligence. And this is a crossroads, A point where we should make a choice. Do we let it happen and observe it passively? Do we take a child's position here and let things of the world around shape us? And then, 5, 10, 15, 50 years later, We will just be living the patterns that we have accumulated today, Just like the patterns that we accumulated in our childhood and that we couldn't influence? Or, And this is the second option, Are we trying to consciously observe and shape how we show up in the world where we share space, Intellectual activities with artificial intelligence? How do we live now? How can we be when this theory, I think, Therefore, I am, Is no longer valid? How do we show up? What do we make of it? Can we approach it consciously? How to do it in practice? At my work, One of the works that I do, The jobs that I have, In advisory, I occupy myself with sustainability advisory. And I have studied frameworks for ethical use of artificial intelligence and share them with my colleagues, Because I saw it as my responsibility, As I saw that the company has adopted AI really into its core. So, I felt that I need to understand how to make it ethical and sustainable. And that already was helpful and supportive for me, Because a lot of things that I was worried about, For example, The immense use of natural resources, The human agency behind every decision and process, The accountability and responsibility of the human, Consideration for human cognitive health, Unfair advantage that AI can give to some groups, All of those are actually addressed in quite robust policies, One of them created by UNESCO, Which is worldwide. And I felt immediately better that there were a lot of people who thought about the same things, Even though they were described in this rather complex academic policy language. But I captured the patterns there, The patterns of care, Care for the earth and care for the human. And two practical outcomes of that, That I am trying to apply in my interaction with AI, Are firstly to always estimate if the end goal of this generative process merits all the natural resources that will be spent to achieve this goal. And I think that's a very good lesson also for us, Just thinking before we do, But also thinking before we think. Is this research, Is this cognitive effort worthy of the means to achieve it, Of the headache, Of deteriorated eyesight, Of twisted posture at the computer desk? Or can I spend my time better walking outside and stretching my body, Dancing, Painting, Drinking clean water, Being? And the second principle is that however detailed analysis and information AI provides for us, We as humans are ultimately and wholly accountable and responsible for all the decisions we make based on that information. And again, This calls to us to step up and take, Take the lead in our lives. Because often we outsource our thinking, And we have done it even before AI was ever there, To be used by general public. We've been outsourcing our thinking to doctors, Lawyers, University professors, To our bosses at work, To government officials, And we thought it's normal, Because those people have more information than we do on certain subjects. And this approach allowed some things to remain unchallenged, Even though they may not have been the most prosperous for us. And now every person has access to at least 90%, I cannot say all the information that every peak cutting-edge scientist will have, But most of that information, Most of us have the same access. And that's not to say that we don't need doctors or university professors anymore, Because those people, They don't only accumulate information, They are able to relate to this field that they curate throughout their career, Inevitably, And maybe unconsciously they develop an embodied way of seeking wisdom, Because they wake up with this research, They go to sleep with the research, They feel it in their bones. And that's not something that information alone can create. It's years and years of being shaped by the topic. But in our daily lives, We have access to the same amount of information as those people, As those scholars. And what it means for us is that information alone is not enough to make a decision. There is the human ethical principle, The judgment, The discernment that every one of us is responsible for. And that's mind-blowing how liberating and how challenging it is to accept this responsibility. Because think about it, If AI can give you any complicated analysis on any topic, And you as human are responsible to making the conclusion and the decision based on that, It is clearly written in those policies, And I agree with that. If you make research upon your health, About your health, And then you take decisions based on AI information, It's not AI that is making your diagnosis. Yeah, You are self-diagnosing, So you need to decide if you are competent to make this call, Not to read and understand this information, But that maybe also, But also to make the decision. And now again, There is a dialogue here. If I want to maintain my agency, What do I do? I think that taking medical advice from the AI is not very wise. Yeah, That's my personal opinion, And it's not even medical advice, It's information, Information from open sources about health. And what would I do? I would go with this information to a doctor, And I would get a doctor's opinion, Maybe a second opinion from another doctor if it's some issue that is serious for me, That has some consequences. But the decision lies with me, And AI teaches us that however much information from however competent sources you get, You need to discern its application to your life, And that completely dismantles the authority of all those closed-door intellectual elite that try to shape politics and the economy of the world by saying that it's only for those who understand it. No, No, Now we all have the information, Yeah? Shaping the decisions is for those who have the heart and the wisdom to do it, Not the head, Because the head is outsourced now. And this is what I'm thankful to AI for. And this is one of the ways in which AI makes us more human, Can help us discover our human potential, Because we can make informational decisions, Informed decisions and intellectual work much faster, And we have much more time to actually be, To engage in human activities, To start looking around, Looking behind the window, And for the first time asking ourselves what are the names of those trees that I see every day on the way to work or to a shop, Or why are there no trees around where I live? Can I plant a tree? What do I need for it? And such, Such things. AI is challenging for us as creators because it takes a lot of generative capacity. It overwhelms us with its speed. But that's the beauty. You know how there are those memes and jokes that people say, I don't want AI or robots to paint and make music for me and write books. I want them to do my dishes and clean my house, And then I will use the time to write books, Poetry, Paint, And so on, Make music. Well, My response to that is, First of all, If you want to use robots like that, That's up to you. Of course, Some of them, The robots, Are less affordable, Yeah? But in general, If you don't want to use AI to do creative work, Then don't. Or if you can use it to optimize some of your routine tasks in order to have more time for creative work, Please do it. It is within your hands, The responsibility that I can say to those people who have the complaint that robots are taking our creative jobs. This is our choice and decision, Yeah? Yeah, People buy things from AI now. Pictures, Music, Things that they could have bought from human creators, And that is also a choice. And creators can be resentful about it, But just like that, They can be resentful about another creator taking their place, And maybe a less ethical one, The one who, I don't know, Plagiarizes or reuses their content too much, Yeah? Who is not making it authentically. But it is just a passing phase. I believe, I want to believe, That sooner or later, People who are after the content will maybe switch to AI, Or hopefully use this first principle that I mentioned, Just evaluating if it is worthy of the natural resources spent behind the AI. Because, For example, When you need like a cover picture for some, I don't know, Report, Or research, Or presentation, And you generate it with AI, Well, If it is a document that will be used once or twice, It doesn't make sense. You can use a picture that is not super perfect, But is already made and available. It is much more, Much more sustainable. When I was little, I remember walking, I vividly remember walking from school and lamenting how I couldn't paint very well, And how I was impatient. I didn't have enough stamina to sit and learn to paint and create. But I had always that bright, Colorful imagination, And I was thinking about some stories, And I had those stories, And I was writing, And I remember thinking, I wish there was a way to take this picture out of my head and put it straight on the paper. Because I have already done the creative work of conceptualizing this, And now I just need to materialize this, And this is so hard, And I don't know how to do it. It takes this craft that I don't have. Well, Now, After, What, 20 years, I finally can, I finally can take the picture directly out of my head, Through the words of my mouth, And put it on paper using the artificial intelligence, And that's insane. 15, 20 years ago, If someone told me that's possible, I would have felt that I live in a sci-fi movie. But, Curiously, I'm not doing it now. Because, Over those years, I realized also that imperfect art created by human hand communicates to you on so many more levels than just this informational level of of transmitting images and words. Imperfect human art is a sacrament. And that also is the fruit of my thinking and relating to artificial intelligence. And that's why I believe that it helps us be more human. It takes off that load of a thinking machine, And it frees us, Unties our hands. So, Thank you to those people who invented it. And, Of course, Of course, Many of us will be challenged. Our roles and jobs will be reshaped. And I don't want to undermine the importance of that shift. Changing incomes, Changing focus. Even people literally left without income due to robotization of society. But I want to keep that general perspective optimistic. Of course, There will be always people who want to misuse this technology. But this is just like with everything. People invented iron tools, And they had a choice to use them to dig holes and plant crops or to kill their enemies. Yeah? To nominate other people as enemies and then go after them with with a sword in their hand. And that's the same. There is always a choice. We use this tool to make a better world or to create harm. Harm or harmony? What do we choose? Thank you for joining me for this contemplation. I realize that there are no answers. And I wish you lots of wisdom on your journey, Wherever you are.