Control or controlled?
My family stories continue to enrich the narrative I share here. Please bear with me as I recount the latest happenings in my household. There will be more to come, so I hope you'll appreciate the backstage view of this busy mum who finds learning opportunities in every interaction with her family. Am I not fortunate?
This weekend, we had the pleasure of spending considerable time together. My son isn't always enthusiastic about joining my husband and me on adventures that pull him away from Zelda. However, our Saturday afternoon invitation to the cinema proved quite attractive to my 14-year-old.
Off we went to see a film none of us knew much about. This won't contain spoilers, or perhaps it will, at least for those who, like me, knew nothing about the film called Tron.
I recall watching the first Tron decades ago, and it didn't particularly impress me. I remember a rather tedious song playing throughout and the stark visual contrast: red versus blue. But this new instalment bears little resemblance to what I remember. Naturally, the film centres on AI, it would have been a missed opportunity not to feature the most hyped topic of our time.
The film was actually quite good and sparked reflections on old perspectives I used to have at the beginning of this AI wave. Tron illustrates precisely how I feel about AI: it's like a knife: you can use it as a weapon or to spread butter on your toast. The choice is yours. Yet one detail made me think deeply. The "creators" of the AI's code had different intentions from those of the AI they created. I'm writing somewhat simplistically so everyone can follow along. It would be more accurate to use precise technical terms, but that's not the purpose of this post. Given how rapidly things are evolving, I wonder whether AI could actually achieve this level of consciousness.
It's important to remember that AI is not conscious (at least not yet) and what I'm proposing here is purely hypothetical. But imagine if the level of sophistication reached a point where algorithms could think independently and draw conclusions based on their own "assumptions"… could I still compare AI to a knife? I don't think so, because it would no longer depend on the user. That's when we lose control, isn't it? We don't want this. But honestly, how much control do we currently have to ensure we don't arrive at this undesirable form of technology?
I'm not here to create panic, but to raise awareness. Whilst we enjoy films featuring intriguing portrayals of AI, we must consider what could go wrong, or what is already going wrong. If you've watched the film, did you feel the same discomfort I did? Or have I created that discomfort by provoking this line of thinking? How much control do you believe you have over AI?
While pondering this, I must agree with my son: Zelda's world does seem safer than ours lately, doesn't it?
