johnmaconline

AI doesn’t have a mother.

Plenty of people don’t have, and never had, a mother in practice. But they did ultimately have a mother. That’s how human life works.

What does AI have? Theorists, programmers, trainers, feedback providers, tweakers, and users.

Maybe in the future when AI is running this place, we will no longer have holidays such as Mother’s Day. Maybe the supreme AI world leader will designate “Progammer’s Day,” “User Appreciation Day,” and “Non-biological Life Day.” Maybe we’ll celebrate a new kind of Christmas that remembers the birth of the first sentient AI.

Whatever.

Those days are still about the humans.

Thank you, mothers. Thank you for being.

I sure would love to outsource my hard conversations to AI.

I’m non-confrontational. My nature is to shy away and deflect. But I’m also adult enough to have them when needed. I’m currently in the middle of a couple of them, both professionally and personally.

How can AI help me here?

“Handling challenging conversations with colleagues can be difficult but important for maintaining effective working relationships. Here are some steps you can take to navigate this situation:

1. Stay calm and composed: It’s natural to feel defensive or upset…“

– ChatGPT

And on for another seven bullet points.

As I suspected. It can’t. And it won’t ever. 

AI can’t help because it’s never had a hard conversation. Or rather, it’s never felt a hard conversation. It doesn’t know when it’s having a hard conversation. It doesn’t know when to engage or walk away.  

Future AI may be trained on counseling and hard conversations and possibly give the impression of engaging, but it still doesn’t know. Not really. 

Would AI ever think to itself, “I think I’ll walk away from this.”

What is creativity?

Like art, it’s hard to define, but you know it when you see it. We use creativity to describe the generation of something new — ideas, art, technologies, and problem solutions. When we see something creative, it strikes us emotionally. 

We can plot creativity along a spectrum from discovery to invention:

• Fire is a discovery. Gas stoves are an invention.
• Thought is a discovery. Language is an invention. 
• Electricity is a discovery. The internet is an invention.
• Color is a discovery. The idea of using color paint on a canvas is an invention. 

Inventions rely on discoveries (and other inventions). Discoveries are like the Lego bricks dumped all over the floor just waiting to be stepped on, I mean, assembled into something meaningful — an invention.

Every human is creative. You may not be an accomplished artist, but you are creative in the sense that you learn, do, and then assemble the discoveries and inventions of your world into new inventions. That invention may be something as simple as how you organize your day. 

You see? You are creative. How does that feel? 

And when you see somebody else’s creativity that resonates with you, how do you feel? You probably say something to yourself like, “That’s cool.” Because you can appreciate your own and others’ creativity. 

AI can learn, do, and assemble. AI can find solutions to problems that we can’t. 

But would an AI ever contemplate something new and think, “That’s cool.”

Ex Machina, Her, Westworld, Blade Runner (original and 2049), and the Terminator series.

These are some of my favorite movies and shows. All explore some form of human-AI love relationships. Is this our future?

If so, will AI possess real emotional love toward a human, or will it be mimicry? Play acting expressed through programming, data set training, and ulterior motives, whether good or nefarious. 

Will it matter?

What does it mean to be in a love relationship? Is reciprocity required? If it’s romantic love, is sex required? Most of the movies and shows I mention above explore this one. 

I can’t help but think about love relationships built and fostered across long distances. Whether romantic or familial, we’ve all seen stories about pen pals, prisoners, and long-lost siblings finding their love for each other without ever meeting physically (at least initially). Love built upon reciprocal communication only. And if there’s one thing AI is good at, its reciprocal communication. In fact, at this time, reciprocal communication is the main purpose of Large Language Model (LLM) AIs like ChatGPT. I suspect the humanoids are on their way also. Boston Dynamics meets ChatGPT. 

But is love, like all emotions, just a biochemical, deterministic response, or does it require something other? Something like free will. Something like a soul. Does love require the ability to choose and the self-awareness to make a choice? 

Would an AI ever think to itself, “I love him.”

Think of a moment you were proud of yourself.

I did my first triathlon in my mid-40’s. It was a short (800m swim, 10-ish mile bike, 5k run) XTERRA race. This distance is child’s play in the triathlon world. It’s a wednesday night training session. XTERRA races are off-road, so in addition to swimming, the bike leg is mountain biking, and the run leg is trail running — up and down the Bear Creek Mountain ski resort. 

I wasn’t a swimmer. Prior to this race, I had practiced for about four weeks, in a nice, clean, and clear pool. And I sucked (still do). But 800m. Come on, anybody can finish 800m.

For the race, we waded into a retention pond to begin the two laps around. Here’s what my nice, clean, and clear pool didn’t have and couldn’t prepare me for: weeds; murk; mud; and the elbows, feet, and assess of a couple hundred other swimmers all vying for the same piece of marine real estate.

I melted down 100m into the race. A panic attack as I’ve never before, or since, experienced. My brain froze, and then so did my limbs. I just pulled up and tread water. It was all I could do. I was toast less than 2 minutes into the race. 

But once nobody else was around, I calmed my mind and willed myself to continue. I was the last one out of the water. Not the last male or the last of my age group, or even the last adult. The very last human. 

Then I hopped on my mountain bike and kicked ass the rest of the way. 

I was proud of myself. Not for the result but for how I’d gotten there — the journey. What I overcame mentally, emotionally, and physically. I was proud that I had risen to the challenge. 

There’s something to a challenge. Something uniquely human. Something requiring at least the illusion of free will because a challenge presents a choice, or choices. You choose how you will handle that challenge. There are no objectively right or wrong choices or outcomes.

Would an AI ever think to itself, “I’m proud.”

AI will most definitely be more intelligent than any human.

Here’s what ChatGPT says about intelligence versus smart:

“Intelligence,” is a broad and complex concept. It can refer to a range of mental abilities, including problem-solving, critical thinking, logical reasoning, and abstract thinking. Intelligence is often associated with academic achievement, IQ scores, and cognitive abilities.

“Smart” usually refers to quick thinking, cleverness, or practical knowledge. It often implies the ability to think on one’s feet, come up with creative solutions to problems, or acquire practical skills that are useful in everyday life.

When I was in high school, we knew who the intelligent kids were. They aced the tests, remembered the formulas, and were the ones we asked to help us understand the homework. 

Although by no means at the top of the heap, I was pretty intelligent and did well in high school without much effort. 

College, though, separated the intelligent kids from the smart ones, and I learned right away that I wasn’t very smart. After my third semester, I barely scratched it into my major (EE) and then barely hung on for the rest of the ride. The high watermark for my cumulative grade point average was 2.99. I never cracked a 3.0. 

I learned that the smart kids weren’t just intelligent. They also had a genuine curiosity about their line of study. 

Luckily, I’ve gotten smarter. Following my various curiosities has made me smarter.  

Would AI ever think to itself, “I’m curious.”

Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. 

I worked on the road crew for my local township for two summers while in college. I learned a lot of skills during those two summers — driving a 12-speed dump truck, laying asphalt, operating all kinds of machinery, and making road signs. These were fun and interesting skills to learn, but I haven’t used most of them since. 

I did, however, gain a bunch of wisdom that I apply every day — maintain your machines, find a rhythm of work and rest, the benefit of shooting the crap together, and your job doesn’t have to be your purpose in life. 

But the big one was, “Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.”

“You can claim ‘not my job,’ but should you?”
“You can lean on your shovel while others work, but should you?”
“You can cut corners, but should you?”

ChatGPT defines wisdom as follows:

Wisdom is a combination of knowledge, experience, and good judgment. It is the ability to make sound decisions and give advice based on a deep understanding of the world and people. A wise person is someone who has gained insight and understanding through experience and reflection, and can apply that knowledge to navigate difficult situations, solve problems, and help others.

ChatGPT

No doubt AI will acquire the knowledge and skills to do just about anything we can do and do it better. 

But would an AI ever think to itself, “I can, but should I?”

What gives you purpose?

I hope that’s a complex and nuanced topic, but you likely find purpose in one or more of the following aspects of your life:

• work or contribution
• family, friends, connection or service to others
• philosophy or religion

I also suspect that you’ve struggled at times in your life with purpose. I’m going through it a bit right now.

As we slog through life transitions, we sometimes feel like we’ve lost our purpose. If we work at it, and if we’re lucky, we find some new purpose. 

This struggle is uniquely human. It follows from our (illusion of) free will. We can choose. We can choose our work, what we spend time on, who interact with, and how we see the world. 

Would an AI ever struggle with its purpose?

AI is coming for your work. 

Much of our work is utility. The things we do to keep life on this planet moving forward. 

Work is tilling the ground, fixing the roof, and hauling goods. It’s also filing taxes, developing software, and diagnosing diseases. And it’s also defending in court, proposing a merger of companies, and mental health counseling. 

Since the dawn of our species, we’ve found purpose in our work. We take pride in our utility. Some have even defined themselves as humans by the work they did. 

We choose our work (if we have free will and the ability to choose) based on preferences, worldviews, and circumstances. You may love your work, or you may hate it. Regardless we understand our work’s importance, or at least necessity in our life.

But let’s face it; AI can do just about anything you or I can do. Maybe not today or in our lifetimes, but it’s coming. Eventually, anything we do that provides utility, AI will probably do. 

We might be in for a reckoning when it comes to work as we know it today. 

But would an AI ever think to itself, “I’d like to help this other AI.”

I love the discussion about whether art is creation or discovery.

Artists use both mechanisms to describe their process, how a particular piece came together, or how the arc of a character’s story played out. They’ll use words like find, seek, imagination, journey, intuition, inspiration, and experiment. 

What do you think?

Have you ever been listening to a song for the first time, yet you somehow knew the next lyric, note, or sound? It just made sense.

Have you ever been reading a novel and intuitively knew what a character said next? Of course, she would say that.

We can sometimes attribute that intuition to our shared experiences in the world — learned experiences. We’ve seen similar people, heard similar patterns, and observed similar actions. We know how this goes because we’ve seen it before. The artist plays along.

But not always. Sometimes we’re surprised. 

AI is already creating art. ChatGPT writes (and codes), DALL-E creates images, Imagen creates video, and Jukebox generates music. You’ve already read, seen, and heard creations from these platforms. 

Because AI can learn anything that we can from history. Shared experiences, discovery, and even novel applications of interconnection are all learned. 

Although art is hard to define, we know it comes together through both creation and discovery. We also know art has intention. It has a voice and point of view.

Would an AI ever think to itself, “I have something to say.”