Will AI Simplify The World? 3 Facts for a Balanced View

As minimalists we are always looking for ways to simplify our lives. We want to streamline everything we possibly can. And to that end we may wonder about artificial intelligence and it’s evolving role in our everyday lives. AI has probably already simplified your life whether you know it or not but will AI simplify the world? Will AI simplify your life on a daily basis? How much should we use it? How much should we trust it? 

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I’ve been thinking about this for a long time and I didn’t want to write this article without a more in depth understanding of the topic. After all, aren’t we all hesitant about things that are new? Isn’t AI just another word for killer robot? 

Of course, we need to have a balanced view of AI. And to gain more information and balance I read AI Snake Oil by Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor. It’s a great book and you should read it because I couldn’t even start to give justice to the depth of their explanation. I will however use it as a touchstone for this article. 

Will AI Change the World? Has it Already Changed Your Life? 

You may be wondering right now, why do I even care? I am just going along with my life and I want it to be as simple as possible. If AI is coming, let it come. To some degree, I feel the same. But you have to admit you already like some things AI can and you might even hate some of other things it does.  

For example, did you know that autocorrect and spell check are simple forms of AI? Do you use a Google home mini, Alexa, or Siri? If you do, you are using AI! And how do you feel about targeted ads and reels specially chosen for you on social media? All of that is AI! Even your grocery shopping apps use AI to help you remember the things you forgot to put in your cart. 

Then there’s the new phenomenon that’s taking over everything we see. You know, those AI images and videos that can be so convincing you start to believe there really are unicorns frolicking in the Alps. Or what about those Chat GPT written articles you read about celebrities? 

Let’s face it. There are a lot of questions about AI. Some of them affect us normal people on an everyday basis and some of them don’t but you can’t deny that you’re curious about how AI will change the world in the next few years. Will AI simplify the world or just make it harder to know what is real and what is fake? 

The Three Types of AI

The first thing I learned in AI Snake Oil  is that there are three main types of AI and some fo them are highly effective while others are making claims they can’t live up to. 

Will Predictive AI Simplify The World and Make Decisions Automated?

The first type is what is called Predictive AI. Will AI simplify the world and how we make decisions? That’s what predictive AI aims to do. Help us make decisions based on patterns.

For example, your weather forecast is a basic form of predictive it AI. It is based on well known patterns that are then played out in a simulation. Weather forecasting is actually one of the most accurate forms of predictive AI and we all know how accurate that really is. 

The scary thing about Predictive AI is that many companies use it to help them make big decisions about your life. What kinds of decisions? Well hospitals sometimes use AI to predict how quickly you should recover which affects your care and what insurance will and won’t pay for. Law enforcement has used AI in the form of facial recognition to find criminals and courts have used AI to decide who gets bail and who is likely to commit a crime again. Schools have even used AI to predict the life outcomes of students which affects who gets scholarships, who gets more help with their education, and so forth. 

While these uses of AI might sound like they will simplify the world they are claiming to do something we all know is very complicated. They are claiming to predict human behavior which is highly variable.

Not only do they not have enough data, the data they have can be biased by previous human behavior and it does not factor in our reactions to future changes in our environment. As a result a lot of unfair judgements can be made and those judgements can affect how long you stay in the hospital, what your insurance covers, how you move through the justice system and even whether or not you get a job.

Furthermore the data the AI makes decisions based upon may reflect human biases potentially inflating racism, ageism, and so forth. 

There’s no doubt that predictive AI is affecting our lives but what can we do about it? Not much, unless you work in a company that uses it in which case you can advocate for it be used judicially. Regardless it’s good for the average person to understand the role it plays and it’s limits so you don’t trust Predictive AI programs too implicitly. The good news is a lot of companies are getting wise to the limits of Predictive AI and using it less. 

Will Generative AI Simplify the World or Confuse Us? 

The next category of AI is Generative AI. It’s pretty cool and the writers of AI Snake Oil find it more promising that Predictive AI. Will AI simplify the world? Well, generative AI might. But what is Generative AI to you and me? It’s the stuff that is created by prompts given to AI engines. Think ChatGPT, Open AI, and all those weird images and videos shared on social media. 

Generative AI can be very fun, funny, weird, and even helpful. People have started using ChatGPT and programs like it to help them create reports, graphs, and other useful things for their work. 

That being said, is it fail proof? Absolutely not. We have all seen the pictures of gorgeous women with seven or 8 fingers and if you Google anything you probably have come to realize that the AI summary can be a misleading mish-mash of the actual answers found in the results. Keep that in mind because you wouldn’t want to turn in a report that has crucially wrong details and I personally don’t think AI art is as meaningful as something made by a human. 

There are other concerns about Generative AI as well. One of these is that  AI tools have to be “trained” with thousands of data inputs which ultimately have to be collected and labeled by humans. These humans are paid poorly and usually live in war torn or otherwise impoverished countries so they have few other choices in employment. Beyond that they often have to filter through a lot of disturbing images and messages labeling them individually so they are exposed to all the worst things a human can see over and over again, day in and day out. 

Also generative AI is “trained” on content that already exists. In other words, it compiles images that other people have already created and written content that human writers wrote, throws it in a blender and spits out it’s own version. Did they get permission to use these works? No. And yet, the images and content created by AI are cheap so there’s already a decline in demand for writers, stock images creators, and graphic designers to name a few. 

Lastly, all AI, especially generative AI requires massive amounts of energy and water to power and cool the systems that run it. Will AI change the world? Well, it might just use up it’s precious resources if not used wisely.

Will General AI Take Over the World?

Finally, you have what is called General AI and this is the term that refers to the idea that “robots” will take over the world. It embodies the idea that one day AI will have general knowledge that it builds upon naturally like we do and the fear a lot of people have is that it will become too powerful, essentially putting everyone out of work and running the world without compassion or discernment. 

The writers of AI Snake Oil explain that while some scientists think this is possible and are worried about it, they most likely are inflating how quickly the technology will advance and what it’s true capabilities will be never the less how humans will choose to use and regulate it. 

The bigger concern with General AI is its use by “bad actors” who taint the information the AI is trained on, thus influencing it do bad because it’s been taught bad. In other words, just like every other tool AI can be used the wrong way and the danger really originates with the people using it. 

Will AI Simplify The World or Will We Reject It?

Now that I have a better understanding of AI and the things it already does in our world I can’t say I feel more excited to use it. Rather, I feel that I am drawn to the truth and beauty created by the human mind and heart. I can’t imagine I will ever want to watch a movie generated by AI and AI images may be pretty but they lack that special something. In fact, my desire for the human element in my art is a big reason I have never used AI to generate any part of my blog posts. 

That being said, I do think that AI will become a bigger part of our lives in helpful ways. Just like spell check helps me correct errors, Amazon knows what I’m looking for, and my Google Home Mini plays great music, I believe that AI will simplify the world in some really useful ways. 

On the other hand, AI will make the world more complicated too. What information will we trust? Will we fall for deep fakes and scams? Should we use it to do our brain work for us or will that just allow our brains to rot away? Will your children have the discernment to know that the sparkling unicorn they saw on Instagram doesn’t really exist? 

These are all questions we have to consider and talk about. There will have to be regulation of the ways AI is used and we will have to use our human wisdom and discernment to check our facts and keep our grasp on reality. 

How Do You Feel? Will AI Simplify The World for You? 

I know, I tried to keep this post simple and it still got pretty complicated. I hope, however, that it has given you a better understanding of the AI that we see more and more of in the world around us. 

I don’t claim to understand everything about it so you should definitely read or listen to AI Snake Oil for yourself if you are curious about the details. 

In the meantime I would love to hear your opinions about this topic. Will AI simplify the world? Will AI simplify your life and enhance the minimalist lifestyle? Will you embrace it? Reject it? Or find a balance? Let me know in the comments below!