Keeping the faith in AI

(Nicola aske me to write a story about my never-ending enthusiasm for new technology. Here is what I came up with.)

As some of you know, I’m a geek through and through. Over the last two and a half years, I have slowly and steadily explored different AI tools. As with all new technology, it has the power to disrupt just as much as it does to transform. As someone who has experienced such transformative technology firsthand over nearly 70 years, I would like to explain why I still have faith in the direction we are taking with AI.
 
This faith is built on one simple observation: even the inventors of innovative, transformative technology do not know or imagine how life-changing it will be. In the test of history, their vision, no matter how outrageous, proves to be too small. I’d like to take four examples of such technology to highlight this point.
 
Example 1: cars (1920s)
 
Cars were developed to create an alternative means of transportation to horses.
 
In my office at home, there is a photo of my grandmother in her early twenties, standing in front of her uncle’s Model-T car. Her uncle bought the car without knowing how to drive. Because he did like to imbibe, he quickly learned the dangers of driving while drunk. His solution was to make my grandmother his chauffeur.
 
My grandmother explained that back then cars were considered a luxury. Most people worried that if everyone could buy a car, madness would ensue. What would happen to all the horses and carriages? The economy would collapse, and masses of people would be unemployed.
 
Example 2: the telephone (1950s)
 
The telephone system was developed as a substitute for the telegraph.
 
My grandmother (the same as above) and grandfather eventually moved from Montreal to a small town outside of Ottawa. In their house, they had a telephone mounted on the wall, which was connected to the post office. Every call made or received was done through the postmistress.
 
My grandfather, a telecommunications engineer, told me years later an amazing story. He said telephones were invented as a substitute for the telegraph. The advantage of the telephone over the telegraph was that a person did not need to read Morse code. Because it was possible to convey information by voice, post offices could hire anyone to operate the phones.
 
He said what drove the transformation of the telephone from an information device to a communication device was giving women, principally postmistresses, access to the technology. My grandfather believed women made the telephone what it is today.
 
Example 3: PCs (1980s)
 
Office PCs were supposed to make us work faster and save on paper. I remember well when we got our first PCs at the engineering department where I was working. Was it a DOS system or the first Windows system? I can’t really remember. But it was magic. We could write texts, like training manuals, and make corrections at any time without added expense. We could make calculations with speed and efficiency.
 
Those first few years of developing PC technology were filled with both strong arguments, such as how they would save costs in manpower and paper and increase speed and efficiency. As well, there were many bleak prognoses about loss of jobs, the quality of human interaction, and our lives being dictated by machines.
 
In hindsight, all of this can be argued to have come true (except for the paper bit), but a world without computers is inconceivable. Even I, who did work in a pre-computer world, can’t imagine anyone wanting to turn back the clock. It’s not a matter of good or bad, but inevitability and opportunity.
 
Example 4: web 2.0 and social media (2000s)
 
Web 2.0 and social media sites allow everyday people to create their own content.
 
At the time, many believed that news channels, newspapers, magazines, and book publishers would go bankrupt and become obsolete.
 
As someone who was there and active at the dawn of the Internet, raising my kids as the first generation of digital natives was often a lonely and controversial path to follow. The news channels shouted about the dangers of using technology. In our circle of friends, there was a rigid belief that all responsible parents should keep their children away from Internet technologies. In our schools, there was a strict boycott of the use of media in the classroom.
 
In the end, I spent a few years working as a researcher in the field of multimedia and interactive systems. My life’s mission became to bridge the gap for K-12 students, teachers, parents, and school administrators. It was shocking how the adults lacked any experience with media, which made the educators and parents woefully unprepared to teach their children for future careers.
 
This work showed me how enthusiastic students were, and how unprepared teachers and parents were to guide their children’s learning.
 

What this resulted in was a generation of children who had to help adults cope with ever-changing technology. They were often the ones configuring the channels on a new television, installing new versions of Windows, or new printer drivers. And now they, along with Gen Z, are the generations having to wrestle with all the new developments in AI.

If we want to create a future where AI is used constructively and creatively, rather than just for speed and cost savings, we all need to participate in this transformation. Instead of spending the majority of the time reading news articles or watching YouTube videos, we should start using AI. 

If each of us from the older generations were to humbly use AI tools in our work or personal lives, we could enter the multitude of conversations taking place at this very moment. Many of the questions we are currently exploring about AI are not technical but philosophical. How can each of us find answers to these questions if we do not experience AI firsthand?
 
So, this is my appeal to those of us in the older generations: we should not leave them alone on this journey. We need to have faith, show some grit, and take part ourselves.