AI gedachten / AI thoughts

“This time, it’s different!” Is it? Are we living in a special era, now that we’re witnessing the rise of AI, or will 22nd century historians just look at our excitement with mild curiosity?

I started this blog series because I think it’s important to put the changes caused by AI in perspective. For most of us, AI is quite new, so it’s not easy to grasp all those new things. That’s why I chose to compare AI with other innovations, that have had similar far-reaching implications as well.

An overview of the journey so far.

AI and cars (and middle ages)

The combustion engine has changed our world profoundly. The steam engine started it off, but the petrol engine really caused huge impacts on our way of living and working. In my first blog, explain AI like you explain cars to someone from the Middle ages, I compared AI with cars. I imagined how someone who has never seen a car can understand how it works, without having to refer to black magic. And it works not only for the technology under the hood, the comparison also works when you want to understand how you can use this ‘self moving cart’ in a more or less responsible way.

The AI Act and food safety (and literacy)

For a large part of our history, lack of food has been a very important theme for humankind. We have evolved to like sweet, fat and salt food, and also to keep eating like the next weeks will be devoid of anything edible. The innovations that we have created to counter the constant fear of starvation can be found in the food industry. You can question whether everything is responsible, given the current obesity epidemic, but food safety really contributed to the success. A good reason to compare the AI Act with food safety laws.

The AI bubble and the internet bubble (and weird products)

Quite recently, we have witnessed another digital revolutionary innovation: the internet. The basics of the internet as we know it have been created in the 90s, but the economic and societal side of the internet has been built on the remains of the internet bubble of the year 2000. That was also a time when everything would be different! Endless economic growth was at the tip of our fingers. In short, we are back 25 years in time.

AI and car travel (and bikes)

The car metaphor is not only nice to explain AI technology. When an innovation is used by sufficient people, the negative effects on the environment become clear as well. In this case, energy usage. Or rather, the emissions that are caused by it. Thanks to a 19^th century economist who studied coal usage in England, we now know that making AI more energy efficient is probably just as effective as making cars and steam engines more efficient. Bummer! What does this mean to us? Using AI or not has become a household choice, just like using our bike, or not.

Another bummer: comparing to horse manure doesn’t work, either

Story goes that New York city was worried a lot by the amount of horse manure in the streeds, at end of the 19^th century. The expectation was that in 50 years time, every street would be covered in meters of horse manure. The problem evaporated when cars and electrical trams were introduced. I would have loved to introduce this comparison as well, but it turns out to be fake news.

AI and plastic (and green beans)

The car metaphor, or rather, the oil metaphor, is a fruitful one. Oil is not only used in cars but also to create plastics. (Which contributes a lot to food safety as well, by the way.) Problem is, it leads to microplastics. The parallel with AI slop (which poisons AI models as well) is not hard to identify: when data is ‘the new oil’, then what is AI?

More to come!

There are still plenty of AI topics to be addressed: bias and discriminiation, brain rot, trust, productivity, explainability, fake news, you name it. There are also enough well-known innovations that can be used in comparisons with AI: cartography, book print, and the wheel, but also pocket calculators, submarines and Maggi.

More than enough raw material. I’m curious what else I will find – comments, requests or suggestions are welcome. What would you like? Let me know!