Identity In The Age of Artificial Intelligence
How might AI agents impact our sense of self identity? What will it mean to be human. We don't know the answers, but we are asking the questions. That's good.
Whether or not the promises made by the companies promoting Generative AI (GAI) will come to fruition is hard to know. Either way, the sudden rise of GAI has resulted in a lot of debates and discussions with the biggest question of them all being; what does it mean to be human in a time of rapid technological advances. And especially with regard to co-intelligent machines?
In just about all of my news media interviews over the past several months and with market researchers working on technology products, all have either asked about or focused on human identity with regard to AI.
We are increasingly seeing philosophers, anthropologists, psychologists and sociologist weighing in on what humanity’s relationship with AI might and should look like. While those in the humanities have long sought to understand our relationship with technology, with AI it seems to have taken on a whole new level of energetic debate and discussion. This is good.
Homo sapiens have co-evolved with technology. It is a symbiotic relationship. Technologies are a symbolic representation of being human. Technologies embody the human imagination and represent the outcomes of our ability to create and evolve as a species.
In the world of anthropology, technology advancement is called the ratchet effect. We start from a base technology to solve a problem and over time we add to it through innovations as a result of sharing knowledge and sociocultural learning. Your smartphone is a prime example as it evolved from the original wired telephone to what it is today, combining other technologies.
AI tools are, whether society likes it or not, being embedded in just about every type of digital device, from consumer electronics like laptops and phones to industrial systems in manufacturing, our cars, planes and ships.
This rapid process of integration across so many aspects of society has got us rather worked up. Why? Unlike other technologies, AI is a technology that we perceive as potentially being competitive with us.
Already, a key element of what makes AI tools like Generative AI work is algorithms. And algorithms have become embedded in our sociocultural systems. They work with humans through a feedback loop. An algorithm does something and through the action it takes, we then train it as a result of the actions we take.
Broadly, society has become suspicious of algorithms as most people don’t understand them, we don’t always know when they are training us or when we are training them. The misuse of algorithms in social media channels which have lead to dopamine addiction, and been revealed to do so through media coverage, has resulted in a significant degree of mistrust in some technology companies.
The hype around AI was intended to get people excited, to imagine a new future of human achievements. While at the same time, industry leaders were saying guide-rails and regulations were also needed. Most people just ended up confused and tend to distrust a brand that includes AI in it’s products and messaging.
The abuse of algorithms by some companies has framed how society thinks about AI as a whole. Much of society believes Artificial Intelligence to be a thing, even though it isn’t. It’s just an umbrella term. But perception is everything in the court of popular opinion.
All of this then feeds into the deeper questions we are exploring about what it means to be human not just with regard to AI, but digital technologies as a whole at time when so many are seemingly changing everything around us.
AI agents can be very valuable to us and extend our cognitive capabilities in meaningful, productive ways. But most people aren’t sure exactly how. It doesn’t help when business leaders come out with sweeping statements of massive job losses. Statements that are predictions and unlikely to actually happen.
So whether we consciously think about or indirectly, we are asking ourselves about the meaning of work, play and creativity in the face of advanced cognitive technologies. Even though we are unlikely to be replaced by AI in any of these areas, we do love to have a good worry about things.
How for example, will we perceive our own identity when we may be augmented by personal AI agents that interact with other AI agents and humans, taking on characteristics of our sense of humour, grumpiness or the way we write and speak. These are all elements of our sense of identity. Of who a person is.
A unique aspect of human culture is that it is cumulative in nature. Our cultures evolve by building upon what we have learned, sharing that knowledge and thus accumulating to advance. Much of our identity is wrapped up in the cultures in which we have grown up and live in. As AI agents become part of the cultural fabric of our societies, will we accept them as part of our identity and give them agency to act within our societies and on our behalf? To varying degrees this is already happening.
It is impossible to say exactly how this will all play out, but we are asking these questions. For AI to truly benefit us, we will need to have some form of cooperation between the humanities sciences and computer sciences. Only then can we truly understand what it means to be human alongside a co-intelligent system.