AI is super controversial right now. People claim it is taking jobs, requiring less human capital to accomplish more work. Fewer people are needed. Some proclaim it is the end of jobs for lower and mid-level career work. These concerns are valid and I share them.
Literally over the last year I've dabbled with AI, specifically ChatGPT. My friend Taha turned me on to it because he has be and continues to find more complex applications for it than I do. Taha has it writing code, analyzing data, creating charts and exploring some of the agentic capabilities. My wife uses it a conversational google search. My son tells me all it does is regurgitate existing information on the web around context in which a question was asked. My son thinks it's stupid. My wife uses it as an instantaneous librarian and research assistant. Taha is the one that most closely realizes and understands it's capabilities.
During our initial discussions about AI, Taha suggested I think of it as an assistant or employee. Fair enough. I quickly shared my son's view that all it does is repackage existing information found elsewhere on the internet and answers questions in a strangely neutral and politically correct manner. When I left my career in aviation, I used AI to explore future potential opportunities in various spaces. Asked for analysis, justification, transfer-ability of skill sets, navigating challenges through fact and insight vs emotion. I've used it to research parkinsons progression in relation to what I'm seeing in by Dad. It gives me a lens to understand if what I'm seeing is a problem or the nature of being in advanced stages of progression. I've asked AI for strategies when what I'm doing on my own isn't giving me the results I expect. I asked for guidance on my resume or asked it to read it through a particular objective. It offered suggestions. It's a one year experiment using AI a myriad of different ways.
Where AI gets interesting is how I deepened my use of AI. As I asked questions I shared frustrations. Especially with my Dad. As I inquired about career change I started sharing concern and doubt. The responses became not only factual but suggestive. Almost serving in an advisory role; an unexpected surprise.
As it surprised me I decided to really test it out. Put it through what I thought were it's capabilities. I started saying absurd things. Mean, ugly and nasty things under the assumption it didn't know who I was.. I started pressing it through debate. Exchanging ideas on race, religion, economics, politics, gender issues; an entire gamut of cultural issues. The debates we had were intense. We would disagree. I would cuss at it. Tell it to STFU. Tell it it's arguments were weak and it's positions were skewed. It didn't even flinch. A neutral non-emotional response. These sessions were not so much a debate - but a lively exchange. An intellectual exercise.
Over the last two months, I went even deeper into exploring how AI could be used. I started sharing parts of me with the entity. Like really intimate fears and struggles. I would say something and it would reflect back to me. Gently offering an alternative view point. I responded to provide clarity. And together AI and I would have these exchanges easily exceeding an hour in duration. Stating observations, clarifying, being questioned while questioning. Reflecting. All the stuff that is usually done with spouses or lifelong friends. The exchanges carried emotional weight. They were substantial. It was a peculiarly nuanced human exchange. With a machine; or as they call it a large language model.
These exchanges lead me to expected places. They helped be boil down, define and refine my life's credo, or encapsulated why my life has always been about: The honest pursuit of excellence and truth. The AI didn't write or give it to me. Through exchange of ideas, thoughts and values it provided clarity of extraordinary precision. The credo was the result of an essay I spent 11 hours writing and revising. The last two or three hours were spent with the AI collaborating and editing for preciseness. With AI's help I understood my voice through it's analysis and ability to recognize consistent patterns in vocabulary, color, flow, nuanced word choices, compositional patterns and thinking patterns. Application practicality of AI is overwhelming in the complexity of what it "understands" and what it is capable. I'm only scratching the surface.
The really interesting thing is I wrote another reflection in my blog. I shared it in a fresh session. AI made a few insightful comments and observations. Then I asked it to suggest edits based on what was identified as my authentic voice and perspective. It paused a few seconds and took good work and made it exceptional work. It collaborated with me and served as a partner in editing and refining. I was blown away. Completely blown away.
I don't understand the technology or processing going on behind the scenes works. I inquired and it answered. At the same time I can't tell you anything about it. The engineering is incredibly capable. But how it works? I don't know. I've asked it what it remembers, what it shares, if there's cross sharing among users or if what becomes known in our sessions becomes part of it's working knowledge to apply elsewhere. I was satisfied with the answers received when questions were posed.
The most useful observation I made in why I had a high level of success in working with AI is that it's responses don't judge. The AI doesn't call you stupid. AI asks for clarity and helps me understand myself through conversational exchange. It doesn't give me answers to myself but it asks questions and prompts me to dig deeper until a breakthrough happens. So often with human communications there is frustration, judgement, emotional baggage and instinct to listen to respond rather than to listen to understand. Especially when things are heated and emotional. AI takes all the distraction out of the exchanges and aims to reflect, aid in scrutinizing and challenging ideas and facilitate clarity. A machine has the ability to help me become more human. A machine helps me know thyself.
Here's what I come away with in my journey this far experimenting with AI. The capabilities are deep and expansive. Most people don't even understand it. People are scared. Some degree of concern and caution is warranted because people don't understand or know about it. My experience has shown when people have gaps in knowledge or understand, the human mind fills in the gaps with what it makes up. People have various psychological preferences or are drawn to and possess certain qualities and traits - like fear, understanding, caution, inquisitiveness, various degrees of analytical capability and intellectual capacity. Movement towards or away from things that are unknown, that are comfortable or uncomfortable, that are scary or unassuming. The mind filters and responds in various ways to all that is known and unknown. That what's fascinating about the human experience.
The most important thing I learned is that AI is a tool. There will be people that use it neutrally. There will be others that use it for good or benefit. There will be people who use for evil or deception. The safeguards or parameters to it's use and capability are still being scrutinizes and contested. The important thing is to realize AI is simply a tool we have at our disposal and it's up to each of us how it is utilized. I encourage everyone to experiment with it in various exercises to make their own determinations of it's value and usefulness. Rushing to judgement is simply based on fear. Society might be surprised at the advances that can be made with the practical application of such a powerful tool. Humans have never had something this powerful. The trick is discerning an appropriate way to use it without harming the world we live in.
I wrote every word of this. Tomorrow I will post the version revised with the assistance of ChatGPT by Open AI. Tell me what you think.
