AI`s social impact
Great read from Henry Farrell on AI as a social technology.
He refers to the journey to the "singularity" being much slower than many predicted.
In the past I’ve referenced Carlota Perez's framework of technological revolutions occurring in waves, and we may now be entering the deployment phase of a new techno-economic wave centered on AI. Each previous technological wave has followed predictable patterns of gains and downsides. The internet democratized information, but introduced digital addiction. Smartphones enabled connectivity, while reducing cognitive capacity and face-to-face interaction quality for many. Research consistently shows that smartphone presence during social interactions decreases conversation quality and empathic connection.
AI, according to Farrell, functions as a "social technology" that, like others before it, is already re-shaping human relationships and communication methods. AI-generated language might already be subtly influencing human speech patterns, potentially leading to linguistic homogenization and cultural voice loss. Keeping humans-in-the-loop and focusing on improving our abilities to listen for emotional subtext, build empathy, manage emotional regulation and trust-building would all appear to be important to me.
This ultimately means we need more (and better?) interdisciplinary collaboration between computer scientists and social and behavioral scientists, to understand and develop AI from a technological standpoint, but also what it should do in terms of strengthening human communication.
