All aboard ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
AI, AI, AI, AI, AI, AI, AI!
– Crazy Train, Ozzy Osborne (with slight modifications)
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If you can remember the early web, when the tech was novel and browsers a revelation, you probably remember a feeling distinctly absent from today’s AI fever dream:
Connection.
The web was a distinctly “we” medium. We downloaded the first MOSAIC browser, and we chortled together as we found new sites to visit. Each link was a connection not only to knowledge, but to others – there were human beings behind those rudimentary web pages, their voices strong through the choices they made in layout, text, and tone.
When we made web pages – and we made a lot of them – we made them for others. We imagined who might visit, how they might react, the impact of our work. We hoped to spark dialog. Our sites were invitations, and when people came over, we treated them like new friends.
For the early web pioneers, the Web was a Cambrian explosion of social connection. It’s one of the reasons publications like Wired and The Industry Standard flourished – they became touchstones for the Web community.
Now think about how you use AI.
Woof.
Engaging with AI is a profoundly isolating experience. Its initial product offerings felt human – we were conversing with what seemed to be a sentient being, after all. But by now we’re all (well, mostly all) in on the joke: We’re whispering to machines all by ourselves.
I’m no AI detractor, I employ it regularly. But it’s a solo pursuit – research, work tasks, thinking out loud. By this point I’ve made up my mind about the technology: It’s a fabulous tool, but it’s not a person, nor is it a replacement for one.
Om Malik wrote a piece today criticizing on the Valley’s obsession with digital “twins.” He notes that Reid Hoffman, who I have known and admired for decades – has created an AI twin that he claims scales his personage. “I would much prefer two minutes with the actual Reid Hoffman,” Om writes, “than hours of engagement with Reid AI. In two minutes, we could end up in a conversation that goes somewhere neither of us expected.”
Humanity is messy, non-linear, and surprising. When those surprises hit us, we must react – there are consequences to human engagement. If the real Reid Hoffman tells me he believes AI is fundamentally misunderstood in society (as he did recently), I can challenge him, and perhaps change his mind. Reid AI? Not so much.
Which leads me to wonder: Are there fundamentally social use cases for AI? I don’t mean the spectacularly ill-advised Sora, or the underlying AI driving our serotonin addictions on Instagram or YouTube. I suppose the formation of yet another cultish group house featured in The New York Times kind of qualifies, but I want examples of actual AI applications that truly connect us in ways that add value to all involved.
If you’ve seen this in the wild, please let us know about it. But at this point, AI feels like a deeply anti-social technology.
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