The Strange Psychology where Humans and A.I. Meet
When OpenAI released ChatGPT last November, I immediately jumped in and started experimenting with the technology. I was attending an Air Force technical school at the time, and the student sitting behind me in class was a computer science major in college. I turned to him, bleary-eyed and giddy from a sleepless night of Large Language Model (LLM) bliss, and I asked if he had delved into the new technology. He said he hadn’t, but his programming professor had tried it and said it kind of sucked.
A quick poll of the class of 15 students revealed that I was the only one who had actually used ChatGPT. The age range, excluding myself (age 53), was 20 to 25 years, and they were all in a highly technical Air Force career field. Most of them were avid gamers and had obviously grown up immersed in technology.
At first, I was stunned. How could they be so underwhelmed and apathetic? Since that time, I’m sure that most of them have toyed with some form of the technology, whether ChatGPT, Google’s Bard, or Bing Chat. And, since that time, I have spoken to many other people, friends, family, and coworkers, and most of them are similarly apathetic, with a handful of exceptions.
This got me thinking about the unusual psychology evoked when humans and artificial intelligence meet. I had to understand that my own (very strong) bias makes me feel like I’m the only sane person; like I’m immersed in some strange mashup between The Emperor’s New Clothes and Don’t Look Up.
Because of my age, I remember a time before home computers, the internet, and mobile phones. I grew up devouring science fiction books and movies, and when computers became available to me in the early 1980s, I embraced them fully. I saw that we were taking the first tiny step towards the exciting future I had read about in books such as Asimov’s I, Robot, Heinlein’s Number of the Best, and the cyberpunk works of William Gibson.
I can look at the computers, software, communications, and mobile devices that we have today, and I can vividly see every step we have taken in the past 45 years to get here. And, importantly, I have a visceral sense of the exponential pace of advancement. Also, I’m both a g33k and a nerd. Bona fide. I still love science fiction. I’m typing this piece on one monitor while I have Jupyter Notebook (for Python) and VS Code (for Javascript) running on another. On the two other screens to my left, I have multiple MS Excel sheets open, ChatGPT, Bard, Sharepoint, Discord, and MS Teams. I’m on the Automation and AI team at work. I have an electronics laboratory in my basement, two 3D printers, a laser engraver that I designed and built from scratch, and several Linux machines setup as web servers and media servers.
I told you all that to tell you this: I had to look around my environment and then look around in my head to understand that I may not represent the “typical” person in North America. I had to think long and hard about what technologies like LLMs, generative artificial intelligence, and machine learning might mean to the more typical person.
I concluded that, in the Venn diagram of people who are not me, most people are more pragmatic than I am. They just don’t get all giddy and hyperbolic about technology the way I do. That first night I spent with ChatGPT back in late November 2021, I immediately felt something profound: if that version was the equivalent of the Commodore 64 or Apple II computer, and if the technology continues its exponential pace of advancement, then we were in for one hell of a wild ride. I felt the world shift under my feet. I kept wondering which metaphor would prove to be more appropriate: letting the genie out of the bottle, or opening Pandora’s box?
For everyone else, especially those born in the new millennium, ChatGPT seemed like a fancy Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. They are numb to the pace of advancement, after decades of having new things forced upon them by corporations with zero regard to the impact or safety of the technology (social media, anyone?). But there are many other differences that contribute to the general apathy as well:
Lack of Understanding: While it's true that more people are aware of AI and machine learning, understanding these concepts in depth is another matter. The technical nature of these fields can make them intimidating, leading to a lack of interest or engagement.
Normalization: We quickly adapt to technological advances. Think about how smartphones have become such an integral part of our lives in a relatively short period of time. This normalization process can make profound changes seem mundane or incremental.
Distance: Many of the changes brought about by AI and machine learning are happening behind the scenes. They may not be immediately visible or impactful in our day-to-day lives, which can make them seem less pressing.
Skepticism: There have been many predictions about technology radically changing society that have not come to pass, or at least not as quickly or dramatically as predicted. This can lead to a degree of skepticism about new predictions.
Cognitive Dissonance: It can be uncomfortable to confront the idea that our jobs or ways of life might be fundamentally changed or threatened by technology. This can lead to a degree of denial or downplaying of potential impacts.
After thinking through these reasons, I think I have more understanding and empathy for the general lack of reaction from the “average” person. I also use the five reasons above to temper or ground my own strong reactions and opinions on these topics. My mind jumps directly from A to Z, without appreciating that, for now at least, people have free will and can still have a major impact on how things turn out during the next couple of years. They also get to decide for themselves how they choose to react, and whether to embrace these new technologies or turn away from them.
Let me add one more reason, courtesy of my wife. She is generally happier and suffers less anxiety than I do. When I asked her why people were not overly excited or scared at the potential for an artificial superintelligence to cause massive social and geopolitical upheaval, she said, “There’s nothing I can do about it. Why worry?” Maybe I just need to be more like my wife.