A more humanist approach towards AI

Note: This is a work-in-progress

It was Raksha Bandhan this weekend, and I got to spend time with family. Usually, the topics of discussion are a bit out of my reach: state matters, economics, property investments, and so on. This time though, what stood out was that the topic at the top of my mind, the burgeoning rise of AI, was at the top of everybody’s mind as well.

It’s become a part of the day-to-day activities in our lives, and yet we’re strugging to see what is on the horizon. As models get better, a lot of us have started to fear losing what makes us relevant in society.

The rhetoric around AI has become unpleasant, and I’ve been trying to figure out what to do about this major change. The most interesting discussions I’ve heard have been from people outside the hype cycle of AI company CEOs and LinkedIn influencers.

They’ve been from Ethan Mollick, a professor studying innovation, and Mike Schindler, a UX Designer working at a development consultancy.

• Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI
• The Broken Rhetoric of AI

Also, there’s a series of posts by the Roots of Progress Institute, called the Techno-Humanist Manifesto that seems promising.

• Announcing The Techno-Humanist Manifesto
• The Present Crisis
• Fish in Water
• The Surrender of the Gods, part 1
• The Surrender of the Gods, part 2
• Ode to Man
• The Life Well-Lived, part 1
• The Life Well-Lived, part 2
• Solutionism, part 1
• Solutionism, part 2
• We should install a thermostat on the Earth
• The Flywheel, part 1
• The Flywheel, part 2
• The Problem-Solving Animal, part 1
• The Problem-Solving Animal, part 2
• The Problem-Solving Animal, part 3
• The Unlimited Horizon, part 1

I’ve been going through these, and will gradually update this post with quotes, and try to pull together the themes into a coherent vision for a more humanist vision for AI.