An AI Perspective from the Mouth of Babes

After spending most of last week with Google Cloud, I came home excited about the rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (#AI), particularly those applications that go beyond generative AI (#GenAI). Google Cloud, OpenAI, Microsoft, Amazon, and IBM are rapidly expanding the state of the art, adding new capabilities, and making AI applications more accessible and accurate.

Then I ran into the cynic that is my 14-year-old niece. And boy, did I get an earful.

From her perspective – and the perspective of her peers – AI is not just a tool, but a potential threat to the intellectual growth of an entire generation. She's witnessing a disturbing trend of teens resorting to apps like ChatGPT to complete their school assignments, bypassing the essential process of learning and understanding. They openly discuss their ability to discern AI-written content and AI-generated art, which is leading to a devaluation of human creativity. This trend, if not addressed, could lead to a significant loss of human connection and understanding.

In a recent episode of The Ezra Klein Show titled "This Changes Everything: AI Is Here," they shed light on the alarming issue of companies and marketers flooding the internet with subpar, AI-generated content. The motive behind this flood is clear: Despite its low quality, the content is designed to exploit the algorithms of Google and other search engines. This exploitation is not only devaluing human-produced content but also undermining the very essence of education and creativity. It's not just a matter of concern; it's a pressing issue that demands immediate action, such as implementing stricter regulations on AI-generated content and promoting the value of human creativity.

From my niece's vantage point, the situation is much worse.

As a Gen Z, she and others of her generation see this as a corruption of their future. They don't see innovators like Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and the cadre of other AI pioneers as helping society. Instead, they believe these innovators are making things more difficult. They already perceive a world with fewer prospects and don't believe AI will create more opportunities for them. However, they see AI as creating more wealth for the upper crust.

While media outlets like CNET and Sports Illustrated have been criticized for using AI to generate content, the idea of creating content more quickly and cheaply is beyond appealing to publishers. Content is expensive. Back in the '90s, when I was a newspaper reporter, we had layers of editorial integrity and quality checks. Nothing got into the paper without multiple people vetting the veracity of an article. The costs were high, even in the most modest operations. The market doesn't support content creation and journalism as it did in the past.

The news site Axios is taking a different position by doubling down on human-created content, believing authenticity will win over artificial intelligence. Amid a sea of mediocre AI-generated content, Axios believes people will gravitate toward quality, human-created reporting. Again, my niece and others are skeptical of this notion, as people generally gravitate toward quick, easy, and free.

Much like the media, my aspiring artist's niece sees art being devalued by AI. I pointed out that we have plenty of fake and copied art today and that the AI developers are creating digital watermarks to protect original content. She replied that those same companies are also creating tools to bypass the watermarks to train their algorithms on copyrighted and original works.

IDC predicts AI will displace or redefine 40% of all jobs by 2030. Others estimate that the number is closer to 90%. In a private conversation with a Google executive, I was told that virtually every job and process must be rewritten because of AI.

Humanity has been here before. Technology is just a tool to make human productivity easier and more efficient. We can wash clothes by hand, but a washing machine is far easier and more efficient. We can wash large quantities of clothes by hand, but laundromats with multiple machines can handle more clothes with fewer people.

AI, though, feels different. We're on the verge of not making it easier for people to do their jobs but eliminating human involvement. It's one thing to automate to make more time for creativity, but we're already seeing tens of thousands of people being displaced; for example, one partner organization reported eliminating 70 jobs because AI could do it more efficiently and cost-effectively. IBM eliminated 7,500 jobs saying they could be replaced with AI. And so it goes.

We discussed a surgeon I met who developed 3D imagery to make operating procedures less risky. My niece thought that was cool but pointed out that it wouldn't take long to eliminate the need for the surgeon with robotics.

My niece had a different take on the potential impact of AI: She believes that AI will become so powerful that the people who control it won't care about the rest of humanity, leading to a widening gap between the AI-controlling elite and the rest of society. She's not the only young person I've talked with who expresses similar pessimistic outlooks. Millennials and Gen Zs don't see the same future potential for a better life as the Silent Generation, Boomers and Gen Xers did. They often see a reduction, not an expansion of opportunities.

People joke about AI turning into the plot of "The Terminator," in which the machines become so smart that they decide humans aren't worth the trouble. We think younger generations are addicted to iPhones and TikTok; my niece and her friends talk about digital brain rot, recognizing they're being targeted and are quite discerning of the content they're consuming. Perhaps we should slow down and listen to them. As David Bowie said of the youth, "They're quite aware of what they're going through."

It's easy to dismiss the youth as they're still inexperienced and don't always see the full potential of technology. However, Millennials, Gen Zs, and Alphas (the latest generation) are fully digital. They have a wealth of experience that neither Gen X nor Boomers can appreciate. My parents' generation often talked about wanting to make a better life for their children, but in my experience, this was always more of a passive hope than an active pursuit.

While AI presents exciting opportunities for innovation and progress, we must consider the potential social and economic ramifications, particularly from the perspective of younger generations, who will be most affected by these changes. By engaging in open dialogue and carefully considering the concerns and insights of digital natives, we can work towards a future where the benefits of AI are harnessed for the good of all while mitigating the risks and negative consequences.

Past generations talked about creating a world where their children would have better lives. In my experience, this was always a passive aspiration. We should leave this to chance. We should actively ensure that those changes are for the betterment of future generations. My niece, her generation, and their children depend on it.