One Unfashionable Post

When humanity finds a moment to stop AI in its tracks.

?Somehow it feels strangely passé to publish on a topic other than AI advocacy here on LinkedIn. Unfashionable even. That said, it was in fact AI that prompted me to write a post about humanity, and when humanity finds a moment to stop AI in its tracks. I read in this weekend’s The Age that the website Undress AI, a ‘deepnude’ app that makes nudes in a few seconds, has 100,000 daily users. How many of these users are choosing this tool to intentionally (or not) inflict devastating consequences on the mental health of others? There is already evidence of paedophiles using such tools to create and share child sexual abuse material. The circulation via social media of deepfake nudes to violate, humiliate and blackmail women and girls has been a horrific development in other parts of the world, and now also in Australia. Early this month, fifty young Victorian schoolgirls were targeted with deepfake nude image circulation, creating widespread distress.

Many of you may have heard about this week’s parliamentary hearing into social media impact. Meta’s global head of safety (!) asserted that there was ‘no clear evidence linking soaring rates of mental illness since about 2010 to the uptake of social media use’. This is at odds with volumes of global research, probably most parents’ lived experience, and many children's real struggles with loneliness, bullying, anxiety, depression and body image disorders, as well as grooming, abuse and sextortion. I wonder if that Meta representative has read the well-researched book by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt ‘The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness’? Or the evidence of Frances Haugen, the courageous Facebook whistleblower? ?It was slightly vindicating to hear the Meta representative’s credibility as a witness being challenged. Outrage is still rippling through the community, characterised as ‘arrogant’ by our Prime Minister.

?Whose?powers determine our future?

Last week I attended a ‘Conversation with Meredith Whittaker’ event at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne. Meredith has been named as one of the world’s most influential people in AI. She is the president of the non-profit?Signal Foundation (creator of the privacy-aware Signal messaging app), and cofounder of the AI Now Institute. She has taken a strident position against pernicious surveillance capitalism and the resultant social harm that the big tech platforms propagate. I am inspired by her prescience on AI’s role in society. Meredith provokes us to challenge the configurations of power that are going to use AI (including big tech corporates, government and military) and the way that AI could be used to generally harm our most marginalised. She is particularly wary of how input data used to train the AI models may have been sourced, and whether there is truly any legitimate, principled place for AI in the privacy-respecting Signal app, or indeed in many parts of society.

?When there’s no AI

Recently I had the profoundly moving privilege of contributing time to an experience with a group of young people whose lives – and those of their families – had been absolutely devastated by an acute, insidious mental illness. These young people were smart, thoughtful, kind and articulate. But every one of them felt completely undeserving of joy, care, safety, love and life. Over the course of the experience, they poured out their innermost fears, despair and desperation. We learnt that their inner demons screamed at them relentlessly, convincing them they had nothing to offer the world, and that the world might be better off without them. These young people were surrounded by the unfailing love of their family members, and supported by skilled, compassionate mental health professionals. There was something very different about this experience. Everyone participating was fully present, deeply immersed in the human connection and the young people’s recovery process, as were their support teams. What was the source of this difference? Smartphones were not pulled out of pockets. There was no scrolling. The persistent distraction of notifications was blessedly absent. The young people’s agency was not being surreptitiously chipped away by the calling of social media. How exceptional is a smartphone-free experience for a gathering of young people in today’s world? There was no AI to be seen, heard or touched. In fact, I don’t think I heard the term ‘AI’ uttered once during that experience. Rare. In fact, probably never, in today’s business environment. Instead, we were all there as imperfect individuals with self-doubt, anxiety and emotions laid bare. Humanity was not hiding behind an array of predictive models.

?When we do talk about AI, it is reassuring that the discourse now frequently includes the critically important topic of ethics. The voices of global tech and privacy leaders like Meredith Whittaker and Shoshana Zuboff, and local luminaries such as Lizzie O’Shea and Lynn Warneke are ringing loudly. There seems to be a universal recognition that we have reached a profound inflection point in the irrevocable role that technology - now increasingly powered by AI - plays in every part of our lives. The principles, guardrails, and laws that we must put in place to protect the fabric of society and the best of humanity from the potential harms of AI have become a pressing, critical, and possibly existential need.

?Unfashionable?. Heartfelt.

?I’ve forged a successful career out of helping organisations transform, embracing the power of technology to create better client experiences and better employee experiences, to become more efficient, and to innovate. I work on identifying and unlocking the distinctly positive potential of AI for improved outcomes in areas such healthcare, education, sustainability, and access to justice. Curious and experimental, I enjoy exploring and assessing a range of AI tools and frameworks for work and for life outside work. I present regularly on the opportunities that AI enables, and the foundations that must be laid to embark on the AI journey with salience and speed. I’m also a parent, as you might be too. Most of us have an inherent sense of responsibility to leave the world in a better place for our next generation. I therefore feel an obligation to contribute to the AI ethics debate and the world we’ll leave behind for them. Through the breathtaking and exponential advances of this technology, it is – however - so important to remain alert to the moments when we are at our most fragile and vulnerable – where the raw human connection is so intensely exquisite and irreplaceable, and should not be mediated by technology, let alone AI. My recent experience working with these seriously ill young people brought this paradox into sharp relief. Did those fifty Victorian schoolgirls, violated by the deepfake nude images turn to AI for support?

It might be unfashionable to say this here, where we all seem so enamoured with the unbridled opportunities for AI. But when we most need connection, empathy and love, and we are most deserving of it, it’s better not to reach for AI at all.

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