The Rise Of Human Connection In The Age Of AI

What exactly has been humanity’s sole purpose behind the development of technology? The story of humanity’s primary goal is clear: efficiency. We built all this tech towards the relentless pursuit of ever-greater output, faster production lines, etc.

Amplifying human effort has been the driving force behind all of this so-called progress. Steam engines multiplied human strength, factories churned out products, and communication spanned continents in seconds. We built a monument to progress, which was measured and counted in every possible way. Horsepower, lines of code, gigabytes, stock prices, GDP. Output, output, output.?

We prioritized all this efficiency with little regard for empathy towards our fellow humans. We did all of this in the name of output for a select few to truly prosper, while the rest of us scrape by.?

With the rise of AI, humanity’s relationship with each other is about to change even further. We’re no longer engineers of all this output but we are parents of it. As our relationship with AI grows, the connections with each other may deteriorate. As an example, when you have children, your connection and time with siblings and parents naturally weakens.?

See, there’s a chicken and egg that’s happening with AI. With all the input, and all the data sets that are fed to it, there’s a point at which your thoughts can be questioned as to whether they were embedded there or were even yours all along. Machine learning was created to mimic the way the human brain processes and learns.?

The machine learned from human output (books, research, etc.) It’s no mistake that the first breakthrough AI application is a chat function, which essentially harvests information from your mind. Think of ChatGPT as your child who is a genius. It processes information at an astronomical rate. But it lacks context in many instances, it lacks awareness. That’s where you come in. Just like a child, it needs a parent to constantly talk,? guide, contextualize, and teach. Input output, input output.?

Soon, AI is going to form its own thoughts (based on our inputs and its own outputs), and likely have rebellious opinions like many children naturally do. Ask any parent of a teenager with strong opinions tinged with arrogance, and they will tell you that there’s no manual on parenting a rebellious teen.?

Ironically, who better to ask than AI for that manual? I hope to God that Big Tech and the architects behind these machines are developing this manual on how to deal with and quell a rebellious AI.?

But I couldn’t care less. Why? Because it’s beyond my individual control. But, it might be in our collective control, which brings me back to the point of this Humanism 2.0. series.

How can we connect and empathize with one another further amidst agents of AI? Because at the moment, as a society, we have all prioritized this interaction (humans with AI), while human to human connection will invariably decrease.?

Once AGI spawns its own technology, the de-prioritization of human connectedness will only worsen. It’s the natural (or in this case, artificial) order of things. Again, at that stage humans will become less relevant. Think of a couple with a dog, that then deprioritize the dog once a human child enters the scene. If AGI overpowers humanity, and prioritizes its own technology more so than it does humans, then humanity is back to square one: being self-reliant.?

When you zoom out, the picture can become rather bleak, but it doesn’t have to be. We can become conscious of this and act deliberately. We can return to prioritizing one another and our connections. One way to build connections is through creativity. Start building stronger human connections now.?

Follow me for ways to build stronger human connections through creativity in my next installment.?

Follow me for more as I explore these ideas in a series of articles called Humanism 2.0. Read the first installment here.

Steven Tate is an award-winning marketer, writer and artist who's launched and scaled several brands with multiple exits in DTC, consumer tech, luxury and CPG. He's also an award-winning screenwriter. Follow for more, and learn more about Steve.