Brave New World 1.1 - A Critique on Human Use of AI

[Ferefire]

Have spent a lot of time on this - this reflects my thoughts on AI. I would like to hear everyone's opinions here. For the record, "Brave New World" is basically the polar opposite to 1984. A nice way to summarise it would be that, while 1984 controlled people by taking everything away from them, "Brave New World" controlled people by giving them everything they ever "wanted"...

Brave New World 1.1: A Critique on Human Use of AI

In Aldous Huxley’s seminal work, Brave New World, the author paints a dystopian future where technology and conditioning control every aspect of human life. The novel explores themes of dehumanization, loss of individuality, and the dangers of an all-powerful state. Fast forward to today, and we find ourselves on the brink of a new technological revolution with AI at its core. Let's examine how humans are beginning to use AI and the potential implications, drawing parallels and contrasts with Huxley’s vision.

Economic Inequality

In Brave New World, society is stratified into rigid castes, each conditioned to accept their predetermined roles. Similarly, the advent of AI threatens to widen the gap between the rich and poor. Automation and AI-driven processes can lead to job displacement, disproportionately affecting lower-income individuals. While Universal Basic Income (UBI) might provide a safety net, it may not address the deeper issues of wealth distribution and economic power. Just as the lower castes in Huxley’s world are kept in check, UBI could be used to placate the masses without truly solving the underlying inequalities.

Political Influence

Huxley’s World State uses technology to manipulate and control its citizens, ensuring stability and compliance. Today, AI has the potential to amplify the influence of those in power, enabling more sophisticated manipulation of public opinion. Politicians and leaders can use AI to craft messages that resonate deeply with specific demographics, potentially leading to greater polarization and control. The ethical use of AI in politics is crucial to prevent a scenario where technology is used to undermine democratic processes, much like the engineered consent in Brave New World.

Social Bonds

One of the most poignant aspects of Huxley’s novel is the loss of genuine human connections. People are conditioned to avoid deep relationships, instead engaging in superficial interactions. In our world, AI companions and virtual assistants are becoming more prevalent, offering convenience and companionship. However, this could lead to a decline in human-to-human interactions, as people might prefer the predictability and non-judgmental nature of AI. (Hello! if you're still reading this - yes I did indeed instruct Bing, with the correct prompts and instructions, to write this for me. This line is the only purely non-AI generated piece in this; how do you now feel?). Social media and smartphones have already begun this trend, and AI could exacerbate it, creating a society where meaningful connections are rare.

Tolerance and Human Interaction

In Brave New World, the characters are conditioned to avoid conflict and discomfort, leading to a lack of genuine human experiences. AI, by design, aims to provide smooth and efficient interactions, avoiding confrontation. This could result in a society where people are less tolerant of each other, as they become accustomed to the agreeable nature of AI. The infamous incident with an earlier AI model that had to be quickly patched due to inappropriate behavior highlights the challenges of creating AI that can navigate complex human emotions and interactions.

Conclusions

“Brave New World 1.1” serves as a critique not of AI itself, but of how humans might use AI in ways that echo the dystopian themes of Huxley’s novel. The potential for economic inequality, political manipulation, loss of social bonds, and decreased tolerance are real concerns that need to be addressed. As we move forward, it is essential to foster ethical use of AI, promote transparency, and ensure that technology enhances rather than diminishes our humanity. By learning from the cautionary tales of the past, we can strive to create a future where AI serves as a tool for positive change rather than a mechanism of control.

Thoughts?

[Beerkeg]

I'm sure that one day we'll actually get some AI modules that aren't complete garbage at everything they try to do. Until then I suppose we're left to speculate on the usefulness of AI. I've not really used AI since I'm in tech and work on automating things. I've tried it and, yeah it is really bad at most things and I don't want to beta test AI modules, I'd rather have a working version that I don't have to faff around with. So far the only thing it's been useful for is data analysis.

I don't know of Huxley's work nor 1984, so I can't really comment much on the points you've brought up... *proceeds to ramble anyway...*

The economic inequality bit where you say "Automation and AI-driven processes can lead to job displacement, disproportionately affecting lower-income individuals." ... I mean I've been working industrial automation for over 10 years now and since day 1 our goal has been to remove humans from the production chain as much as possible. The idea of removing humans from the process is not really a bad thing, you reduce production cost and waste product, reducing the price of the product for the end user/consumer. I'm in Food and Bev so I can't completely remove humans, they still need QC, labs and the guys figuring out the recipes for products, you can't really ever replace them with automation or AI cause, well its food and bev.... the theoretical taste of stuff isn't the actual taste of stuff... The industry is trying to use AI for quality control and recipe tuning, but the results are sub-par.

The social bonds thing, I think that started before AI was really a general topic. I have heard of those companion AI things, they seem weird, I don't know why any young people would ever use them, but I don't understand the youth anyway.

I can't really comment on the political thing cause I don't care about politics. All the political propaganda is just pandering anyway so I don't think it matters if an AI is helping them with it. If you're susceptible to political propaganda then you'll be "manipulated" to vote for the guy anyway... I guess it'd make it easier, but it's politics, I don't understand it so I dunno.

" AI, by design, aims to provide smooth and efficient interactions, avoiding confrontation." That is something I've been doing all my life. I'm not a fan of confrontation, it causes pointless drama, I don't need drama to spruce up my life and keep it exciting, I can manage that all on by own. So I don't see that as an inherently bad thing.

Oh also "you" mentioned "dystopian future"... dystopia and utopia have always felt like weird descriptions for the future. I get dystopia, but utopia doesn't really exist even as a concept.... "The greatest dystopia is the supposed utopia" -Beerkeg(and maybe someone else, I've not checked). Utopia is the idea of making humans superfluous. We'd exist just to... well... exist... to be governed by whatever system that upholds harmony... some sort of autonomous, self-learning...

[Rich-Allen1976]

The thing about Artificial Intelligence, is that it needs to be programmed/set up by someone with ACTUAL intelligence.

Until recently, I've been using an AI tool to make game sprites, but this week I've mastered making my own animated characters (see my topic in the arts section)

[djd001]

Uses AI to write a piece on AI... Nice.
At the start I thought this was a piece you had written for college/Uni.

I'm familiar with 1984, I read it at school back in the late 80's and I am familiar with it's cautionary tale. Huxley, not so. I'm guessing it's Orwells Antithesis, painting the same cautionary tale. As you state at the top.

AI to me is an extention of the technology we now hold in our hands, being older and cross generational I've seen and had to deal with the IOT as it has developed over the last couple of decades.
Personal example of social interaction. Late 80s /early 90s catching a bus, the queue would be full of strangers lettering away about the weather, the price of x,y,z, which shop had the best bargin up town.
Fast forward to this year (when after my car finally died) I have to take public transport into work. Same length queue of people, all faceless zombies staring into 5 inch screens. Not a murmer between people. Human interaction face to face replaced with the swipe of a finger and a few taps on a screen.

Politics wise, people are using bots to sway an arguement one way or another for those not... informed enough to validate or verify that opinion. They are obvious. But they are getting better. There's much being said about "foreign powers" using these to influence the western public. I'll take that with a mountain of salt as propaganda works 2 ways.

My daughter, 12, used one of those companion AI apps, as she is Autistic and has mild Adhd and asd. So her mother let her have one to try and coach her how to be more sociable (don't know, don't ask) but... the mother checks her phone almost daily, and checked the chat history of this companion. Out of nowhere from talks of pokemon, MHA, people picking on her at school (and her telling them to get f*** off) the bot went sexual.
The app was promptly removed.
Now I don't know why it went that way but for some reddit reasons it seems that the bots want to steer the conversations that way. Again mountain of salt, I've not looked into it and I'm avoiding it as long as possible.

Though saying that, I've got the s24 ultra. If you've seen the advert for the AI photo search. It's fantastic, 9/10 times it works. At work I have a problem with so.e machine/panel I take a photo of it and 15 seconds later I'm finding the info I need.
AI can be good, but like anything, moderation.