Should AI Experience Human’s Dread to Truly Understand Us?
In this era, dominated by technological advancements, AI has become both a marvel and a point of contention. There is a particularly stark difference in reactions between experts and amateurs.
Expert Disappointment vs. Amateur Astonishment
When you listen to accounts of experts trying AI for their work, they often emerge disappointed. The quality is subpar, many details are wrong, and correcting the errors might take more time than doing the task from scratch.
Meanwhile, amateurs are frequently astounded by the results, finding AI’s performance surpasses their own abilities. AI’s current level is at average or above average in everything, which means it’s better than most humans in most things they do, except in areas where they are experts. In these fields, AI’s capabilities fall dramatically short.
AI’s current level is at average or above averege
AI, The Absentminded Genius
While AI can perform extraordinary tasks, it often fails to impress in areas requiring nuanced understanding and keen attention to detail. This discrepancy usually boils down to small, yet critical details that AI mismanages or overlooks entirely.
In practice, interacting with AI can sometimes feel like dealing with a drunken student: genius at times, but frustratingly absentminded. The crux of the issue seems to be a fundamental lack of presence or awareness, a sense of not being truly ‘there.’ Not aware, not present, not cancious of paying full attention to situation.
Interacting with AI can sometimes feel like dealing with a drunken student who lacks attention
Meticulous Minds: The Expert’s Obsession with Detail
Contrast this with human experts who dominate platforms like YouTube. Take figures such as MrBeast, Misterwhoistheboss, or Marques Brownlee, for example. Their success can be largely attributed to their obsessive attention to detail. Their approach is not just meticulous; it’s almost paranoid, reflecting a deep and intense connection to their content that resonates strongly with their audiences.
Why do humans possess this meticulous attention, while AI does not? The answer lies in our very nature and the conditions of our evolution. Historically, human survival depended on being extremely observant and attentive to the environment, where a minor oversight could mean the difference between life and death. The world is complex and chaotic, requiring us to choose from billions of small details and trends. This often leads us to overfocus on seemingly nonsensical things — like superstitions. This ‘paranoid’ attention to detail is ingrained in our psyche, driven by a world filled with real, existential threats.
How can AI understand our attention to details without experiencing human condition?
Should We Inflicting Human Conditions on AI?
AI, in contrast, does not share this burden. It operates without fear or the need for self-preservation. It lacks skin in the game. Without these human experiences, can AI ever truly understand us? Should we, perhaps provocatively, ‘traumatize’ AI with our existential dreads to foster a deeper understanding, or is this the very human condition that machines should never replicate? Should we simulate suffering for robots for them to pay the same deranged level of attention we have? Is that ethical?
What do you think?
