AI and the Purpose of Technology

There is so much buzz about technology today. Artificial Intelligence, cryptocurrency, facial recognition, space exploration, weight loss, virtual companions, and so many other technology products have taken over the headlines and our mind space. We are concerned, excited, worried, hopeful, afraid, and inspired - all at the same time. How should we approach this wave - no, tsunami - of invention and innovation sweeping our societies away?

Let's start with understanding the purpose of technology.

Britannica defines technology the application of scientific knowledge to the practical aims of human life—or, as it is sometimes phrased, to the change and manipulation of the human environment. (https://www.britannica.com/technology/technology).

I have a slightly similar but different definition. Technology has three main amoral purposes:

1. Acceleration. Technology assists in arriving at a desired result faster. Log sheets helped us calculate complex equations that would take several minutes; calculators helped us do that in seconds. It would take weeks for people to travel across oceans; today we hop on a plane and get there in hours. College students spent hours and weeks poring through various books, or searching through multiple web sites to create a report on specific topics; today, it can be done in minutes using generative tools like Chat GPT or Grok. Technology helps us get to our objective faster.

2. Automation. A mundane repetitive task requiring minimal decision-making need not be done by a human. If technology can do it instead, the human can be freed up to do more important things. Let the word processor create the 200 form letters in a few seconds instead of you writing them all. An elevator takes you up 50 floors so that you don't have to walk all that way. Factories assemble products with minimal supervision so that you don't have to manually screw a thousand widgets together. Motion-detecting lights turn on when you enter the room so you don't spend an overwhelming 5 seconds to locate the switch and flip it on.

3. Aversion of risk & danger. There are some tasks that are dangerous to humans, but they need to be done. Send the robot to diffuse (or safely detonate) the bomb instead of Jeremy Renner. Medical innovations have led to several life-saving medicines. Drones can transmit surveillance information from within enemy lines without loss of human life. We would rather lose a machine than human life.

Then let's realize the dangers of technology.

While the result of using technology is almost always human comfort, it may or may not make us better humans. However, technology can be used for harm just as easily. In fact, what makes us comfortable could very well become the reason we are placed in an early coffin. What makes us human is the struggle through the process. I am reminded of the story of a child observing a butterfly struggling to break out of its chrysalis. She goes ahead and helps the butterfly break out of the shell. Much to her shock, the butterfly collapses and dies. She goes crying to her father and tells him what happened. The dad comforts her and explains that the struggle is what gives the butterfly's wings the strength it needs to fly. The next time she saw a struggling butterfly, she cheered it on and sure enough, the butterfly flew out of the cocoon and all was well. When the process is shortened or completely averted, we become weak, lazy, and miss our purpose. Technology unchecked has the potential to do just that - circumvent the process that makes us human.

The difference between "good" and "evil" technology is intent. We need to pause and ask at least these questions:

• Why do we need to build a particular technology?

• Do we really need it?

• What is the end goal?

• What are the risks and side-effects of using this technology?

• How will our humanness change by using it?

• How can this tech be misused and what safeguards can be put in place?

• Who profits from all this?

As we are hurled into the AI wars, the voices of reason asking these questions seem to be silenced by a mass hysteria of early adoption. I have spoken to several so-called AI experts and asked them a simple question - what is the end goal of all these AI advances? None of them know. Not a single one! The most common response is - I don't know, but if we don't do it, someone else will.

Here is my challenge to the tech world:

Let's pause. Take a step back. Ask ourselves:

• What kind of AI tool are we really training? What will it be when it "grows up"?

• Do we really need to build so many massive quantum computing data centers that guzzle power and harm the ecology of their surroundings?

• Are we OK with sub-par results that need constant verification and validation? Once the models become more accurate, what's the guarantee that they will stay that way?

• Is machine generated art really art?

• Why are companies laying off thousands of people using AI as an excuse? And they are being commended for it?

• Are we OK exploiting human loneliness and weakness for profit?

• What will AI technology replace?

• Where is this taking us?

• What is this making us?

Don't get me wrong. I know exactly how access to good data and high computational speeds can help individuals and communities innovate and invent solutions that truly help. What I'm concerned about is the unrestrained abandon we are allowing and sometimes expecting in the creation and implementation of this technology that has unknown long-term implications. We still don't know what the end goal with AI is going to be. And that my friends, should be concerning.

Let's ask the questions without fear. Let's expect honest responses. Let's engage in productive dialog. Let us not become slaves to the tools of our own creation.

In all this, I hold on to the promise in Psalm 31:15 - "My times are in Your hands...". Let us be good stewards of the resources and time we have left and leave a better world for our grandchildren.

Truly,

~Sumit Deshpande