It amazes me that I can recall when speaking with someone on a phone meant being tethered by a three-foot cord to a boxy device on a table or wall, or listening to music meant spinning plastic disks under a needle (although this is making a comeback in some corners). Or how about when completing school assignments literally meant doing so longhand or pounding it out on a clunky contraption with no cut and paste or spell check options, let alone prompts from an AI “assistant” asking if it can rewrite what I just wrote?
The list of tech innovations over the past fifty years seems endless, but lately I’ve been getting the sense that our creations are becoming slightly too, well, independent. When I began reading about artificial intelligence or “machine learning” many years ago, it was with a view that advanced software run on hyper-fast supercomputers could soon do things for us that we never imagined a generation ago. Why, that seems nice, doesn’t it?
Indeed, AI is expected to become so pervasive in the workplace that it will eventually replace many desk jobs, including computer programmers and many IT professionals, the “must-have” jobs everyone sought out twenty years ago. After all, “machine learning” means the machine can teach itself and adapt what it’s learned to new situations and problems, making human oversight unnecessary. Very promising.
For instance, AI can be especially helpful for people doing medical research seeking out future treatments or cures for diseases. By sifting through thousands of research papers in seconds, AI can potentially trim months or even years of time off future discoveries. Who wouldn’t want that? Speaking of healthcare, when I recently visited my primary care doctor, a man I’ve seen for 15 years, he walked into the exam room, took a seat, whipped out his phone, and introduced me to his “assistant,” special AI software which would be recording everything we said and summarize it into a nifty after-visit report. Depending on what I’m there for, will it soon provide a diagnosis and treatment plan? In upcoming years, the phrase “the doctor will see you now” may take on a whole new meaning.
AI in automobiles is transforming personal travel and makes any other form of transportation seem like a drag. A friend who recently stopped by my house in his new ride, a 2025 Tesla coupe, invited me in for a spin. Its sleek, giant dashboard touchscreen sent a cool Star Trek vibe through my veins. When we drove out of my subdivision onto the main road, thankfully deserted, he punched the vehicle touted to reach 60 mph in 3 seconds and, as if seated in a rocket leaving the launchpad, I felt my brain hit the back of my skull. Too exhilarating? The car was then placed into autodrive mode, where it drove itself for several blocks and gently pulled up to my front curb. My friend added that if he chooses, he can “call” the parked vehicle over to him from the other side of a parking lot as he walks out of a store. If it had a voice, it would resemble the fully automated car KITT from the ’80s Knight Rider TV show. Thanks, but I’ll stick with my Kia hybrid.
Given all these interesting and even fun activities AI can provide, the technology is also becoming increasingly “humanized” at the expense of us humans. Some are even taking humanoid shapes, early models in a long-term effort to make machines more relatable. In a video that went viral last month, a Chinese (they make them too) humanoid robot appeared to be assaulting its controllers, flailing its arms at them as they retreated. Surely a glitch, nothing intentional.
But a few weeks later came this nugget. When AI developer Antropic was evaluating a new AI model, “Claude Opus 4,” the chatbot program was found to be willing to “strong arm” its human controllers when it perceived it was about to be shut down. When provided access to a set of fabricated employee emails, the chatbot examined them to seek out incriminating information that could be used to blackmail them. Oh my. I’m sure this “bug” has been fixed before the bot went live.
When all things AI fail, let’s hope it’s not too late to unplug our digital “helpers” and default to our factory setting: human.
Stay sharp and always have hope!
