This paraphrase from Tristan Harris (by way of Freedom Baird) came across the #AI in Ed discussion group and seems worth sharing: The advent of social media was our “first contact” with AI, and we didn’t anticipate the negative consequences in time. And now LLMs constitute our “second contact” and let’s not screw it up.
@w8emv@editor@edutooters What about "The Policeman's Beard is Half Constructed: Computer Prose and Poetry by Racter- The First Book Ever Wrritten by a Computer Paperback – January 1, 1984?"
@scerruti@w8emv@edutooters Y'all ain't wrong, and I do find the history of AI fascinating, and this might be a good time to plug my video https://youtu.be/rrjwZwCxHdQ on that topic, but nevertheless I think Tristan Harris is onto something here. Could the rise of Big Social, driven by "the algorithm," be the first consequential encounter with AI for our society as a whole?
"The Algorithm" certainly was around before it was applied to your social media timeline - think of all of those bloggers (myself included) who hacked their headlines to make them palatable for Google SEO and who chased search trends and traffic.
@editor@w8emv@edutooters I think that there are probably societally consequential AI examples predating social media.
If we look at the use of AI in the stock market we might not initially see it with societal implications but it did assume some of the decision making regarding the directions of society.
Alternatively if you want to think about direct impact then I would consider traffic control systems or even building HVAC controls.
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