Public Service Announcement
I’ve spent the last 6 months developing a process to create relevant K-20 learning opportunities and support educators who want to align their classrooms with real issues. My plan was to use AI to scrape the internet for peer reviewed, vetted science and current events, compile it into useable lesson plans and distribute to educators with professional support. After listening to Tristan Harris’ new “Call to Arms”, the AI Dilemma, my desire to protect children (and our future) has been reignited. Before we cast machine learning on our children we should come to some consensus about what is best (and notice what is the worst) technology for their wellness. As Harris points out, the movie The Day After was paramount in the dialogue around nuclear war and some would say it prevented attacks (in the day). I think it’s possible to do the same thing with AI (other than just play on OpenAI). As Dr. Maria Montessori would say, freedom (progress) comes with responsibility.
Private companies are attaching AI to their platforms in droves, even SnapChat has added an AI chatbot just in case your children don’t have any friends online when they want to chat. Sure, it’ll give your daughter all the positive reinforcement she wants, even if she is thirteen and considering her first romantic secret getaway with a thirty-one-year-old she just met online. Bad incentives (attention, money, power) are driving the race for AI everywhere we look and there is almost no one (~1/30 machine learning professionals are working in AI safety and most working within underfunded organizations) watching or considering if it is a good idea or all. Even though this video is now outdated (it launched twenty days ago) it is worth at least a listen. AI is a great tool in many areas, but it can be disastrous in others. It’s our duty as citizens to understand what we can and support what we must. Here are two more places to read more among many others.
Sign a petition to help correct some of the negative effects of social media on our children. Thank you dove. Hopefully, we’ll see one for AI sooner than later.
training for the heron 
Leave a comment