What Do I (Really) Want from AI

It's a really hard question to answer: What do I really want from AI? I'm sitting in front of my computer, thinking about the various avenues I can take this question to, but my mind keeps wandering, with no drift to catch on to. Thinking about why this is, I realize that I really don't know what I want from AI. And the reason for why this is might perhaps be that I'm not seeing what I really do want from AI being expressed out in the world.

I would like to extend the discussion we had in class last week about optimization. I agree with the sentiment that Stanford, the Silicon Valley, and the greater AI all focus on speed and optimization. And while speed and optimization aren't necessarily bad things on their own, I draw the line at the point where speed and optimization affect our creativity, livelihoods, and philosophies.

If AI is here to stay, I would like to live in a world where AI doesn't try to optimize us — where our habits, lifestyles, wellbeing, etc… aren't somehow influenced by AI. Perhaps this is an interesting thing to think about actually. In a world where people are trying to hard to get AI to optimize their lives, maybe AI is actually optimizing us instead (?) Not sure.

One thing that's interesting to think about is how AI has infiltrated our workspaces and our digital lives, but our social in-person interactions have largely been left untouched, at least for now. It might not be long until it does, though. But then, I think the narrative around AI will have changed.

To answer the question, I still don't know. Sorry.