For nearly four years, I have been using and leveraging what we refer to as “AI” – specifically AI as it is known today, which is generative AI and a touch of agentic AI. This was more of an AI reunion for me, as I did “learn” AI over 30 years ago, at least what was considered AI back then. Still, I do not, by any means, consider myself an AI expert of any type. But I have become very acquainted with Gen AI, what it can, cannot, and should not do, and what I can do and cannot, and should not, do with Gen AI.
I recognize there are many problems and issues with Gen AI, not the least of which is hallucinations. AI raises all sorts of dilemmas and moral quandaries, from the workforce to childhood learning to the military, tangents and spectrum explosions abound. It’s all, frankly, too much for any of us to process and interpret, especially on top of all the other non-AI problems with societies, civilizations, and the world at large. We, humans, were never intended to absorb all the pain and worries the world over, which technology easily and gleefully delivers. If you let it all in, you will go insane, which may explain much of our societal state today.
While I was toiling away on AI lessons, playing with chatbots, and experimenting with prompt variations into the early morning hours, something was germinating in the population. I doubt I have the vocabulary range to properly describe it, but my best guess is simply resentment. Resentment towards AI. It’s all over everywhere, and has permeated all vectors of information. History could very well decree AI our collective scapegoat for all that has befallen us in the 2020s, and what is yet to come this decade.
Gen AI outright lies and misleads, no question. AI destroys jobs and job opportunities, no question. People are fearful of AI. They equate AI with SkyNet from Terminator, for valid and some not-so-founded reasons. The long-term impacts on childhood learning due to AI may not be known for decades. AI has arguably cost lives, or caused people to act against their own best interests thanks to the vortex stirred by AI’s default, cheerful reality bubbles. Agentic AI, which is effectively Gen AI automation, has people worrying that we ourselves will ultimately be transformed into disposable cogs that only serve the machines.
AI is also demonstrating secondary destructive tendencies. The DDR5 apocalypse is so in every sense of the word, and the PC market may never recover back to sane supply and reasonable pricing as the thirst for AI capacity grows. And speaking of capacity, data centers are the latest boogeyman that is projecting and reinforcing AI’s poor perception.
Human, to human, we need to have a real discussion. No AI. No handoffs to my AI author. No AI curating of any kind, especially not this article. Just us, you and me, two people, two real people.
AI has no public relations department beyond the tech moguls who appear only interested in the AI arms race among their competing juggernaut corporations. At least, that’s the perception they exude, and perception is everything in the realm of public opinion.
There is no relation on the true positives of AI, or even the blunt realities of AI. It’s easy to mock AI, to fear it, to even bury your head in the sand to pretend it doesn’t exist. But the cold truth is that AI is here to stay.
So we have to learn it, to embrace it, and to learn and embrace it responsibly. Maybe not because we want to, but because we have no choice. AI is the greatest paradigm shift in technology this century, if not going back a century. There is no putting the AI genie back into the bottle. Even if, hypothetically, the West decides to deter use of AI, it’s highly unlikely the rest of the world will oblige, particularly China.
We must acknowledge that our current workforce must adapt to use AI, and that our children need to learn how to use AI appropriately. And all must be accomplished within a responsibility framework that places AI into a proper use context, with prudent boundaries respecting moral and ethical norms.
If you still believe you can avoid AI, can continue the resentment, can continue the ridicule, then consider this – if you don’t truly understand AI, for all its problems as well as all of the benefits and opportunities it makes possible, you, and our society at large, will be in no position to tackle all of the problems, dilemmas, and questions wrought by AI. To a large degree, I feel this explains our current situation, where far more people are willing to lash out and blame AI than to realize we can use that same AI to help us navigate those very difficulties.
It’s not easy and it won’t be neat, but it’s the only way, lest we become a society that rejoices in ignorance and destines our future generations to control – control by machines or those who understood our 2026 conundrum and acted accordingly, or both.
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