I walked into the phone store, trying to exude confidence.
[I think for many of us who are over the age of 40, the
phone store inherently feels like a place where young, tech-savvy staff are
ready to make us feel like fools from the dinosaur age. When they start making
references to mid-20th century technology, you know you are in
trouble. “Well, do you remember how you would dial on a rotary phone that was
powered by the hand crank?”]
“Can I help you?”
“Yes, I have a problem. I can’t figure out how to turn my
phone off.”
First thought of the staff member: “For realz? Another
geezer from the stone age!”
Second thought of the staff member: “Why would any human
being, at any time, want to turn their phone off?”
Trying to hold back what I sensed was a mixture of laughter
and scorn, they asked me to tell them a bit more.
Here was the issue. I like having my phone completely off a
few times a week. And in a strange twist, the two-button method that used to
turn off my phone now turns ON an AI feature.
Take that in for a moment. What a symbol of our world. The
buttons that used to help me escape tech had been updated to now draw me into
AI.
As you hit those buttons, if you listen close, you hear an
evil laugh and the voice from MJ’s Thriller saying, “So you thought you could
turn the phone off, huh? You are in the hands of AI now, o little one!”
Well, it turns out that the tech person was not as concerned
as I was that AI is taking over the world, one phone and device at a time. In
fact, their solution was to hit the two buttons, summoning AI, and then asking AI
for permission to turn the phone off. Not quite the answer I was looking for.
I am skeptical of AI in a big way. I sense that our world,
akin to my phone, is going to push AI on us without our permission. Scratch
that. I sense that our world is already pushing AI on us without our
permission.
It is up to us – the rotary phone powered by a crank – folks
to think critically about the value of being able to…well, being able to turn
our phone off.
