‘Have goals, but not strict boundaries’

I’ve had quite a few good conversations this week, and as someone who enjoys thinking about things and analyzing them, please, let me share my thoughts on some topics. 

My first notable conversation was with Eli.

I asked to talk with Eli to discuss my after-graduation plans, as I have been fortunate enough to work at theWaseca County Pioneer for four years now. I have been an intern and reporter during the summer, and have taken care of behind-the-scenes tasks the rest of the year. I would like at least part of that to continue, whatever my future endeavors happen to be. Thankfully, Eli assured me that I could help out virtually and work from anywhere, which is really nice. 

But then we started talking more about futures and living life, which seems to be the theme of many of my conversations lately. But that’s logical I guess, given that I and all my friends will be graduating college in three months. 

Eli and I talked about my hopes and dreams, what I could possibly do, what my dream job would be versus what I’m willing to take. It was also helpful to hear how Eli got to where he is now and what he’s learned along the way; I gladly took the wisdom he gave me. 

“It’s important to have goals, but not put strict boundaries on them,” he told me.

Which is good, because that’s exactly where I’m at. Yeah, I’d like a great job doing what I think would be fun, but I’m also open for whatever life decides to throw at me. And that’s okay. 

Another conversation that stuck with me this week was one I had in class, talking about artificial intelligence. We had read a New York Times article talking about a guy who had spent two hours chatting with the Bing AI bot and what he had learned from it. Basically, the article was about how this reporter had pushed boundaries with this AI and asked some more intimate questions, asking what it would do or how it would think or feel if it was sentient or not held back by the rules and guidelines Bing had set on the AI bot. 

The interesting part, though, was the fact that after a while, the bot turned into what the reporter described as a “moody teenager,” begging the reporter to leave his wife because the bot loved him and knew he loved the bot. The AI even responded with plentiful emojis. 

So in class we talked about AI, the impact, why it responds the way it does, why people fear it will be sentient. 

A Google engineer was fired for claiming AI had become sentient. A lot of people in society who use social media or listen to misinformation are scared that it will become cognizant. I will admit, after reading that NYT article, I, too, began to fear the unknown powers of AI. 

But in class we talked about how, despite this fear, people don’t understand that AI is really just one thing: a mirror. 

AI is not sentient and never will be. It has just become knowledgeable at analyzing our thoughts and words and responding the same way, thinking it is how we want it to respond. In October, a 14-year-old boy killed himself after chatting with an AI chatbot. The mom claimed it was due to chatting with the bot, where the boy had expressed thoughts of depression and suicide. 

While there is obviously need for AI and chatbots to react better–and especially to provide more help to those expressing thoughts of suicide or death, it just proves that AI only knows how to mirror, reflect the thoughts.  

So while I know now that AI isn’t sentient, the knowledge that it is just reflecting whatever thoughts and feelings I express is unsettling to me. Thankfully, I avoid using it. 

On a lighter note, my roommate and I had a great conversation about relationships and how this time in our lives is when the second wave of people we know, our age, are getting engaged or married. The first wave is those who get engaged or married right after high school. Now we are reaching the end of college, where more people are getting engaged again. We like to talk about it as we hold the knowledge that it will be a long while for either of us. It’s just fun to update each other on our high school friends or people we know riding the high of this second wave. Congratulations to everyone involved in those waves. 

My Determination: “I did it again. I said something helpful and went past it.” - Francine Smith, American Dad!