AI, Ethics, & Education

Howdy from Durham,

Welcome to the 6 new subscribers from this past week!

Today's piece may leave you with more questions than answers.

We're investigating the ethical considerations of emerging technologies.

30 years & 3 waves of advancement.

Advancements in technology over the past 30 years can be summarized into 3 waves: 1. Internet -> 2. Smartphones -> 3. Cloud Computing

Let's break each of these down with a timeline (early adoption to maturity).

1) Internet - (90s to mid-2000s) we could now read info. from computers

2) Smartphones - (late-2000s to mid-2010s) - we could now read and write info. from our phones

3) Cloud Computing - (mid-2010s to early 2020s) - we could now read, write, and stream info. seamlessly across all of our devices (phones, laptops, appliances, smart watches, etc.)

A note on the aforementioned timelines: our usage of the internet didn't end in the mid-2000s just as the usage of smartphones didn't end in the mid-2010s.

Rather, the end date in each timeline signals the point of widespread adoption - a point in which no one, no matter their tech savviness or lack thereof, could deny that concepts once out of a sci-fi tv show were now cemented as staples in our daily lives.

1980s tv show "Knight Rider" featured a watch that David Hasselhoff could speak into. What was once science fiction then is now a modern day reality with the rise of the smart watch.

Waves of advancement crash on top of one another.

Like an ocean approaching the shore with increasing intensity and volume, each wave of technology crashes on top of one another, giving rise to the next.

The internet gave way to iPhones and the App Store.

iPhones and the App Store gave way to cloud-powered streaming apps and connectivity businesses such as Netflix and Ring.

Waves of technology don't go away. They simply become the foundation for the next wave.

This is all according to Moore's law - innovation begetting innovation, condensing on itself, moving faster and faster.

Just look at the last 3 waves. I'd argue that the internet took ~15 years to reach maturity, smartphones took ~8 years, and cloud computing took ~4 years.

Faster and faster we go.

What was a seemingly monumental wave just years prior becomes so deeply ingrained into our lives that we become numb to innovation.

Moore's Law states that computing power doubles every two years. Computational advancement typically leads to faster market adoption of innovative products.

AI is the next wave of advancement.

We are currently in the early adoption stages of the fourth wave, Artificial Intelligence.

Enhanced cloud computing power (3rd wave) will be the foundation that large scale AI models are built on top of (4th wave.)

4) AI - (early 2020s to mid-2020s) - we will rely on automation models to help us read, write, and stream info. across all of our devices

The good news: AI will help us solve technical tasks, provide us contextual information, and even expand our creativity in the arts.

The uncertain news: the previous 3 waves of technological advancement made our lives so easy that it became inconvenient to think critically. We increasingly relied on algorithms within our social feeds to dictate our beliefs. We rarely do our own research, and validating sources of information is becoming less and less common.

The risk: if society collectively has poor intellectual habits, then automation will have the capacity to amplify our decline in critical thinking (not because AI is evil but because it is a reflection of us.)

Bottom line: AI will be able to help us improve our lives a great deal, but we cannot become numb to innovation at the expense of our ability to think critically.

Twitter thread from Ben Tossell on 15 use cases for AI.

The state of AI, ethics, and education.

How do we maximize the benefits of AI while mitigating it's risks?

We need diverse groups of lifelong students with the ability to tie timeless principles of philosophy, economics, anthropology, and psychology into the timely advancements of AI in order to responsibly steward this next wave of technology.

We've historically prepared members of society to become critical thinkers through 4-year universities.

Yet, in the 21st century, mounting tuition expenses and opportunity costs associated with 4-year degrees are increasingly making students think twice about the value of traditional college paths.

In other words, inflection points in AI and education are converging on one another.

Our increased need for critical thinking due to AI's emergence is being met with a decreased confidence in the existing educational opportunities that traditionally stimulate critical thinking.

I am optimistic about AI's benefits to society in decreasing repetitive/administrative tasks and freeing up our time to pursue creativity, but Moore's Law tells us that change is coming quicker than we can imagine.

We need to make adjustments in our education system today to prepare our leaders for tomorrow.

I don't know what these solutions will look like, but my gut tells me that my work in this decade will center around this problem.

There are endless side effects caused by disruption within education to consider. Here's one I've been thinking about: we may need to expand what counts as a qualified expense under a 529 plan (college savings account) to cover new educational opportunities in the next decade.

What I'm paying attention to:

• Make a Name for Yourself by Jack Butcher: "a name is an interface to the market, the better it is, the more opportunity it can create."

GIF of the Week

Had the chance to play in my roommate's disc golf putting league, my first time trying this sport!

Thanks for reading

How do you think AI will change our future?

Let me know what you think by replying below,

Josh

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