Howdy from Nashville,

Welcome to the 5 new subscribers from last week.

I flew to Tennessee for my buddy’s wedding.

Time on a plane allowed me to ponder a few ethical questions on tech.

I tried writing a piece about my current thoughts on emerging tech.

I couldn’t do it.

Why?

I have more questions than answers right now.

Here are 5 questions that are on the top of my mind.

1. How will AI impact our public discourse?

What I mean: social media radically shifted the way we consume information. What’s crazy is that these apps were just an intermediary. (AKA humans still produced the content and the only change was that the info was now distributed via algorithms).

How tech changes this: AI isn’t an intermediary. It’s a participant in the conversation. Sure, it’s largely answering questions based off of datasets that humans created (for now), but word choice, tone, objectivity vs. subjectivity will be at the model’s discretion.

An example: I was at a friend’s poker game last week when one of the guys said he “relies on Chat all of the time” to help him answer questions at work. He was referring to ChatGPT - the most popular large language model (LLM) right now - as if the AI was one of his trusted friends. More LLMs will emerge, and we’ll build relationships with the the AI personas that we use the most (similar to how some of us choose to consume information from certain media outlets over others). This likely means that we’ll see people develop different viewpoints based on the AI models that they interact with which could usher in a new era of information bias.

2. How will augmented reality/virtual reality transform the workplace?

What I mean: right now, we’re relying on email and video conferencing to work remotely. This will seem archaic in 10 years.

How tech changes this: a high quality AR/VR set-up could become as commonplace as having a laptop at your house. Instead of hopping on zoom, you would hop on your headset for a much more immersive experience.

An example: I used to facilitate zoom happy hours for my former colleagues. They were the definition of “eh.” It took a long time to ease into them, they always felt a bit awkward, and you largely did it because you sorta-kinda had to. No one likes forced team bonding, especially on video conferences. AR/VR could make virtual hangouts actually fun by being able to see colleagues’ body language and facial expressions much more clearly in a 3D virtual room.

3. How will the convergence of AR/VR and AI affect companionship?

What I mean: we rely on companionship through other living beings (such as a pet or another person). This has been true even in the social media era where, similar to question #1, Facebook, Twitter, etc.. were the intermediaries simply distributing what our friends and family had to say. Digital companionship is going to get more sophisticated.

How tech changes this: AR/VR allows for immersive experiences with cartoon-like characters. Sure, you can have humans be the ones who direct these characters (think 2D bitmoji but on 3D steroids where you interact with other peoples’ avatars). There will also be the option to hang out virtually with artificial avatars too. Pair an artificial 3D with LLMs which can facilitate conversations as well as dictate the output of the text, and you’ve got a virtual companion that you can interact with in real time (aka you’re hanging out with a digital person who is not a person in real life).

An example: remember how we had digital companions such as Neopets or Nintendogs? (You didn’t have those?? It was just me and my sisters??? Cool.) The conversations were limited, but we spoke to virtual pets through simple text dialogue, and we cared for them. Now imagine custom conversations with an AI pet or even an AI person in a fully immersive environment which can respond to real time verbal communication.

4. How will we verify the legitimacy of video content (aka that someone *actually* said what was presented in a video)?

What I mean: there are a couple of sayings that go somethin’ like “be careful what ya read on the internet” or (jokingly) “I read it on the internet, so it must be true.” Now, we’ll need to be careful about what we watch. Through deepfake technology, people can create videos that you could swear are authentic (when, in fact, they are not).

How tech changes this: we’ll need to create a way to verify the original source of all content, with video being at the forefront of importance here. I anticipate that this will happen through blockchain technology where immutable digital ledgers verify the origin of each piece of content (in simpler terms - video content will only be trusted if it has a blue checkmark next to it confirming it’s authenticity a la the blue checkmark on the official social media profiles for celebrities, government leaders, athletes, etc.)

An example: imagine folks creating fake videos of a speech from a political leader. This could be used to rile up opposing political bases and have immense consequences (which is why it’s so important that we build the tools to verify the source of content + improve media literacy for all).

5. How will we regulate these new technologies?

What I mean: the founders of the United States intentionally designed a system filled with checks and balances to slow the pace of government. That way, legislation that passed had to be agreed upon by a plethora of voices.

How tech changes this: this stuff is moving fast. Sure I’ve written about Moore’s Law many-a-time, but I still cannot believe how quick we’re moving.

A few examples: new questions about freedom of speech will arise from AI’s impact on public discourse. New questions about intellectual property law will stem from AI’s creation of music, images, and videos. New questions on libel will come from AI’s emergence of deepfake videos. Shoot - new questions may even arise about legal partnerships based upon the emergence of artificial companions (I’m not kidding).

I don’t know the answers to these things.

I just know that the questions are incredibly thought provoking, and the outcomes will be wild to watch unfold over the next couple of decades.

What I’m paying attention to:

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman noting how we’re now creating AND consuming info. through a ChatGPT lens

Photo of the week:

Thanks for reading

Which of the 5 questions did you find most interesting?

Reply and let me know!

Josh

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