Two considerations when discussion AI deployment
Two of the stumbling blocks with the general narrative of AI deployment come from misunderstandings, one from each polarized end of the current tensions.
Firstly, what I call the “Radium Problem“. Shortly after Marie Curie isolated and described Radium around the start of the 20th century, products were devised and released to incorporate the new wonder substance. Advertisements for Radium Toothpaste, chocolate, cosmetics and more were not uncommon. Radioactive quackery – or even if viewed charitably – overenthusiasm, caused deployment of radioactive and highly dangerous consumer goods.
The parallels with forced AI integration are horribly real. Technology which is not fit for purpose is being squeezed in to any product it can find to meet the promises made to investors. The danger to consumers is just as real, if less physically demonstrable. We are at the “radium in everything” stage of AI deployment.
On the other end of a scale we can have what I dub the “Chemicals Problem“. Over the past few decades consumers have become increasingly alert to highly processed or synthetic compounds in food; forever chemicals, cost saving additives with uncertain long term risks or even documented dangers. This has become known by a shorthand, “chemicals in food”. When this shorthand reaches the ears of someone without the education or knowledge to underpin it, this can lead to the very confusing conversation where they refuse to accept any chemicals at all in food – and cannot make the distinction that in fact ALL food is chemical, even the good stuff.
The word has become tainted, and I think this parallels a problem with AI. In the public mind AI just means LLMs, and dubiously or illegally sourced diffusion models, it only means the uncontrolled prompted mess which has made headlines in recent years. This has lead to people demanding, for example, no AI in computer games – they may have a good point about AI generated assets and vibe code, but not understanding that AI as a whole field includes a huge variety of approaches and techniques which they use every day, or might not register as AI. Spellchecks, search engines, flood fill, A* pathfinding, state machines… all now lumped together under the ‘AI slop’ slur, now a new ‘chemicals in food‘ situation where people refuse AI in Anything.
I record these as observations without a solution, and to help guide myself through conversations which might seem confusing without this background understanding of other people’s preconceptions of the field.
Leave a Reply