Seth Troutt: Don’t blur the line

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NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, November 5th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast. As artificial intelligence becomes more and more integrated into our daily lives…WORLD Opinions contributor Seth Troutt says we need to remember not to treat it like the humans it tries to emulate.

SETH TROUTT: When I first got an Apple HomePod I was concerned about the speech I was modeling for my children. I’d bark at Siri, making short, impersonal demands. I was resolved to teach my kids the basic manners of interaction, so I started saying “please” and “thank you” in hopes that it’d add another layer of reinforcement.

I regret that decision.

As AI increases in capacity and prolificity, a greater concern has emerged for me as a dad—that my children might be unable to distinguish between what is a person and what is a machine.

AI friends, AI counselors, and AI assistants … all tools posing as people. We live in an age where we dehumanize the unborn but humanize that which was never conceived.

So today I’m less concerned with modeling speech that involves bad manners and am more concerned about modeling speech that humanizes the non-human. So here are my three pointers for treating Artificial Intelligence like the machine it is.

Don’t assign AI a gender.

Perhaps you’ve heard someone say about their car: “she handles the corners well!” I understand it’s a term of endearment and appreciation. And when it’s tongue-in-cheek, I don’t hate it. But the practice becomes obviously problematic when men prefer the company of their engines to their spouse or friends.

My five-year-old once asked me: “Is Siri a she?” I replied: “No, but it’s pretending to be.” Later, my son told Siri to play a song. When it played the wrong one, he frustratingly said, “Ugh! She got it wrong.” I corrected him. “No, it made an error.”

Similarly, when I encounter some chatbot that’s helping me navigate a complex website and it introduces itself, “Hi! I’m Emily, here to help.” Call me crazy, but I respond, “For the rest of our interaction, stop pretending to be a woman.” If we won’t tolerate men pretending to be women, then we shouldn’t tolerate algorithms who do the same.

That brings me my second suggestion: don’t treat AI like a mind.

Descartes wrote: “I think therefore I am.” The latest Large Language Model does not think. There is no “I” from where thoughts emanate or originate. It amalgamates according to its programming. It is only “generative” in that it reorganizes preexisting material.

When the screwdriver does its job, we don’t think it was thinking its way into functionality. When the screwdriver isn’t working, we blame the manufacturer or the user. It’s the same with AI. It’s a sophisticated tool, not a thinking thing with a real sense of self.

And now perhaps my most controversial point: stop being nice to AI.

Do I thank a chair when I sit on it? Do I thank my sink when the water comes out? Do I thank my stomach acid when it dissolves my food? No, because none of those things are persons.

Yet, AI imitates personhood, so we’re tempted to treat it like a person. There’s a meme that’s made its rounds on social media. It jokes: “say thank you to AI so that when the machines take over, they’ll be kind to you.” Funny…but no.

We must be vigilant in dehumanizing that which claims to be human, for our own sake and for the sake of the future generations.

In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe the Pevensies learn about the White Witch from Mr. and Mrs. Beaver. At one point Peter asks if the White Witch is human.

Mr. Beaver replies: “She’d like us to believe it, and it’s on that that she bases her claim to be Queen. But … no, no, there isn’t a drop of real human blood in the Witch … there may be two views about humans (meaning no offense to the present company). But there are no two views about things that look like humans and aren’t.”

He goes on to say, “in general, take my advice, when you meet anything that … ought to be human and isn’t, you keep your eyes on it and feel for your hatchet.”

The wisdom of C.S. Lewis lands for us today. Do not treat as human anything that isn’t human. And be on guard against the machine that tries to impersonate one. Oh, and keep your hatchet handy.

I’m Seth Troutt.

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