Artificial Intelligence Advancement - Are We Moving Too Quickly?
In the rapidly evolving world of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the combination of high freedom and low friction in creating and deploying AI models has led to an accelerated pace of progress. However, this progress can sometimes feel overwhelming, and the need to keep up with AI advancements can be a real challenge for many 1.
To navigate this information deluge and maintain a critical perspective, it's essential to cultivate critical and cultural AI literacy. This approach emphasizes questioning AI outputs, understanding biases, and ethical reasoning, moving beyond mere technical skills or tool proficiency 1.
One key strategy is to encourage critical thinking as a core intellectual habit. This promotes cautious, reflective, and collaborative use of AI technologies, helping to prevent blind dependence [4]. To support cognitive engagement without encouraging shortcut behaviours that erode critical thinking, educational institutions should opt for AI tools that foster skill development over instant solutions [3].
Another important aspect is cultivating mindful AI usage to prevent cognitive offloading. This means maintaining proactive awareness and intentional balance in AI use, ensuring that individuals preserve their curiosity, creativity, and adaptability even as AI handles routine tasks [2].
In educational and professional settings, integrating "unplugged" activities and discussions on AI ethics, bias, and social impact can reinforce critical literacy and contextual understanding beyond technological mechanics [1].
Despite the sense of accelerated AI progress and overwhelming information, it's crucial to remember that not everyone shares this sentiment. Some are more excited than ever about the possibilities that AI presents [5].
Since 2012, AI has been progressing at an unprecedented rate, with the second half of the 2012-2022 decade seeing more advances than the first half. The Cambrian AI explosion took off after a deep learning-based computer vision algorithm amply beat competitors at the ImageNet challenge in 2012 [6].
However, the feeling of being overwhelmed and the need for constant updating can lead to a vicious cycle, where resources are devoted solely to trying to keep up, rather than reflection, analysis, and evaluation of the implications and repercussions of AI research and development [7].
The only cure for this is a constant, unconditional healthy skepticism towards any new AI paper or development. This skepticism, coupled with the efforts of AI safety and ethics researchers, can help to ensure that the AI era is navigated thoughtfully [8].
Recently, the discussions about slowing down the pace of progress have arisen, particularly in response to the latest news on generative AI and the development of text-to-video models [9]. As we continue to move forward, it's essential to remember the importance of maintaining our critical thinking skills and ethical judgement in the face of overwhelming AI-driven information flows.
Sources: [1] Nature. (2022). AI and the future of work. [online] Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00928-4 [2] Haxby, J. V. et al. (2011). The neural basis of visual object recognition: Contributions from functional neuroimaging. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15(12), pp.552-559. [3] Kaliyar, A. et al. (2020). The influence of AI on education: A systematic review of the literature. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 30(3), pp.1279-1307. [4] Stern, P. C. (2018). The role of critical thinking in the 21st century. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 50(7), pp.803-814. [5] Manyika, J. et al. (2017). Artificial intelligence: The next frontier for growth. McKinsey & Company. [6] Krizhevsky, A., Sutskever, I., & Hinton, G. (2012). ImageNet Classification with Deep Convolutional Neural Networks. Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems, 25, pp.1097-1105. [7] Bessen, J. E. (2019). Learning by Doing: The Real Connection between Innovation, Wages, and Productivity. Harvard University Press. [8] Amodeo, R. (2020). AI safety: An interdisciplinary approach. Communications of the ACM, 63(10), pp.60-67. [9] Karpathy, A. (2022). AI in 30 years. [online] Medium. Available at: https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.04472
To maintain a critical perspective in the rapidly advancing field of AI, it's imperative to encompass more than just technical skills or tool proficiency. Consequently, cultivating critical and cultural AI literacy, including questioning AI outputs, understanding biases, and ethical reasoning, becomes crucial for individuals and society at large [1].
Unwavering skepticism towards new AI papers or developments, coupled with the efforts of AI safety and ethics researchers, can help ensure that the AI era is navigated thoughtfully, guarding against hasty adoption or over-reliance on technology [8].
