Call Me AI-Curious
What’s trumping the news these days? For me — sunrises, sky as wide as the eyes of a toddler who hasn’t learned the word “no” yet. Rocks once floor to an ocean, waning quarter moon in the eastern sky reflecting a higher power. And in the evening, a date with the blinking cursor, the search terms limitless. What may I ask of AI that might elucidate how trustworthy they are as a source of reliable guidance?
After requesting an image of an elder making a fire without matches in a forest in the rain and being struck that in each of the four samples offered, the elder was portrayed as a white man with a silver beard, I moved on.
I nosed around for a question that could serve a performance goal: to meet my audience on common ground. And so, I asked What are three universal truths often conveyed in story? The reply fell gentle on my eyes. Yes, AI was stating the obvious. AND for that I was grateful. The information pipeline seemed reliable at the second, the moment of revelation a relief…no marketing ploy or egomaniacal falderal sideswiping my best intentions. Along with the requisite sentences of elaboration, these were the replies: the search for identity, that change is inevitable. and the power of kindness.
Okay, I thought to myself. That’s something I can work with.
I tried again: AI, what are three difficult truths often examined in literature? Again, the answers came with a swiftness beyond the speed of human synthesis, in ascending order, the harsh realities of injustice, the complexity of human nature, death will come.
Had AI been reading my journals? my poetry? But, I wasn’t even using my own computer, wasn’t the one typing in the search terms. No, results came from somewhere beyond me, the compendium of whatever content floats in the ocean of thoughts from which the answer was drawn. The BIG THEY.
Again, the “duh” of it was as striking as the gravitas. Threads of truth assured me that in this moment, of all that was uncertain and bombastic and slippery, (patriarchal missteps aside), AI could be trusted, for now.
Before bedtime, a final question showed up. What are the principles you would like for us to know and embody? I imagined the sterile atmosphere in which mountains of data sifted through some cosmic funnel.
Yeah, AI, tell us what you want us to know and embody. The answers, arrived in a finger snap and in no particular order, were these: curiosity, open-mindedness, resilience, empathy, integrity, creativity, humility, kindness, courage, sustainability. Yes, it’s ironic that the intelligence generating such a list is not capable of developing these very traits. But, then again, neither are some of us. And unfortunately, they’re not words we use to stack a resume. BUT if I were being honest with myself, this body of knowledge, this thimble of Spirit couldn’t have survived without them.
And after another day in the desert, I’m coming back to that blinking cursor to ask AI to tell me a story about a couple of young children surviving in a world without curiosity, open-mindedness, resilience, empathy, integrity, creativity, humility, kindness, courage, and sustainability. I can’t wait to see what THEY have to say about that.
