When asked to write a blog post that reflects on my own experiences with (generative) Artificial Intelligence, my initial thought was that this was going to be difficult since I did not use Artificial Intelligence as much. I could think of AI-based algorithms making personalized recommendations, social media filters, using Siri on my phone, and of course there were a few more instances that I could imagine. However, when I was really forced to think about AI and how it actually impacts my daily life, I was shocked.
By doing research on the topic, I discovered that AI had become an integral part of my daily life: my mail box uses AI to categorize my emails and recognize spam mail; the navigation apps on my phone use AI to recommend the fastest route given the current traffic circumstances; the apps I use for weather forecasting use AI; spelling checks and grammar improvement use AI; and so on and so forth. It did not only turn out to be that I use AI a lot in my daily life, but I also depend on AI for a substantial amount of the time. In hindsight, it is, and it should have been clear that AI is integrated into a lot of my daily activities; however, it was not. Even though these technologies have improved numerous aspects of my life, this did raise the question of the subconscious use of AI and, even more so, the possible (subtle) threats associated with it.
One of these threats might be the overreliance on the predictions of AI systems. Speaking from my own experience and the experience of people around me, we often tend to rely on AI predictions a lot. This may vary from the weather forecast and the prediction of peaks in rain showers to determine when to walk the dog to predictions in the stock market and what to invest in at which time. Those examples and the decisions following them might not have major consequences; however, subconsciously relying on an AI system to make your decisions could result in major consequences in the future. Therefore, it is crucial for humans to keep relying on their own judgment and expertise, especially in decision-making processes. A second threat from the subconscious use of AI is the chance of biasing humans. AI algorithms, especially those used in social media, show us what they predict we want to see. This does not necessarily mean that what they show us is the truth, nor does it mean that we see the entire story. This might lead to our opinions and behaviors being biased by what we get to see. At first, I thought that this was overexaggerated; however, I have unfortunately experienced this myself. This emphasized the importance of relying on our human judgment even more.
I emphasized two (subtle) threats of the subconscious use of AI in our daily lives, but undoubtedly there are a lot more of them. The main conclusion is to always take your human judgment into account and not always rely solely on what is shown on the internet. I am curious to know if any of you have experienced subconscious use of Artificial Intelligence in your daily activities or lives, and how you think this might have affected you.
