The Reality of AI | Pt.6 | AI doesn’t think. But People are easily fooled into thinking that it does.

If you had read everything on the internet – and I mean quite literally everything, AND you were able to recall all of it, recognise similarities between different sources and pieces of information, make conclusions and then present whatever you have come up with as a finished piece of work – and do all of this in no more than a couple of seconds, it would be reasonable to expect that whoever asked you to do this would automatically assume that you were very special indeed.

It wouldn’t matter whether you were right or wrong. Just like one of the very best magicians performing their art to an audience on stage, it wouldn’t be the outcome of the act that would leave you speechless. It would be the unasked question of how that outcome was achieved.

With all of the information that AI has access to, that it will inevitably always be updating, many of us will automatically assume, and therefore believe, that with the speed and apparent resourcefulness that AI can demonstrate, that AI must be able to ‘think’.

The mystery of a process that achieves an outcome using methods that we do not or cannot understand is very compelling and very influential upon us.

But much like a Ponzi scheme or any other form of con that sounds too good to be true, it doesn’t necessarily follow that it’s good or that it’s right.

For as long as we believe in the mystery, it is the mystery that will hold all power over us.