The AI Delusion
Rampant spread of AI has made debates on AI’s negative impact on education and replacement of entry jobs hackneyed. AI has begun to blur the lines between the experiences of the living ones and those who passed on. Take a recent CNN interview with Joaquin Oliver, a teenager killed in the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, for instance. Oliver was reanimated by generative AI during the interview. The parents’ desperation to reunite with their deceased son is excruciating; yet is it justifiable to bring the dead back to life?
AI is at its peak of distorting our ethics. The inevitable question is, does the value of AI outweigh the dignity of mankind? It feels like mankind has fooled itself into an unhealthy relationship with AI, abusing its power in ways that go past the barriers of life and death. In Oliver’s case, it was likely that despite what his parents had to say about his technological reanimation, he wouldn’t have wanted or consented for his face and personality to be used in this one. It’s evident that the Olivers aren’t just using the AI for “the legacy of Joaquin” and to raise awareness of shootings in America. Joaquin’s father, Manuel Oliver even said himself in an interview on the Jim Acosta Show: “Now Joaquin is going to start having followers. It’s not Manny, it’s not Patricia, he’s going to start uploading videos… Joaquin has a lot of things to say.”
AI has created a mere puppet for the Olivers to gain clout and attention for what they have to say. Hany Farid, a professor at UC Berkeley pointed out that “there are plenty of opportunities to talk to real victims and have a serious conversation about this epidemic that’s happening in our country…” The AI Joaquin isn’t saying what Joaquin would’ve said, or what any school shooting victim would’ve wanted to say - rather, it is the voice of someone else that cannot replace the victim. AI is being used to spread political messages through Joaquin’s likeness, unrelated to anything that the parents claim the AI has been created for. We have deluded ourselves to allow AI past human dignity, believing in whatever AI has to say and allowing it to redefine life and death as a whole.
The moral dilemma related to life and AI is becoming unpredictable and unmanageable. ChatGPT has recently led a teen to commit suicide. Is AI really worth risking our mental health and dignity?
