The Future of AI
Well, one possible future.
Followers of this blog know I do creative writing as a hobby. My publisher recently put out an speculative fiction anthology of calling for interpretations about the meaning of care in the workplace. One of my submissions revolved around Artificial Intelligence, imaging a world where AI is pervasive across society.
It comes as a timely serendipity. This week I’m celebrating starting a new role, taking on a lead position in driving AI adoption at Squiz. One of the things that came up during the interview, indeed one of the reasons I believe I was hired, was that while there are a lot of opportunities to add AI to the platform, this shouldn’t be an exercise in sprinkling pixie dust. The company is mature enough to know not to just jump on the hype bandwagon, but look to make use of the possibilities in ways that both make sense commercially and ethically. My role is to guide thenm on this journey — I’m sure I’ll be blogging more about AI in product management in the future.
Back to fiction. Interestingly, I wasn’t the only one writing on the theme.
, an accomplished cross-genre author and fellow Australian, has written a story with a similar conceit — but taken in very different direction and leading to a different outcome, different world.Below is the opening scene from my story, to pique your curiosity and fire your imagination.
“Come on, Mark. Time for school! Did you get your lunch from the counter? Well, go get it and put it in your backpack, already! Hurry up and get in the car. You’d forget your head if it wasn’t attached.”
Thea sat in the driver’s seat, and as soon as she heard her son buckle his seat belt she pressed the start button. “The usual route.”
“Very well, Thea. We should be in Thrumpton College in fifteen minutes, but there are roadworks on the way to your office. I have put the suggested optimal route on the display for you.”
Thea waved her hand at the dashboard to acknowledge the car as she played with the display to get her daily news feed up. The car pulled out of the garage and joined the busy street, while Thea read the highlights. Behind her she could hear Mark explaining something to the car, which obliged him by searching for the specific episode of his show to play on his display.
“And how is Mark doing today?” asked the attendant at school. As a brightly-decorated robot took Mark’s bag and led him to the classroom, Thea thought not for the first time how lucky they were to get a placement here, and how well-worth the atrocious fees were. While Mark was happy with his robotic teachers looking like the latest popular cartoons and making his day one long, fun-filled episode, Thea reflected how finding a school that still had a human present — even if a single one, but throughout the day — was nearly impossible.
“He’s fine,” she replied to the man. “Do you have any special program for today?”
“Today we’ll be continuing our focus on visual arts and creativity, helping the children practice the use of a digital stylus to imitate oil painting in the style of the masters. You should be able to follow his progress through the live feed.”
Thea sipped her coffee at the office pod. She had a mandatory in-person meeting later — the only reason to come to the office — but she preferred coming in early and bagging the pod at the far end. No need to be amongst people more than necessary, might as well enjoy a quiet corner. She put on her facehugger. With the advent of natural language spoken interfaces, noise-cancelling headphones were a hard requirement, and the addition of augmented reality display goggles made for a whole-head contraption that was jokingly referred to as the ‘face hugger.’
“Bring up the latest product adoption numbers, and cross-reference them with the categories established during market research.”
The computer obliged her by presenting a graph on the holographic display of her AR goggles.
“Filter to the eighteen-to-twenty-five bracket. Rotate. Overlay trend data from social network scraping. Hm. Suggest three theories about the anomaly there.”
The pod didn’t even pause noticeably before starting to list possibilities in her ears. Her morning was spent chatting with the AI, exploring the world of numbers and translating it into a visual presentation that made sense. Once she was happy with the graphics it generated and the flow of information, she sent it to the company’s board. She knew the humans would take time to read her report, but the AI sitting on the board would be able to give critique by the time she got back from her bathroom break. Productivity has increased to the speed in which humans were able to catch up.
Intrigued? You can find out what happens next — as well Cindy’s interpretation of AI, and anything from old gods to interstellar travel — in In Takes A Village: An Optimistic Anthology Speculating About The Meaning Of Care, now available on Amazon (kindle and paperback), Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or the retailer of your choice in both eBook and paperback.
I see many parents right now parenting in the same way as Thea right now. As an ex teacher I fear for the future.