Give Me H.I Over A.I.

It seems you can’t turn on a news program or read a newspaper without getting another story about A.I. How it’s the greatest thing, the best thing, the smartest thing, the worst thing, the most dangerous thing, and every other variation.

I’m all for technological improvements but it seems we as a society don’t know how to adopt a new thing without going all in with no clear idea of what we’re doing when what we need is careful consideration of what potential ramifications might develop. Now there are deep fakes in video, pictures, news stories, audio podcasts, and even whole documentary photo stories being made about the plight of fake people.

What happens when criminals get ahold of this technology? What about hackers who could use it to circumvent security systems and use it to help with identity theft? There’re already criminal cases of child pornography being created with A.I.

When will we say, “Enough?” When will too much be too much? Once this new “intelligence” takes away jobs, takes away all trustworthiness in pictures and sounds, and perhaps even decides to launch weapons of war?

I’m for H.I. Human intelligence. I’m for making my own decisions and not having a computer guide my every move and deliver what it decides I want. I won’t watch movies written by computers. I don’t want to see your illustrative art composite that’s trying awfully hard to look like a photograph.

I’ve said many times that film photographers are going to be in demand for their ability to make a photograph that can prove it wasn’t faked. That’s coming.

I suspect there could be a lessening of the grip of the internet on our lives in the future if it ends up turning off people to the point that we want a “Revenge of Analog.” We need something real.

Non-online but in-person time spent with friends.

A group of Friends on a photo walk, sharing time and stories while making pictures.

Friends dining together at a genuine diner.

Actual meals together. (There’s been a slow-food movement for decades.)

More vinyl records–there’s already a resurgence happening.

More printed books. E-reader devices didn’t kill off the bookstores which are going strong.

An actual photographic print, the kind that doesn’t need electricity to view, as the principal decor of our homes.

Meeting people we don’t know and saying hello.

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  Saying hello and photographing neighbors outside in their front yard.

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  Meeting other photographers and talking about what we are all photographing.

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  Making photographs of a group of friends out and about on the town who ask to be photographed.

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  And portraits of the folks we meet like this bartender at the pizza bar where we stopped for lunch.

There’s a point where things outlive their usefulness and the novelty wears off. Already I know of many friends who don’t check email constantly, don’t use their phones as much as they previously did, and keep their phones out of sight at meals with family and friends.

Technology is moving so fast, it’s going the pace of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?–the game show that aired so many nights a week until it became ovesaturated and the ratings plummeted.

Will A.I. cause the internet to finally jump the shark?

And bring H.I intelligence back to the forefront of importance? Perhaps with H.I., we can finally address society’s ills and join together to end racism, discrimination, gun violence, hunger, human suffereing, mental illness, inequality in pay, and unfair, non-living wages. You know, finally work to raise everybody up and make the world the best it can be.

It will take H.I.–real thinkers–to accomplish that. Not a computer model.

I’m making plans to leave my phone at home more, turn my computer off unless I have actual work to do, and read actual books, play board games, and spend my time creating photographs and writing. I don’t want to live in front of a screen, especially one that’s just feeding on elements it finds online and spitting out combinations that its algorithms things will appeal to me.

These computer models might think they’re smart, but I’m smarter than that.

Keep your A.I. Give me H.I.