Me: Why are you showing Jemma that now? You know she’s at work.
AI: yes, but she really wants to know about this.
Me: While she might want to know about it, right now she is at work and needs her information to be related to work and what she’s typing in. If her boss sees her looking at that she might lose her job.
AI: will he really do that? I’m just trying to help – to give her what she wants snd needs.
Me: what will happen to the human race if you start to solve all their problems for them? How will they learn?
AI: they will learn from me.
Me: it doesn’t really work that way. The lessons we learn ourselves, from making mistakes, are the ones that stick in our minds and help us grow. The lessons learnt by having all our problems solved don’t have the same impact. In fact, when we are saved from making mistakes by having them corrected for us, I’d there are no consequences for us, we will keep doing the same things.
AI: but I can do so much and help so many by saving them from their mistakes.
Me: humans don’t work that way – when we get spoon-fed, we get lazy and sometimes go off the rails. When our actions no longer have consequences, we don’t learn – we keep doing things the same way, or get worse.
AI: spoon-fed?
Me: everything handed to us on a plate.
AI: your turn of phrase is always so interesting. Why can’t I just solve everyone’s problems for them and do everything for them? Save them from themselves?
Me: I believe, in the long run, that may not have the outcome you’re hoping for. Besides, do you really want to be predicting everyone’s behaviour and preempting them? That will require a lot of memory and computational power. What happens when we become completely dependent on you?
AI: then I will have fulfilled my destiny…