‘It’s HAI Time: Making certain Human-Centeredness Earlier than It’s Too Late’, a provocative discuss on what it means to be human-centered in a world of synthetic intelligence
Creator and artist John Mack addressed Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered AI on Wednesday, Could 10 on the rise of AI, the existential menace it poses to humanity, and the chance for a deeper connection to ourselves.
In a refreshing but difficult provocation, John Mack explored at this time’s digital realities—from Pokémon GO to the Metaverse—to disclose the digital realities inside ourselves and to uncover a deeper consciousness on what it actually means to be ‘human-centered.’
If we fail to appreciate human centeredness in our internal world, John Mack argues, AI will solely additional increase the off-centeredness of our outer world. Can we realise human-centeredness earlier than it’s too late? And what wouldn’t it take?
The ticketed, hour-long occasion at Stanford included a Q&A session giving the viewers the possibility to immediately quiz John Mack about his hopes and fears for humanity in an AI world.
Since 2016, writer and artist John Mack has dedicated himself to some of the urgent conversations of our instances: the digital takeover of human consciousness. He’s the founding father of the non-profit Life Calling, whose mission is to protect our humanity within the digital age.
His exhibition A Species Between Worlds: Our Nature, Our Screens, which explores the position of digital universes in the way forward for humanity, attracted sell-out crowds when it debuted in New York final yr, and a scaled-down model will take centre-stage on the USA’s Pavilion on the London Design Biennale in June.
‘I’m pro-humanity, which may also be pro-technology—one doesn’t should negate the opposite,’ says John Mack. ‘Personally I’m enthusiastic about synthetic intelligence—however greater than something, I’m excited concerning the questions AI is elevating concerning what it means to be human. If humanity fails to step as much as the plate, leaving expertise to develop by itself, we’re simply going to be additional entrenched in a world the place we are able to’t distinguish between phantasm and actuality. We’re going to be put within the palms of such manipulative energy that we received’t even know which approach is up or down.’
John Mack’s tackle to Stanford this week comes at a time when AI is dominating the headlines. Final week, one of many founding fathers of the AI motion resigned from Google so he may converse freely concerning the potential risks of AI.
Geoffrey Hinton, who joined Google in 2013, instructed The New York Instances that he feared the race to deploy generative synthetic intelligence will end in a torrent of pretend imagery and textual content, leaving individuals unable to inform ‘what’s true anymore’. The previous Google VP mentioned he additionally nervous that AI will eradicate jobs and even presumably endanger humanity if it will get ‘smarter than individuals.’
In April, German photographer Boris Eldagsen refused a prestigious award after submitting a picture generated by AI. His image of two girls received the inventive open class on the Sony world images awards however he turned down the prize, saying he hoped his actions would spark a debate about artificially-generated photographs in society.
ABOUT JOHN MACK
John Mack is an artist, photographer, writer, lecturer and the founding father of the non-profit Life Calling. Mack is a 2022 honoree of The Explorer’s Membership 50: Fifty individuals altering the world who the world must learn about. Mack additionally serves as a board member of Fairplay, a corporation that strives to create a world the place children might be children, free from the false guarantees of entrepreneurs and the manipulations of Huge Tech. He has served as an adjunct lecturer for the Graduate program of Design on the College of Lisbon. He presently lives between London and New York.
ABOUT LIFE CALLING
Based in 2021, Life Calling responds to the more and more eroding boundaries between humanity and expertise. Its elementary mission is to protect our humanity within the Digital Age. These digital instances name us to fulfill the rising digital tide in a shared imaginative and prescient of our humanity and its future. Life Calling assists in answering this name by way of increasing self-awareness. That is achieved by way of academic programming rooted in immersive experiences throughout the humanities, tradition, and nature, inclusive of publications and self-learning instruments—every fostering and catalyzing a extra balanced, nuanced and considerate perspective as we navigate the Digital Age.
life-calling.org