To be able to stay in the age of artificial intelligence

//

Lerato Khumalo

Every morning we wake up on the phone.

The screen is flowing before our eyes are full, the notifications are competing, the algorithms have already determined what we should laugh and what to get angry with.

It’s like life was awakened before us.

And I have noticed for a while:

Some of the sentences I heard during the day, the visuals I see, even the articles that come across me …

Is it true? Or is it produced by an artificial intelligence, I can’t distinguish anymore.

I’m a journalist.

I believe in the power of the word.

But now I have to question who is behind the words.

* * *

Artificial intelligence has been in our lives for a while.

Sometimes it made it convenience, sometimes it fascinated.

But it is no longer a tool; A news server looking into our eyes, a customer representative who spoke to us, was a voice telling our child fairy tales.

Moreover, it is increasingly natural.

Increasingly humanoid.

That’s exactly what I ask:

If the machines can get so close to people, why are we moving away from each other?

* * *

My son to me the other day “Is this song robot or a real person?” he asked.

I smiled.

But I thought about it:

Atlas is three years old.

And he’s already trying to understand the limit between the real and the non -real.

In our childhood, there was really the person we saw on television.

Now the person we watch, maybe an artificial character that has never existed.

I am not strange about this change.

But I’m trying to make sense.

* * *

Artificial intelligence, today’s truth.

We can’t escape, we can’t, we can’t stop.

But we can do something: we can decide how to use it.

Artificial intelligence is not like a competitor, but a ‘helper’ It is possible to see like.

Like a partner that supports creativity, accelerates production, repetitively repetition.

But it ‘With boundaries and responsibility’ If we do not direct, we can be controlled, not the controller.

* * *

I wonder about artificial intelligence.

But more of the ways to remain as human beings…

In this corner you are not the cold face of technology; The warm voice of the person, the questioning mind,
And I want to present a floor that we can think together.

Because no matter how much it develops, “Artificial intelligence still has no heart” But we still have hearts.

And maybe, the most valuable of this age “Data” There will be conscience now.