Well, it’s safe to say that 2023 has been an interesting one.
Among all the politics and economic noise, AI has found it’s way into writing, voiceover, coding, and image and video creation.
And while it’s not exactly Skynet (if you’re old enough for that reference), there is still a fair amount of uncertainty surrounding the future of a lot of our jobs.
Like any other tool, AI can be used for good and for bad.
People are using it to write code they couldn’t otherwise write and create applications to help other people that they couldn’t otherwise make. I’ve even tried it out to create artwork for the website.
On the other hand, people are using AI to spam all sorts of content at scale without any quality checks or filters to make sure it’s helpful and accurate.
I want to explore the idea of how a Stoic would approach AI and how we can use Stoicism to help us approach this new frontier of tech.
Good, Bad, and Indifferent:
To begin, I’ll start with the good, the bad, and the indifferent.
The Stoics believed that virtue was the only good, that vice was the only evil, and that everything else was simply indifferent.
Virtue, to the Stoics, is our ability to act in a moral and ethical way. A way that does not compromise our character and leads to a content and fulfilling life (eudaimonia)
Examples of these virtues are:
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Wisdom
Indifferent things, like money, can be good if we use that money in a virtuous way.
On the other side of the coin, money can be bad if we use it for evil.
Is AI good or bad?
Using this logic, we can say that AI is indifferent.
A hammer is not evil if we use it to hit someone. The hammer is just a tool. It is indifferent.
Similarly, AI isn’t evil if someone uses it to create fake images of another person or make money by posting hundreds of factually incorrect articles. It’s simply a tool. It is indifferent.
The goodness and badness are added by the user.
It is the character of the person behind the tool that defines good and bad.
Conclusion:
Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments below.
I see AI as a tool. It is neither good nor bad. But we have definitely seen it used for bad or selfish intent. We have also seen it used for good.
It’s likely the use of AI will continue to grow (probably exponentially) over the next decade and beyond, but I think it’s important to view it as a tool.
It’s the people using the tool who are responsible for how it’s used. This is why the content of our character continues to be the most important thing for a person to guard and grow.
