For those of us who came of age anytime in the twentieth century, artificial intelligence was a concept rooted firmly in the realm of science fiction. Awe and even fear inspiring, it featured in many of the formative TV shows and movies that remain mainstays of their generation. Whether we watched Captain Kirk using it for good while he employed the USS Enterprise computer to guide his captaincy in almost every way or we sat, transfixed, as we were introduced to the idea that Skynet could possibly become self aware and rebel against the very humanity that created it, AI has played a part in our consciousness for decades. What it hasn’t been, until very recently, is viable or accessible for public usage.
The concept of AI goes back further in time than one might expect; there is evidence from philosophical writings in the 1700s that men were imagining machines that could think the way a man does. While we don’t have proof on paper, it is certainly possible that people have been dreaming of this idea for much longer. It wasn’t until the mid-1950s, though, that such a daring thought began to take shape into reality. Alan Turing and John McCarthy, two computer scientists, were the forebears of this idea. Alan Turing is considered the “Father of AI” today for his part in creating the Turing Test, a theoretical way to distinguish computers from humans, and John McCarthy coined the term “artificial intelligence” during a research study in 1955. After that, both computers and their implementation in robotics moved forward steadily through the decades, culminating in the leap forward during 2022, when the chat bot language model, ChatGPT, was released to the world for free with major media fanfare. Since then, AI usage and its seemingly limitless context has exploded into public awareness.
While AI has gained a reputation for creating wonders in its wake, for amazing crowds with all the many things it can do, one thing it still can’t achieve at present is to create a human connection. But in 2023 an AI program passed the Turing Test, you might argue. Isn’t that the same thing? Well, many people may be fooled by this, and some companies have taken advantage of that very fact by producing apps and programs that mimic human interaction. The need for companionship is at an all time high, and people are so lonely that they are are even willing to buy a robotic dog if they can’t have the real thing1. It’s true that some programs are incredibly lifelike; talking to a computer is very much like speaking to a real human. It can be difficult to tell a difference at all. The AI will ask you how your day was, politely listen as you pour out your heart and even comfort you if you seem distressed. There are even therapy apps that are entirely AI based, as well as sexual models, and many people report finding romantic attachment through AI. Why do we even need to bother with real people at all any more?
While AI may have the art of casual conversation down to a science, what it does not and cannot create is a lasting memory. Speaking with a program is all well and good … as long as whatever you have related pertains only to this particular session. If you close it or lose the information, it is lost and you begin from scratch, as if you have never existed. Your real friend, family or therapist does not open their door with a blank stare and forget everything, even your name, every time you meet. They remember your shared history, the nuances of your relationship, and all the little details that make your time together unique. These are the things that make us human, and it is what we crave in attention and in the very essence of connection. We want to be remembered. We wish to matter. And we do—to the people we have made time to connect with. A computer, no matter how clever and savvy, will never matter to us, and we cannot matter to it. We may fool ourselves into amazement over what it can achieve, but it will always be a pale reflection of the real thing and what it never cannot truly be: human.
