I was thinking about how agency—the ability to change our lives in small and big ways—is a theme in my novels, and then, I realised it’s the basis for most stories. Whether it’s Cinderella or Spiderman or Bluey, characters face challenges, make choices, and change their worlds.
Stories remind us that we’re not powerless.
One of the problems I have with how AI is being pushed into our lives is that it suffocates agency.
We’re being shown ads in which people ask AI for solutions to everyday problems. What is wrong with this pasta sauce? How do I wash this dress? And by ask for solutions, I mean the actor in the ad chats to the AI in their phone as if talking to a friend.
This is diabolically clever because who hasn’t, when faced with a problem, phoned a friend? The AI is being presented as standing in for a friend.
But these are the innocuous questions. They are helpful tips and handy hints. They don’t shape our lives. I get why advertisers are starting with these lulling examples of incorporating AI in our lives.
The problem is that humans are lazy and emotional labour is hard work. Thinking about the future is challenging. Making decisions, and bearing the costs of those decisions, is a burden that we flinch from.
AI provides the path out of these difficulties.
We begin by relying on it for answers, and end by trusting it to decide for us.
“My AI told me to…” will become people’s excuse for everything.
And once we relinquish agency, we shrink ourselves. We shrink our futures.
If we let an AI life coach (for lack of a better term) decide our lives, then we’re no longer telling our own stories. In fact, we’ll be living lives designed by those who own the AIs.
Comments
2 responses to “Agency, Its Loss, & a Dystopian Future”
I’ve never thought about it that way, but it makes a ton of sense.
I think about me and my life pre-smart phones and navigation maps. I used to have 100 different phone numbers memorized, and I would have a good grasp of my area. I might need a map to get somewhere the first time, but after that, I had it.
Now, I am lucky to remember my OWN number, and I have no growing map in my head. I turn where my navigation app tells me to turn, and I don’t remember routes for places after a time or two…it takes loads of times, because I’m not paying attention to road signs and landmarks anymore.
It is so incredibly convenient, but it has reduced my capacity for these things. I think that’s worth keeping in mind as we decide how to integrate more tech into our lives.
I was nodding along so hard as I read your comment. The things I used to remember and which shaped my sense of where I am and where I can navigate to are being lost to my phone – both geographically, but also in terms of facts and where they’re found and just … ugh. I have no idea how Google replacing links with AI summaries will impact us. I’m genuinely scared it’ll shrink our intellectual world/imagination even further.