The Threat
The following is a preview/draft of an article I’m going to share about a workshop series on AI and the Community.
How cute. The Times Literary Supplement suggests that AI might lead to human extinction. Get in line AI, genocide, climate change and nuclear war are all way ahead of that and are much more credible candidates for inaugurating the end of life as we know it.
But you know what, AI does have a role – it’s role is assisting our intelligence or stupidity. Just as machines have always magnified our physical capabilities so AI is magnifying our intellectual capabilities. It’s a tool like any other and we can use it for greed or for good.
No one has to embrace AI – we can make a conscious choice not to. There are consequences of choice either way – as with deciding whether we’re going to own a car or not – but our personal choice or opinion isn’t going to change the future. It’s what we do together that changes the future (and if we have one). I choose to use AI to magnify my intelligence while being aware that it could magnify my idiocy. The same choice exists at the collective level.
In November I’m staring a series of in-person evening meetups or workshops at the University of East London Docklands campus on how communities can use AI for good. It’s called ‘Negotiating AI as a Community – Building a Borough Brain’. It’s aimed at community ‘actionists’ who accept that we can act more effectively and powerfully when we act more coherently and collaboratively, as a community. The ‘brain’ of which I speak is metaphorical and points to the digital and dialogical structures that we can build for a better future if we are prepared to pursue the good rather than the greed.
This isn’t a university-run programme; UEL have simply made their space and equipment available. It’s an open, community-led exploration. If you are in Newham and open to exploring let’s see what we can built with that open intelligence and imagination. Let’s explore.