“Advances and proliferation of AI will allow us to be more self-absorbed than we are now. The post-truth era that the 2016 election ushered in will be backstopped by deepfakes. Cognitive dissonance will eventually disappear from our vocabulary because we can choose anything we want to believe and make the evidence for it – until we can’t.
“Humans thrive from community and a sense of purpose. Increasing dependence on AI bodes poorly for both. Social networks, remote working and online gaming and shopping are solitary pursuits, depriving us from shared experiences and increasing our sense of isolation. That these are sedentary does not help with health and stress levels. The sense of purpose we get from work will be diminished as we all become prompt engineers.
The stakes have changed globally, yet we are still competing among ourselves. Effective lifesaving and pain-minimizing health technology advances will be a wash societally if the U.S. doesn’t turn around the domestic economic trends.
“The EU is grappling with privacy, sustainability and AI governance issues by creating institutional infrastructure and enforceable frameworks somewhat proactively. The U.S. culture, politically polarized and obsessed with performative aspects, is content to be the Wild West for the private sector. It’s this nostalgic laissez-faire attitude toward business, which in the past led us to be innovators, that now prevents us from playing well with others.
“The stakes have changed globally, yet we are still competing among ourselves. Effective lifesaving and pain-minimizing health technology advances will be a wash societally if the U.S. doesn’t turn around the domestic economic trends.”
This was written in November 2023 in reply to the question: Considering likely changes due to the proliferation of AI in individuals’ lives and in social, economic and political systems, how will life have changed by 2040? This and more than 150 additional responses are included in the report “The Impact of Artificial Intelligence by 2040”