ANALOG IN THE AGE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

BACKGROUND

I remember the excitement, the marvel and true fascination I felt when I first used ChatGPT. The buzz in the news and in the tech blogs that I often consumed was palpable. Here was this amazing technology that could do anything, well, almost anything you asked of it. It went far beyond the capabilities of the ubiquitous search engines, and provided context, and better yet, intelligence to engage in conversations with the user. Although the charm has worn off quite a bit, AI engines and modules continue to develop at an alarming pace, going beyond simple, mundane tasks to more nuanced workflows such as music composition and production, image and video creation, and more. In order to understand the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the potential ramifications this technology has for the culture and humanity in general, it is important to examine the history and the development of AI.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, A BRIEF HISTORY

A cursory look at the history of AI would reveal that it existed decades before the advent of ChatGPT. In the 1940s, British mathematician Alan Turing proposed the idea of a "universal machine" that could simulate any computation, laying the groundwork for modern computing. The term AI was coined in the 1950s by John McCarthy during the Dartmouth Conference. In the 1960s and 70s, early AI programs like ELIZA were developed. From the 1990s until recently, as computational power grew, there were significant advances made in the field of AI, with one notable example being Deep Blue, a chess program that defeated chess champion Gary Kasparov in 1997. Early versions of AI were incorporated into several devices that you may have grown up with or are familiar with. In fact, you have likely interacted with AI without even knowing. From calculators, search engines, gaming devices and consoles, and most early computer programs of the 90s and early 2000s, AI and machine learning components were built in. Additionally, digital cameras have had elements of AI implemented in features such as face recognition, subject tracking, scene recognition, image stabilization, red eye reduction and low light performance. However, one global event would lead to what was dubbed by the World Economic Forum as the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”, leading to a massive rise of AI to the mainstream consciousness.

COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND THE RISE OF AI

They say necessity is the mother of invention, and in 2020, most of the world was caught in the middle of a pandemic that forced restrictions to travel and movement on a global scale, leading to great innovations in the technology sector. The restrictions and lockdowns led to innovations in online learning, online commerce, and the development of an array of online meeting platforms and technologies. These systems were massively embedded with AI.

AI generated model

With the lockdowns also came a rapid advancement in innovations in automation and robotics, as many industries streamlined processes and systems with automations designed for unmanned operations or remote monitoring. These automated systems were driven largely by AI, and were implemented in various industries such as retail, education, healthcare and resource exploitation. It would seem like a natural projection that ChatGPT, a machine learning AI module was released during this period by OpenAI in November 2022. The release saw a meteoric rise in interest in AI, which coincided with the easing of lockdowns in many jurisdictions, and with a rapid growth and expansion of network capabilities in many countries during the pandemic.  Below is a table showing the growth of network speeds during the pandemic for various countries.

Sources: World Bank, World Economic Forum & International Telecommunication Union

The post-pandemic rise of AI, through ChatGPT, and its many other variants such Microsoft’s Copilot, Google’s Cloud AI and Google Assistant, and most recently, Apple’s Apple Intelligence was both impressive and remarkable.

However, recently, there has been a growing chorus of concern regarding this seemingly unchecked and unregulated rise of AI, and the dangers it may pose in its variety of applications to humanity. In my own professional setting in tertiary education, I have been exposed to the egregious over-reliance on AI by many students. Most Canadian colleges, polytechnics and universities are in a dilemma on how to curb the rampant use of AI. Other industries face a similar dilemma. Journalists and historians have the core tenet to report and document historical events as they happen, factually, however, the advent of AI has put the photography and videography tools under the magnifying lens. Whether it is the example of the Wyoming reporter who was caught using AI to create fake quotes and stories, the case of a deepfake video of a politician making controversial  statements, or hoaxes that take the internet by storm, we are only beginning to wade into the shark-infested waters of unbridled AI use.

AI Generated video using SORA from OpenAI

We, as a generation of humans truly stand the risk of having our memories and archives gathered during this age of AI as tainted with a huge Asterix, one that questions their authenticity. We are getting to that watermark in our civilization where nothing produced through a digital medium can be trusted as authentic or real. This is in sharp contrast with the more trustworthy historical documents of old, when analog technologies reigned supreme.

ANALOG TO THE RESCUE

While there are some who believe that AI will kill the internet, I take a more “glass half-full” approach with this prediction; advancement in AI will lead to such a blow-back from society that it will result in a resurgence of analog technologies as a means to ensure authenticity. Thus, from my earlier example from academia, in order to curb rampant use of AI tools, more instructors and teachers are resorting to re-adopting in-person exams and assessments with physical exam booklets (analog media). This is in contrast to what we thought the world would look like coming out of the pandemic with a host of online learning tools. On a related note, there is an ongoing trend of nosediving ebooks sales as more people are opting for the analog versions (aka books). I can foresee future scenarios where more journalist resort to using film cameras, for example, as a surefire way to signal authenticity of images used in their reports.

Lastly, there is another dimension that needs to be explored. Goods produced using AI in this era may be perceived to be of less value, according to the Labor Theory of Value (LTV), as arguably, the amount of “socially necessary labour” declines with AI use. Thus, with the rise in AI use in music and multimedia products, there may be a “cheapening” of these products in the eyes of society, which could lead to products made with analog gear and technologies perceived to be more valuable. In fact. we are starting to see more of this in the culture, as creators who opt to go against the grain and release products and art on analog media tend to charge more of a premium for these products.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the digital revolution has presented many advancements that has often supplanted the analog technologies of old. Artificial intelligence, a key product of the digital revolution, in its unbridled and unregulated form, however, may be the poison pill to the digital revolution. In this context, analog technology may enjoy a resurgence of sort, as a more authentic way preserve memories, preserve value, and present factual information in the age of AI.