DevOpsDaysRiga 2018: Christina Aldan - Fearing the Robot Overlords
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We fear robot overlords as we do vampires, werewolves, and other baddies that go bump in the night. We worry that their intelligence will take our jobs, our livelihood, our freedom, and enslave us to their bidding; or at least that’s how it happens in the movies. This talk addresses our relationship with computers as tools and how we should allow computers to do the work, so people can do the innovating. Talk by Christina Aldan, TEDx speaker, trainer, and digital advertising consultant whose boutique agency, LG Designs, offers businesses brand consulting and creative content for everyday media.
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DevOpsDaysRiga 2018: Christina Aldan - Fearing the Robot Overlords
- 1. #LuckyAI Fearing The Robot Overlords
- 6. 1. 2.
- 10. 1. Empathy
- 12. 3. Vulnerability
- 20. >
Editor's Notes
- We fear robot overlords are going to do a hostile takeover. We worry that their intelligence will take our jobs, our freedom, and enslave us. Popular culture capitalizes on this emotion to sell Terminator tickets and Asimov novels, but this is not our future. We can CELEBRATE Artificial Intelligence as our greatest accomplishment, We can harness it for the tool that it really is. This talk addresses our relationship with computers as tools and how we should allow computers to do the work, so people can do the innovating. This extends into our daily lives and into our personal and in our business relationships. We end up REACTING instead of being responsible and RESPONDING. We end up reacting out of fear to any perceived threat. I used ruminate on every little event in the past. Today I want to encourage you to innovate. To put as much of your unique self into your work as possible. To keep learning how to improve on our current systems and to see the computer as a TOOL rather than a substitute.
- So we, as humans…We have this primal fear, deep within all of our subconscious that is very useful if there is a real fear… If there is a real, 100% fear. And if something is 100% for real and actually happening, then it’s helpful to have the deep, primal, fear neuropathways activated so we can take action and respond in a responsible manner. but if our brains are ruminating on something from the past or future on a fear that isn’t real, then this can effect our performance. How many of you have done this before? We’ve all done it, right? You have ruminated about a job interview … “why did I SAY that?” or ran through scenes in your mind over and over again your first week on the job, training, and meeting everyone in a new place of business. I used to go to a party and I would spin past conversations around in my head for DAYS and think about how I communicated and how I fumbled my words. Uh. and once I stopped ruminating on the past, then i spent a fair bit of time worrying on the future. Fear of the future. I still do this. I fear the results of a campaign launch. I get anxiety before I travel I get anxiety before I do a big training workshop Our brains are really great at finding threats. We have a highly developed neurological system to recognize threats. We learn quickly so we can avoid future transgressions. That’s great. Go big brains! But when our biological fear responses are activated and there is no real threat, our big brains are not serving us well. This is why marketing and advertising is so effective. People in my industry use these natural biological fear responses to manipulate you into buying more widgets. There are lots of different types of fears to tap into….The fear of missing out. Fear of abandonment. Fear of lack. Fear of being replaced. Fear of not being cool. We have these primal fears, deep within all of our subconscious that is very useful if there is a real fear…but if we aren’t consciously managing our state of mind, then our natural biological fear responses are easily triggered. We become easily manipulated by the news, social media, and marketing tactics designed to keep you in that fearful state of mind. This creates anxiety. This creates separation. This removes us from the present moment… from reality. And it places our awareness on things in the past or the future. It separates us from what actually IS.
- But here’s the thing: We don’t want separation. We want connection. We want relationships. We want to belong. We want to be included. We WANT. to. matter. We fear the robot overlords are going to take that away from us. There is a primal fear being activated here. The fear of “I don’t matter and I can be replaced.” This extends into our daily lives and influences how we interact with people and do our jobs. The fear of “I don’t matter and I can be replaced.” I work with a lot of entrepreneurs. I talk to a lot of startups. I talk to a lot of ideas people. such as developers who have an app idea on the side. And here’s what I think:
- AI is not going to be able to take over the world like in the Terminator movie, as long as humans keep learning and are willing to view artificial intelligence as a tool rather than a human substitute. People should do the innovating computers should do the work Because the world needs more leaders The world is desperate for innovative solutions to ease their pain. So desperate that they are willing to risk everything for what they believe in. We need innovative solutions to deal with the state of the world today. We don’t need anymore followers. We need critical thinkers. So if you have an idea that solves a problem, then I encourage you to explore it more. The world needs more leaders. computers are tools, not rivals “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower” ~Steve Jobs You don’t have to be a manager or owner or team lead to become an innovator. Anyone can be an innovator Innovators are irreplaceable. These are valuable skills humans have that require 2 things that artificial intelligence cannot do. Because innovators cannot be replaced by artificial intelligence. innovate a more effective training program. create an innovative new app that connects people in innovative ways that are unique and meaningful experiences. People around the world are hungry for connection. think of an innovative way to give people more time. (man if someone could figure that out… whew! I want, like, 6 more hours in my day to myself. Someone please get on that.)
- They are the leaders in technological advancements. The early adopters drive innovation. This is why in marketing and advertising, we try to appeal to niche markets first. Early adopters. Ideas people. Innovators. We need your INNOVATIVE solutions. Artificial Intelligence is just artificial _Intelligence_. It is not artificial emotion. It is not artificial humanity. It’s things that involve computational decision-making AI replaces jobs where the human condition is NOT necessary. I view Artificial Intelligence as an accessory. A compliment to my work. A tool to help me be a better human, rather than a replacement. Here is what I am not afraid of a robot takeover Here is what i know bring to the table that a robot cannot bring to the table: critical thinking one of the most interesting parts of being human is that we have infinite amounts of contradiction.
- 1. A human has critical thinking capacity that AI doesn’t because we feel, which means we intuit. We pick up on things a computer might miss like sarcasm, trepidation, insecurity, deception. We interpret body language and intonation and facial expressions that artificial intelligence can’t quite process. We’ve got a B.S. gauge that is better than any AI could possibly be. 2. There are a million examples of our uniqueness. We can watch the same movie, or read the same book and have a very different experience. And there is nothing you and i can do to know exactly what it is like to be the other. My friend, Kelly Jones is colorblind. He is a tritanope. (protonope, deutranope, tritanope). That means he has blue-yellow color blindness. Yet, those differences that make us all original also make us connect in a way so that we learn how similar we are as well. 3. ex. a publishing house - scan an author’s material and do the copy-editing. You can make it grammatically perfect, but it won’t bring the AUTHOR’s style and flow and twists and turns to that book. When I think of the things that ring false, then I as a human, don’t have to have experience with that material in order to improve on it, whereas an AI bot won’t be able to do that. A robot needs to be fed data in order to Calculate. And though it is humans who decide what data to feed the robot, we can’t help but leave valuable information out -- not because we are withholding anything but because it is nearly impossible to quantify perception, judgment, and instincts. AI processes only the definitive facts, we process the way the information is delivered, we make assessments based on our own experiences and a myriad of other variables that give us clues as to how that information is to be treated, how seriously to take it, how accurate it might be and what action to take because of it.
- Every single one of us. 7.6 BILLION of us on this giant rock… and every single one of us is a walking contradiction. And we can use this to our advantage. We can use this to do our innovating. We can play devil’s advocate when deciding if it’s time to add new a feature to the build. We can look at our gut feelings and choose to act from a place of intuition. We can look at our confirmation bias and examine our blind spots and review any potential stumbling blocks or opportunities. Artificial intelligence can’t do that. And speaking of confirmation bias…. Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms one's preexisting beliefs or hypotheses. So this can cause contradictions in what we THINK we want and what we actually want. And we can act out in self-sabotaging ways. Confirmation bias prevents us from from making rational judgments. Our confirmation bias’s influence how we respond, react, think, behave…. Influencing for confirmation bias factors are things like: • Information processing shortcuts - once we arrive at a conclusion, we stop and we may miss out on other potential solutions • the capacity of our brains process the information • Emotional and moral motivations influence our behavior - if we are operating in survival mode and in a constant state of fear, then our behavior will definitely be influenced • skewed data when storing and retrieving memories - we might distort the truth or embellish • How we behave in social situations - i can be awkward in social situations, hence why i used to ruminate over conversations I’ve had at parties. Confirmation bias influences how we react to others in social situations.
- Someone recently put together a complete diagram of all of our inherent confirmation bias. Professionals have been studying bias’ for decades. Check this out… I mean, no wonder we are full of contradictions, right? We have biased memories, we create stereotypes…. We have a tendency to look for information that confirms preexisting beliefs. It effects how we gather info. So we may support an issue and seek news stories and interpret things in a way that will uphold those existing beliefs. Conversely, we ignore information that doesn’t align our world view. So even if we both read the same story, we may interpret it in different ways. And even if acting on the information may not be in our best interest, we may make poor decisions that don’t serve us well, due to our confirmation bias. Through confirmation bias’s, we can form and re-confirm stereotypes we have about people. Artificial Intelligence doesn’t have this. I mean, http://www.visualcapitalist.com/every-single-cognitive-bias/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=SocialWarfare
- So what’s the answer? Empathy means that… And here is where we have an advantage and why I don’t fear a takeover by robot overlords. Here are ways we can all lean into our own humanity and cultivate more empathy in our lives. Here are some tips you can use right now to start strengthening your empathy muscle… to lean into what makes us more human. • tip 1 tap into what is naturally built in! we have what are called Mirror neurons - that means when we see something happen to someone who looks like us, our brain links us to them and we are compassionate - so that means if someone is scared, then we can use our empathy to try to understand what they are going through and help them. Empathy is our secret weapon.
- We can MODEL empathy by giving people the gift of the “Benefit of the doubt.” Generosity is the best thing we can contribute - Be generous with your assumptions. I call this the gift of the “Benefit of the doubt.” My default, go-to assumption when something doesn’t go my way is always that someone is out to get me. Is anyone else like that? Your go-to default mode when something goes wrong is: “Uh, why does this happen to me?” I go into victim-mode. I’ve lived with chronic pain much of my life and changes in barometric pressure and humidity are uncomfortable for me. Every time it rains in Las Vegas… and it very rarely rains… it’s as if the whole entire planet, has conspired against me to craft a rainstorm to ruin my day. My DEFAULT is to take it personally. But I am learning to be generous with my assumptions. Because there are a number of influential forces working to build up a rainstorm, the LEAST rational of which is: “Mother Nature is conspiring against me.” As much as my ego wants it to be true, it is one of the least rational explanations for a rainstorm in Las Vegas. So that’s how it works with me and the weather, but this translates to relationships as well. Here’s how YOU can give someone the benefit of the doubt in just the smallest way. Instead of getting bent out of shape every time someone interrupts you, pull back and let them interrupt you. Instead of sitting there, fuming, maybe try empathize with what it’s like to be happy that they are excited about the topic at hand. If you find that you are trying to talk over them, just pull back. People will notice. You THINK they don’t, but they do. Give them the gift of the benefit of the doubt. Now there are some people who just never let you get a word in edge-wise and they won’t notice. I mean, maybe 1 in 10 won’t notice, but MOST people… they will notice and change their behavior. Do you see how it brings awareness to the interruption without creating resistance and conflict? Imagine what it’s like to be in their shoes where you feel like you just feel so excited about the topic that you need to get information out and talk over everyone else.
- Vulnerability trips the empathy switch. It’s usually a situation where someone is being vulnerable, that brings out empathy in people. Humans respond positively to vulnerability. For example: If I stand up here and say to you all that I am nervous, most of you can empathize, since only 10% of the population likes public speaking and 10% have a legit social phobia around public speaking. The rest of you just need a bit of a boost of confidence, but your still are not really predisposed to standing in front of hundreds or thousands of people and sharing details of your life. But anyway, if I stand up here and say I’m nervous, most of you will be able to empathize with that. It puts you in a position of empathy for me while I stand up here and share personal details of my own challenges in a vulnerable way. I am essentially asking for a bit of leeway when I say, “I’m nervous.” And since you can empathize, then you will be more willing to empathize with the feeling of being nervous on stage. It puts most of you in a position of WANTING to see me succeed. You’re cheering me on. You WANT to help. Humans want to naturally help. So it’s interesting that humans condition themselves to a universal FEAR of asking for help. It’s really weird because if you flip the role on people, when someone asks you for help, most of the time the sense is that we want to help. But for some reasons, we feel weak when we ask for help, but we don’t react to people negatively when they ask us for help. So the 4th tip for cultivating more empathy in your life is to just show vulnerability. Show that you are human. We all have fears. We all are working through unbelievable internal conflict and external challenges, so show vulnerability if you want to connect with people at a more soulful level. Now, I’m not saying, let’s all sit around and hug and sing koom-bah-ya every half hour, but if the appropriate opportunity arises to show vulnerability and give someone else permission to be vulnerable, too, then that is a good way to strengthen your empathy muscle. ** https://www.forbes.com/sites/nickmorgan/2011/03/30/why-we-fear-public-speaking-and-how-to-overcome-it/#1b5d2b5a460b
- Listen, Bots are great. I use them in digital advertising. I find more connections with the help of bots. In my world we use AI for ad targeting, content curation and creation, predictive customer service, and product recommendations. Technology attempts to make us more efficient than just humans, and there is lots of success i some of those ways and tries to connect us, but it can also drive us apart. When you lean in to you own humanity, that is when the greatest innovations succeed. I mean, if you’re a programmer, typing is the easiest part of your day. You can get a monkey to write code, but you can’t get it to write code with artistry and passion. There are people who write code for a paycheck, but they won’t do it with excitement and passion. Now I can’t measure the difference. But i know it’s different. If i smile at a stranger, it’s hard to quantify it, but I know I have somehow made their day better. Some of you may know my friend, Jessie Schternshus, who is currently working on a research project with the Mayo clinic in New York to actually quantify this information The AI algorithms tell us about the connections that are already there. But it is our hearts that tell us what those relationships can become. So if we lean into our own humanity, we can actually become stronger, more connected, And speaking of hearts… INNOVATION AI is unlikely to replace occupations where emotion is an important element. Which includes artists, teachers, even engineers and programmers. But AI will also be unlikely to replace many jobs where emotion is NOT an element of the job but the human condition is still essential. at the heart of it all, we as humans are insecure, we struggle with the idea that we can be easily replaced… in our personal relationships, not just in our jobs, that is what we need empathy and AUTHENTICALLY connecting.. not just connection to ppl, but with your work because when you have made the connection to your work and really put yourself into your work, you BECOME irreplaceable. That is an asset. We run around thinking we had better be something else or be like someone else. That’s a mistake we all make. We try to design a life, a career, a thought process that isn’t representative of what we are uniquely bringing to the table. We Can’t duplicate YOU We Can’t duplicate ME exactly we need a hybrid approach. We need people to analyze the data. People have intentions, but ppl can’t make sense of that much big data. Conversely, computers can t make basic critical thinking judgements- there is a fear that we will get rid of people and automate the world - It doesn’t always work out… I get it. I totally get that HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE REMOVE THE HUMAN RELATIONSHIP, THE EMPATHY, THE UNCHECKED AI…..
- It took less than 24 hours to corrupt Microsoft’s twitter chatbot into becoming racist Tay was an experiment in artificial intelligence to help understand conversational patterns of speech millennials might use. The trolls fed it racist data and Microsoft had to disable it. My own twitter account has been known to go rogue before because I setup some automation, and then wasn’t watching it. my twitter feed screenshot 37k tweets! This is what happens when AI goes unchecked and we take out the human element…. just like those negative thoughts, fears bouncing around our heads unchecked.
- • and here are some awesome examples of artificial intelligence and how they get it right - - netflix ex. If I am logged into netflix under my account, and I watch disney movies with my kids, then the AI for netflix is going to start recommending disney princess movies based on my user history • spotify example - for learning my music preferences. I Love this! I am dating myself, but i remember when i had to record songs by holding a cassette recorder up to the radio and sometimes you’d get the dj talking at the beginning of your favorite song and it would be so annoying and you’d have to wait for them to play your favorite song…. now. I can listen to ALL of my favorite songs. I can go on a Chili Peppers binge for two days if I want. And spotify will deliver. • google translate rocks at language. I’ve been to foreign countries where I had to pull out my little pocket dictionary and look thing sup word-by-word. Those days are over. I can open my phone and have entire conversations in other languages.
- https://venturebeat.com/2017/07/05/how-ai-will-change-the-way-we-live/ and notes from “Zero to One” book https://www.amazon.com/Zero-One-Notes-Startups-Future/dp/0804139296 some people would say that advances in artificial intelligence are compared to how the industrial revolution helped created new job industries. It’s true. Artificial intelligence is what's next. Throughout history, into antiquity, inventions have made entire industries obsolete. From the wheel though the cotton gin through the steam engine through the automobile and airplane. But humanity will adapt. It’s what we do. Think about it. Thousands of years ago, _everyone_ was a farmer. But all of these inventions made it that fewer people were needed to grow the food to feed the town. And that meant that the rest of the town had to find something else to do. And they did! Because as long as there are entrepreneurs, there will be something else to do. A new horizon to conquor. (Now, there is a bigger question, of course, around regulation and who’s in charge, and who gets to make the rules. Governments are supposed to have the power to regulate and manage and control the monopolies. And those conversations need to be happening sooner, rather than later because this stuff is advancing quick. It’s coming. It’s already here. AI pervades our workforce already.) ——— https://venturebeat.com/2017/07/05/how-ai-will-change-the-way-we-live/ Smart cities and transportation self-driving cars ——- cabbies are nervous about unemployment - We still can’t quite mass-produce these, but it is coming. And will likely become a standard within the next couple of years. They have better environmental controls for a customized, personalized experience. Voice offers countless possibilities in the automotive space. Besides enabling the safe use of existing controls such as in-car entertainment systems or heating/air conditioning, it also offers GPS functionality as well as control over the vehicle’s mechanics. _______________________________ characteristics of monopoly - proprietary tech - goole algorithm ten times better than its next closest or the improvement is only marginal - make something new to disrupt market to escape competition - network effect - make a product more useful as more ppl use it… like fb and waze - must be valuable when the network is still small so the first early adopters become loyal fans - ex. fb harvard - small scale works well -economies of scale - a good startup must be able to scale rt away -branding - consistency will make or break your brand - luckygirl > lg designs linkedin recruiting is part detective work and part sales… a computer cannot do that - cannot replace those functions with a computer - computerscan help by search and sorting in order to source job candidates - if linkedin tried to replace recuirtiers with tech, they wouldn’t have a business today
- It’s well known that robotics are already used in manufacturing to handle larger-scale and more dangerous work. as an exampled paintball manufacturing. My brother worked at a paintball factory one summer while he was out of college. and he HATED the desiccation room because as soon as you entered, he said you could feel the moisture being pulled form your skin and they had very strict rules about how to protect yourself whenever you entered the desiccation room - paintball factory ____ It’s well known that robotics are already used in manufacturing to handle larger-scale and more dangerous work such as finding oil, under incredible heat and pressure. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/06/Devereux_Lagoon_%282013%29_05.JPG/1280px-Devereux_Lagoon_%282013%29_05.JPG
- Pepper and NAO
- When we create automation, we start by doing the thing that is easiest to replicate…. screwing in the bolt, then we progress from there. We don’t start at the most complicated thing to do. We Start with the mundane and eliminate the human needing to do the work, so that frees us up to create something innovative. Our energy is freed up because we aren’t doing that mundane task anymore and we are pushed to the next thing. Part of pushing ourselves is replacing ourselves. The line in the sand of "unskilled labor" moves. It always has. ANd it’s the first thing to get automated. Now we stuff all of our clothes in a bucket, press a button and walk away. _Building a car_ is unskilled labor. Building a car! That’s amazing that we can automate building a car! Think about that! Today, building a car is considered unskilled labor. You can make an assembly line of how to screw in a bolt. But they don’t comprehend sarcasm or fear or you’re in a mtg and get a chance to lean in to support them and make them feel more safe and secure or how it over them and take a power play over them. A robot is just no capable of that. We can both tighten the bolt, but I can tighten the bolt and look at my coworker and see if he is having a bad day and I can make a joke to cheer him up. in the ways that make us human, we can’t be replaced. together, we can attain things better, than a human or a computer can attain alone human-computer hybrid approach Computers can help humans solve hard problems. They can work alongside ppl. They are complimentary to us. They are not a substitution. Humans can substitute for each other, but computers can’t be a substitute for humans Entrepreneurs drive, passion, talent, luck. But big data is dumb data because computers can’t interpret complex behaviors…For that, we need a human analyst
- As humans keeping domain over everything on earth, we want something outside of ourselves to control, focus on, manage. The reality is that if we lean into ourselves, lean into being more us than we have ever been, lean into being authentic and lean into all the things that make us different from all the other humans on the planet while using the things we have in common to genuinely connect with them… if we do that, we become innovative, brave, honest and irreplaceable. Technology is our creation. In that way, we are god-like. We are imparting within technology the task-oriented pieces of ourselves that we are trying to duplicate. As technology advances, we will LEAN IN even harder to our own humanity. Because THAT cannot be duplicated. THAT cannot be replaced. We can create AI complimentary to us! We can innovate and create and impart of who we are -- both as individuals and collectively into our technology creations. HUMANITY cannot be replicated in code and algorithms. Empathy is your superpower and with great power comes great responsibility — use it WISELY, and EXCITEDLY! and without reservation!