My stance on artificial intelligence

I don’t have to like it, I don’t have to trust it...but I also don’t have to doubt it at every turn. One thing I can't do is ignore it—how could I?

The idea that we can put the genie back into its bottle seems less and less likely to me as time goes on. And if it’s here to stay, I’d like our coexistence to be fruitful and harmonious. I want to work toward that outcome, not sit on the sidelines and watch things happen.
  
By exploring the tools and technology of artificial intelligence, I can help find its limits, map its horizons. Discover where it can help, where it may hinder, and where it fails entirely. Only by understanding how it works can I find the appropriate balance of skepticism and hope required to evaluate it. I think it's also my responsibility to grapple with the question of whether it's ethical to undertake this exploration at all—but I don’t want to miss the forest for the trees.
    
I'm trying to keep one eye looking past where artificial intelligence is right now—especially in today's consumer technology. Few innovations emerge into society perfectly formed, efficient in function and cost, solving exactly the problem they set out to solve, and causing no disruption.
  
So my stance is this: I choose to seek the good in this new technology rather than be paralyzed by its capacity for harm. I choose to advocate for patience in its development, compassion in its distribution, and skepticism in its interpretation. I choose to scrutinize its impact on our environment. I choose to oppose its use in manipulating honest people into believing dishonest things. But equally: I choose to be inspired by its potential. At least then, no matter where we end up, I could honestly say I tried to be guided by optimism.
  
And I hope I’m not the only one, because the other camps seem to be nihilism, greed, and apathy—and we have enough of all that in the world as it is.