If artificial intelligence is going to change the world, then it has already begun to do so: People are using A.I. to code apps, apply for jobs, create marketing pitches. They’re using it to visualize their ideas, adjudicate arguments and teach school kids. Many are talking with chatbots as they would with friends or lovers or advisers.
The contours of A.I.’s transformations are being negotiated now not just by A.I. companies and researchers, but by its consumers. Many people are integrating A.I. deeply into their professional and personal lives. And the flexibility and accessibility of general-purpose A.I. tools makes it easy for even new users to use it for purposes unanticipated by those who built them: For instance, people started using large language models like ChatGPT in place of personal trainers long before specialized apps were developed for that purpose.
The terms under which we use A.I. are also up for grabs. Will our government allow A.I. to proliferate unconditionally, or will we try to restrict and regulate it? Will we welcome A.I. anywhere it can be used, or will we try to cordon it off from certain parts of our lives with new social norms and etiquette?
One of the deepest and most abiding fears about artificial intelligence is that it will replace human beings. But beneath the big existential questions are more practical concerns. Will A.I. make the human accountant or human software engineer as rare as a candle maker or shoemaker? Will A.I. create new kinds of jobs, the way technological advances gave us the job of software engineer in the first place? Perhaps equally important as the effects on jobs and the labor market is how A.I. might play a human shaped-role in our everyday lives, as a therapist, say, or a confidant.
We want to hear from you. How has A.I. become part of your life? We’d like to hear about the ways that you’ve been using models and what concerns, if any, that you have about using them. We may use a selection of your responses in a future project.
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