AI, Art and the case for one life living

On my blog I’m going to write about artificial intelligence, arts and from time to time other things that have sparked my interest. I’ll aim to blog at least quarterly.

AI

I was inspired to move into artificial intelligence in 2019 after meeting a friend who was working with AI to address serious national security issues. In 2020 I started working on how AI can be used to keep children safe online and protect us from serious diseases. While we rarely see perfection in AI, I was wowed by the ways big and small that it could help address problems, problems you never really even knew were problems, really quickly and globally. 

For as much excitement as there is about AI in 2024, we’re still remarkably early in the journey with AI and using data well. There is much work to do around safely getting enough high quality data to even use AI to solve problems. Without the suitable data, no matter how smart the team, or powerful the algorithm, we have little hope of solving problems safely with AI. Most machine learning algorithms are not deployed or in production. They’re in a sort of technical draft format, not published yet or able to be used by a wide audience. If we can address the difficulties in deploying AI, we may see dramatically more AI usage than even current predictions suggest. The AI revolution hasn't yet begun. 

AI is fundamentally neutral. Its success for society depends on how well we apply it. AI is not the answer to every single problem we have. It should be used mindfully and when there’s actually some appropriate data to work with. The good news is, there is still an opportunity to shape how we interact with AI. 

When it comes to AI, I’m almost exclusively told it’s powerful, bad and about what people fear. Fears of killer robots, fears of humans being wiped out, fears of all work being taken away. It is valid to want to address potential serious threats to humanity. However, it’s also critical to engage much more with the ways in which AI can definitely affect us and is affecting us now. I’m concerned with empirical threats to humanity, like children’s online safety, and not only existential threats to humanity. 

Much of what we struggle with as humans offline, we are also now struggling with online. And some, including children and vulnerable adults, have a harder time pushing back against this. We have really talented and thoughtful technologists working on these challenges. But they can’t do all that alone, especially as some problems we’re experiencing online are not purely technical problems. We may not yet have all the regulations, laws, funding, guidance on data privacy or right support to develop technology that truly works for society. 

Arts

And in a plot twist, I’m also going to blog about the arts. The power the arts have to capture the imagination. People are literally inspired to become doctors, walk the entire length of Africa, move to New York and create technology companies because they read a novel, watched a TV show, went to the theatre or read a comic book. Some pieces of art have also shaped our deepest fears around technology and the future relevance of humanity.  

I was fortunate as a young person to have many accessible opportunities to practice art a lot.  Performing in the City of Birmingham Symphony Youth Chorus for 7 years and the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain for 6 years, gave me huge lessons in discipline from many hours of rehearsal and working with such great people. I learned and relearned so many techniques, such as being present, using your voice and working in teams to create art for paying audiences in venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, National Theatre and the Royal Court Theatre. 

The other great thing about the art world is that it’s fun, really fun. There’s a lot of permission to play, create and really enjoy the experience. 

The big challenge facing the arts sector now is it’s often the first to lose support when economic challenges come and the world feels gloomy. So many arts institutions that focus on in-person experiences didn’t make it through the covid-19 pandemic. Lots of regions that used to have really accessible arts programs for young people no longer do. 

We can also have a tendency to see art and creativity as an add on and not as helpful to society as more technical pursuits that we believe can generate a lot of money. This is a really narrow view and presents us with a false choice. So many technical and STEM graduates I know were hugely talented artists as children and had they so chosen, likely could have pursued professional careers in creative industries. A lot of the most creative and intuitive people I’ve worked with are data scientists and engineers in the AI space. And for what it’s worth, we have some very analytical people in the art world. It’s important to not assume that people develop in a linear way or have a limited view of human intelligence. We need all the talents we’ve got to innovate our way out of our global challenges. People need to be given the space to thrive and explore their interests, with the networks and resources to do this. 

The case for one life living

And why blog about both AI and arts? Both arts and AI are fuelled by creativity. Both are shaping the world around us. Both need a wide range of people with different skills to make them work effectively for society. We need to think laterally about who is creative and the range backgrounds we need in AI. I don’t consider my interests, multi-hyphenate, or a portfolio. My experiences in art make me better at AI and vice versa, in ways big and small. This is a one life existence.