Hi, y’all!
Last week was another mix of writing and meeting people. There are no events to visit, but there are always things to watch online. Like a presentation by Gary Marcus, see below. If you follow me on Instagram you probably know I have visited some old industrial heritage in Germany (Ruhrgebiet) combined with art (this and that). Not for the first time, good to be back. Not much has changed in presenting the history compared to a couple of years ago, they found a balance between keeping track of the fundaments and new. It always strikes me how approachable the technology is, and at the same time, was so impactful. Both positive and negative. This links to some triggered thoughts on hybrid tech relations and cozy technologies.
Triggered thought
Gary Marcus often returns in this newsletter as a counter reference with his critique of AI, or, better said, his truth about unconditional trust in AI. In this presentation at the AGI summit, he lays out his beliefs in the need for a hybrid approach to reaching something that resembles artificial general intelligence (AGI, the conference’s topic). He makes a lot more points on making AI secure and advising on policies; it is worth watching.
A returning topic is the notion of co-performance, that is a way to approach AI as full partners and not only as tools. Hybrid vs. co-performance: Is it the same or different? Is Hybrid a learning system for AI with the agency, or is it that partnership that is key to the notion of co-performance?
Current generative AI can be seen as a dress rehearsal for AGI. What are the dangers of current-generation AI? One to add to his list is people overtrusting its capabilities.
People are indeed the biggest risk. Not the quality of the AI itself. How to relate this to the notion of a Cozytech as described by Venkatesh Rao?
In this Venn diagram, it shows how he is thinking about:
“Technology isn’t technology unless it is unbridled, unrestrained, and “unaligned” to some degree, periodically forcing us to destroy and remake our understanding of ourselves. The point of technology, as far as I’m concerned, is to create and subject ourselves to a co-evolutionary pressure. First we make our tools, and then our tools make us, and that’s a good thing. “
As I connect Gary’s ideas to the thinking of co-performance, it triggers me to take the lens of this cozytech on the level of our relationship with technology and what co-performance is all about. We are growing in a more mature relationship that is not weaponizing technology on the one hand and is also embracing technology as a form of partnership that is balanced. Here is a relation with cozyness, not strange, in my opinion.
“A condition where cozytech has created a new kind of technological substrate for society that is neither a state-governed “public” space, nor a Tech-governed corporatist aggregator-platform space. And where the cozyweb has evolved into a more powerful central culture that has emerged out of its current condition of fearful retreat to the margins.”
Discussing on the role of AI is often reduced to the use of tooling. We need to think further about what it unlocks in the relationship with the tooling. Embracing the cozytech as a lens potentially helps to frame and focus for healthy relations, and preventing too much dependence.
Read the full newsletter here, with
- Notions from last week’s news on Human-AI partnerships, Robotic performances, Immersive connectedness, and Tech societies
- Paper for the week
- Looking forward with events to visit
Thanks for reading. I started blogging ideas and observations back in 2005 via Targetisnew.com. Since 2015, I have started a weekly update with links to the news and reflections. I always capture news on tech and societal impact from my perspective and interest. In the last few years, it has focused on the relationship between humans and tech, particularly AI, IoT, and robotics.
The notions from the news are distributed via the weekly newsletter, archived online here. Every week, I reflect more on one topic, a triggered thought. I share that thought here and redirect it to my newsletter for an overview of news, events, and more.
If you are a new reader and wondering who is writing, I am Iskander Smit. I am educated as an industrial designer and have worked in digital technology all my life. I am particularly interested in digital-physical interactions and a focus on human-tech intelligence co-performance. I like to (critically) explore the near future in the context of cities of things. And organising ThingsCon. I call Target_is_New my practice for making sense of unpredictable futures in human-AI partnerships. That is the lens I use to capture interesting news and share a paper every week.
Feel invited to reach out if you need some reflections; I might be able to help out!
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