though i don’t talk much about it on here, i’m a teacher in higher ed. and i’ve been thinking a lot, given my duties, about the intersection of so-called “gen ai” (i’d prefer something like “probabilistic information processors,” which is less sleek but more truthful) and the human person. i think about these things from a critical perspective informed by folks like jacques ellul, marcel gabriel, and ivan illich. i’m also very glad for dr. emily bender and timnit gebru’s work in this area.

anyhow, recently i’ve had a couple things published on this, and i’m happy to be able to provide some countervailing measure to the current dominant discourse. basically, both “ai” boosters and doom-sayers all assume premises in their arguments about the intrinsic good of efficiency, quantitative productivity, automation, machines’ presence in human life, and the computational model of the human mind (not to mention what on earth to do about bodies!) that make their differences not that substantial. for my part, i’m concerned with the limits of what and who we are as humans, because it is those limits that make us precisely who we are. i’m also concerned with how technique (the rationalization of processes for ever-greater efficiency) forms and shapes us, reducing our capacities and ability to see, in general.

in this “ai” moment, this problematic conditioning (that machines are better at things than we are, that if we can make use of a tool to make something easier for ourselves we should) affects more of who we think we are than prior roll-outs from silicon valley. a key factor here is what gabriel calls “power at one remove”—the ability to discern for ourselves when it is in our genuine best interest to use tools for the power they provide us and when it’s not. this, he says, is what used to be called wisdom.

anyhow, i could go on, as you might have figure out by now. but dealing with this in various capacities is part of what has led me to need some distance from the digital world in general (see the sparseness of posts over the last few months). not the whole deal, but part of it. just needing space in my life from machines in general.

anyhow, if you made it this far, here‘s an essay of mine that’s more philosophically based that came out in conversations in jesuit higher education a bit ago, and i also had a part in an article from the milwaukee journal sentinel that i contributed to in a more practical capacity, though i see now that it’s behind the paper’s paywall, unfortunately. maybe you can still get to it here?

i’m guessing more will be forthcoming. 🙂