AI – Good or bad? You decide

Pic taken by Jesse on his travels in the Himalayan range

Jesse Dingley

By Surya Vishwa 

Change is the code word of this world. Everything is subject to change; our minds, the earth, the sky, our bodies, our friends, our enemies and of course information technology. Akin to the human space much has changed in space that is cyber and in this interview with Jesse Dingley, a 25-year-old British born AI engineer we attempt to look objectively at the phenomena that is AI. 

Having taken a break last year to globe trot, Jesse is currently a backpacker who travels the globe exploring the peaks of mountains, flow of rivers and the un-describable beauty of the lived in knowledge of earth beings. 

His favourite book so far is One Way Ticket by Rolf Oostra. Being amongst the first set of young mathematical wizards to join the Artificial Intelligence trigger at its infancy in 2022, in this interview he ponders on the great good that AI can give the world. He also frankly admits it could seriously limit and impact critical thinking if used in a manner where the human mind outsources all its responsibilities to AI. Below are excerpts of the discussion with Jesse Dingley carried out in Jaffna when he was travelling through.

Q: How do you like Jaffna?

A: It’s a very interesting place and different to the rest of Sri Lanka. I find it calm and ‘non touristy.’ 

Q: What are the countries have you been to so far?

A: China, India, Indonesia, Mongolia, Nepal, Japan, Thailand, Mongolia and now Sri Lanka. 

Q: Will you return to being a full time AI engineer anytime soon?

A: I will be travelling for some time more and decide what I want to do. 

Q: What was it like being an AI engineer?

A: Very interesting. I was amongst the first batch of those who enrolled into AI engineering. My passion is mathematics and in 2017 I chose to specialise in higher tech education that centred around AI. The realm of Artificial Intelligence is evolving with each day. What I learnt in 2022 when it was being launched to the world is now obsolete. So being an AI developer means you work on the backend of stuff involving coding/programming and requires very high focus. In the companies I worked for we can work from home or do the tasks from the office. There is flexibility. But I prefer to go to office about thrice a week as there are other AI programmers and we can meet and discuss what we are working on. Each programmer will handle a particular segment of responsibility. When all of those segments are put together we have a full picture of a particular backend program of AI. 

Q: Could you describe what AI is?

A: It is tapping into existing gamut of information technology and developing accurate matches to find as vast a range information a human requires in perfect coherent order. Almost everything that we are now using is AI. For example Google Translator is AI. ChatGPT is AI. AI is currently being used in every sector and industry, including especially the medical industry to speed up diagnosis. For instance doctors can use AI for scanning X Rays where there will be a vast amount of comparative information on X Rays that can be tapped into and many other medical related info that doctors can work with easily. AI as a realm is propelling at breakneck speed. What I learnt at the very beginning in 2022 is now obsolete. 

Q: Is there a flip side of AI?

A: Yes, as in all things. AI can be used for the greater good of humanity in many, many ways. However it can also be extremely dangerous if used without a clear understanding of what it represents.

Q: Please elaborate.

A: AI cannot replace human intelligence. AI is not a human. It is a great collation of information that seems to be miraculous and instant. Some youth are now using AI as if it was a human. For instance young people are using ChatGPT for issues like trauma, peer pressure and depression. 

Q: Since much of the information in AI is accurate, can it not help mental health related issues somewhat?

A: AI can make mistakes. Its accuracy could be around 90%. The danger is when humans think of AI tools and programs as a human buddy and does everything it says without connecting to one’s human brain, intellect and deep knowing.

In one incident a young person committed suicide as a result because the tech induced responses were exactly what it was—high tech and informative—but not human.

Q: Can AI be positive?

A: Yes. AI is definitely changing the world positively and assisting humanity in many diverse ways hitherto unimaginable as long as the human being/s using it does not become its slave/s. I am interested in how AI is influencing the world of travel. But that should be covered in a separate discussion I think. AI and tools like ChatGPT can provide vast knowledge and if used with a proper foundation of critical thinking and coupled with independent knowledge acquiring, it can be amazing. 

Q: What do you think is the end result of being a ‘slave’ to AI?

A: You stop using your own brain and lose your critical thinking ability. A study was done by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US which used three sample groups; those who used ChatGPT and Google search engines for a designated essay writing, and a group who did not. The aim was to determine brain activity and the group that only used their own minds to generate the essay performed best. Ownership of the essay was low for ChatGPT users; since their brain was not really associated with the long haul of finding the required info, investment of time that would make them remember the details. One of the symptoms of over use of AI tools is you can develop very short attention span. 

Q: As a person who develops these stuff, how do you remind yourself that you are human?

A: Travelling. 

Q: Is the earth out there—the mountains, the valleys, rivers, oceans, people, colours, music, art—everything of Natural Intelligence of the earth very different from the coding, tech, and AI world?

A: Yes. 

Q: Which do you like most?

A: I like both worlds. I hold the hope that AI can be very good for this world, provided it is used with prudence and not as a form of replacing the human mind. 

Q: Can you not create something on your own linked to travel or something you like very much?

A: I can. I will decide later what I will do. Currently I do travel with my computer and I am in sync with the tech world everywhere I go. 

Q: Are your parents into technology?

A: My father is a musician and he uses tech only for his music development. 

Q: Do you read books?

A: Not really. I am trying to focus on book reading but keeping attention for so long is difficult.

Q: But as an AI engineer you have to keep your focus for a long time. Reading a big book should not be hard for you!

A: No it is not. It is just that I am not used to it so much. But I recently read the travel book by a most unique human mind, an engineer, Rolf Oostra who wrote One Way Ticket.

Q: Do you think AI will eliminate printed books and libraries?

A: No. I think books and libraries will always be there.

Q: And do you think the ‘human brain’ as in Natural Intelligence will be a super expensive rarity in the time to come?

A: Yes, I should think so!!