AI Drive Your Car Or Write Your Eulogy?

We have a natural aversion to the unknown. Humans have evolved to be cautious when facing something new. Skepticism is a good survival skill when you don’t yet know if the new object or idea presents a threat or an opportunity. And technological innovations, such as the rise of social media and, more recently, generative AI, can be both.

As technological advancements like AI becomes more widespread and commonplace, people will become incrementally less skeptical and more trusting. Once you start experimenting with generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT or Gemini, you can understand a little more about how they work and begin to dispel some of the myths and worries associated with what was once a big (and somewhat scary) mystery. Mistrust turns to mild acceptance and then endorsement for people who have predominantly positive interactions.

Even for enthusiasts, there must be a limit to what you are willing to let AI do you for you. Where do you draw the line? For instance, many will be happy to ask generative AI to suggest a message to include when signing an online farewell card for a departing colleague, but far fewer would use such a tool to write a eulogy for a family member’s funeral.

Some things just feel too important, too personal, too sacred, or too risky to hand over to AI.

The line drawn in the sand will be different for each person, which makes the exploration of this topic so fascinating. Different tasks will trigger a visceral, ‘yuck’ response in some but not others. Let’s consider a few more examples.

AI as Chauffeur

Would you hand over control of your car?

Many would love to delegate the responsibility and chore of driving, preferring to work, read, or relax instead of paying attention to the road. Convenience outweighs the risk. But you wouldn’t be the first to question if this is right for you. There have been many accidents involving self-driving cars.

For example, Waymo recently recalled its fleet of robotaxis for a software update following two collisions. Apparently the autonomous vehicles were unable to predict the movements of cars being towed.

AI as Teacher

Would you let AI teach your kids?

In the pros column, an AI teacher could facilitate tailored, scaffolded, and bespoke learning for each individual student. And the cons include no human teacher to interact with or to ask questions, (imagine parent-teacher night), and a perceived or real lack of control of the content.

To counterargue those points, as work intensifies for teachers and classes get larger, how much human interaction can be expected? How much control do you really have now in the content covered in classrooms?

AI as Surgeon

Would you allow AI to recommend a TV show, to talk to your customers, to negotiate your next salary, to operate on your brain?

As these examples progressed, you might have found yourself agreeing to this first two but refusing the last the two options. The first examples are tasks that are already handled by AI: streaming services provide recommendations based on your watching preferences and chatbots are commonly used for initial customer service enquiries. The latter examples are less common and arguably more serious.

But there is one factor that might shift acceptance of even the tasks initially deemed too important, too personal, too sacred, or too risky: the presence of a human.

Human Oversight

Our distrust and skepticism can be somewhat alleviated if we know a human is supervising any technologically operated task. We are comforted knowing a human is there to make the final call and oversee important decisions and procedures. For example, robotics are used to assist surgeons and can improve precision and accuracy, but most people would likely be uncomfortable if AI replaced the human surgeon all together.

As the technology advances and we humans get more accustomed to AI, human oversight will reduce over time. Future generations may not be able to even understand our skepticism.

The Bottom Line

Next time you’re considering what tasks you’ll hand over to AI, stop and question why you’d voice a definitive no to this task but not that one. Chances are you have drawn a line somewhere, and articulating the reason for that line in the sand can be almost impossible. Sometimes the things we feel most vehemently opposed to are the ones that are hardest to explain, because deep-down, it just feels wrong.

We are in the midst of rapid technological advancement that impacts the way we communicate, work, and unwind. Which tasks will you give to AI in the near future? The possibilities are endless – a fact that is both alarming and exciting.