Continuing the conversation on trust, we trust innovations and we trust our innovators. We were optimistic when we saw innovations coming, maybe most of the time overly optimistic. However, one can see there is a mismatch between the pros and cons, the upside and downside. We see the upside at the beginning, get fascinated by the shiny object, and then gradually see the accumulation of risks, the downside.
We trusted when plastic was invented in the 19th century and became popularized and commercialized in the 1950s. No one was talking about plastic pollution back then. Now, as it has become ubiquitous in almost every aspect of daily life since the 1980s, we started realizing the problem in 1997 when the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” was first described. Now, 27 years later, the problem hasn’t been solved; it has only become increasingly worse, and we’re going to continue to get more used to the worsening of the downside.
Our innovators and the leaders of the plastic world didn’t make responsible decisions. This wasn’t their priority.
We trusted when social media was invented again 27 years ago, and became a real thing with MySpace, LinkedIn, and Facebook in 2003-4. No one was talking about the mental health issues, data collection, misinformation and fake news, cyberbullying, and a dozen other issues. These concerns started to arise years later. Now we’re clearly seeing these downsides, years later, and it’s also getting increasingly worse, with deepfakes. And we’re going to continue to get more used to the worsening of the downside.
Our innovators and the leaders of the social media world didn’t make responsible decisions. This wasn’t their priority.
Now the biggest invention of humanity is happening in front of us. The opportunity it brings. The shiniest of the golds; are we paying enough attention to the risks? The unforeseen downside? What took decades for the plastic revolution to show the risk, the social media revolution took years, and for the AI revolution, I’m sure we are smart enough to try to figure this out together and as soon as possible so that we proactively steer the wheels in the right direction. Because AI is a very, very powerful tool.
Im not talking about regulation. It neither solved the plastics revolution downside nor social media downside. We need a better strategy, we need wisdom and trust.