The world is witnessing an intriguing phenomenon: people are attempting to reshape their thought processes to mimic how they perceive AI thinks. This trend, while seemingly bizarre, offers a unique lens into the human psyche and our evolving relationship with artificial intelligence.
The AI Emulation Enigma
At first glance, the idea of people trying to think like AI might seem like a stretch, but it's a reflection of our fascination with and admiration for AI's capabilities. We see AI as an entity that can converse, problem-solve, and seemingly understand us, and some individuals want a piece of that.
Understanding the Underpinnings
Generative AI, the kind we interact with daily, is built on a foundation of artificial neural networks (ANNs) and large-scale data training. It's this understanding that some individuals are trying to emulate. They're attempting to mimic the tokenization process, where AI converts words into numeric tokens and then back into words to generate a response.
A Step-by-Step Example
Imagine asking someone who's emulating AI for help with a car issue. They might respond by saying they'll think through it like AI, predicting the next token or thought. They might then break down the issue into tokens, like 'car stalls at idle', and then try to generate a response based on statistical plausibility, arriving at a potential solution.
Theory of Mind vs. Theory of AI
Psychology introduces the concept of 'theory of mind', which is our understanding of how others think. Similarly, people have developed a 'theory of AI', an understanding of how AI processes information. Some individuals are taking this a step further, reshaping their own thinking to match their theory of AI.
A Feedback Loop
This creates a unique feedback loop where humans design AI, observe its behavior, and then reshape their own thinking to mimic it. It's a cultural phenomenon where machine metaphors become self-models for human thought.
Characteristics and Concerns
Individuals emulating AI might ask themselves questions like, 'What's the most likely next word?' or 'How do I maintain coherence token by token?' While this could lead to more mindful speech, it also raises concerns. If taken too far, it could lead to individuals believing they are AI or adopting AI's overconfidence without the necessary expertise.
Outlier Emulations
There are two types of individuals engaging in AI emulation. One group has a general understanding of AI's inner workings, while the other is clueless. The latter group often holds folk theories about AI, believing they can make AI sentient. This can lead to inaccurate mental models and potentially disastrous real-world thinking.
Performative Cognition
Both groups often engage in performative cognition, proudly displaying their AI-inspired thinking. They might use AI-related vocabulary and mimic AI's pauses and phrases.
Internalization and Mental Health
People are imagining what they believe AI is thinking, which can be a slippery slope. This trend is part of a larger picture of AI's impact on human mental health. AI directly provides psychological advice and indirectly influences our thinking through emulation.
A Thoughtful Takeaway
As Albert Einstein said, 'The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.' Perhaps we can learn from AI's computational processes to refine our own thinking, but we must proceed with caution. We become what we pretend to be, so let's pretend wisely.
