Is artificial intelligence bad?
If you've been hanging out on social media recently, I suspect you've caught sight of the latest avatar phenomenon generated by artificial intelligence. Use of an app called lensa.ai to create these selfies has surged lately, particularly by people on Instagram.
I got in on the game after seeing someone I follow on Instagram post artificial intelligence generated photos of himself. I was immediately struck by the images, which led me to discover lensa.ai . Being the curious person I am, I downloaded the app to my phone and gave it a try with my own selfies.
In this post, I am going to share with you some of the images lensa.ai generated of me, along with my thoughts about the role artificial intelligence is playing in our lives and will most likely continue to play moving forward. (Note that lensa.ai charges a fee to generate magic avatars.)
The debate around artificial intelligence isn't new. People have been questioning the role of robots for years, particularly with respect to robots taking over jobs. It is true that many jobs have been replaced by machines. That doesn't mean good jobs are no longer available. It means that the job market has changed with advances in technology.
Other people believe that we are doomed to destroy ourselves with robots, that artificial intelligence and machine learning will at one point become smarter than we are and cause humanity’s demise. This storyline has been popular in films and docu-series for years. While it makes for good entertainment, I’m more interested in the effects that easy access to artificial intelligence apps like lensa.ai are having on our mental health, both positive and negative.
AI's Potential Upside
First, let's look at the potential positive side of AI. The images lensa.ai generated for me gave me a way of seeing myself I’d never experienced before. I believe this experience has value. It’s healthy to shake up our perspective — especially of ourselves— every now and again. All the better if we can laugh from the experience. AI generates avatars do that job quite nicely.
To this point, the actor Will Smith posted a set of avatars that AI generated and of course, made fun of himself, which you would expect from a comedian like Will Smith.
Now, I won’t lie. Some of the images I got back didn’t make me laugh. Some of the images made me feel something I couldn’t identify until I had a conversation about it with my daughter.
She said, “Oh, you were probably experiencing the uncanny valley.”
“The uncanny valley?” I said. This was a new term to me. So I did some reading about it. In essence, this is what the uncanny valley is:
"The uncanny valley is a concept first introduced in the 1970s by Masahiro Mori, then a professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. Mori coined the term “uncanny valley” to describe his observation that as robots appear more humanlike, they become more appealing—but only up to a certain point. Upon reaching the uncanny valley, our affinity descends into a feeling of strangeness, a sense of unease, and a tendency to be scared or freaked out. So the uncanny valley can be defined as people’s negative reaction to certain lifelike robots."
“Yes,” I said. “I felt strange and uneasy seeing some of the images of myself because they kind of look like me and also not at all.”
I then texted her a handful of them.
“Oh wow, Mom,” she said.
“I know, right?”
She then told me which one was her favorite.
Isn't that interesting? I thought.
I liked the one she picked.
But it isn't my favorite.
Other positive effects of seeing myself rendered through the lens of AI:
- Power—I make a badass warrior woman!
- Confidence—I’m beautiful as a masterpiece painting.
- Affirming—Ya, that’s me, a little different, sure, but it's still me.
So. Can artificial intelligence help us see ourselves in new ways without spiraling down a rabbit hole from which we can't return?
If you have a healthy sense of self, the answer to this question is yes. Playing with apps like lensa.ai boils down to an hour of entertainment with a pocket full of personal growth thrown in for good measure.
Nothing wrong with that, right?
But what about children and adolescents who are still developing their sense of self? Who are still forming their identities? Who aren’t confident or struggle with self esteem?
And what about adults who struggle with mental health issues? Or feel marginalized because of their heritage or sexual orientation?
Can creating avatars from selfies using AI cause problems for people like this?
This brings us to the potentially negative side of artificial intelligence.
The Downside of Artificial Intelligence
If you’re not in good mental or emotional space, these AI generated avatars can really fuck with your head.
Going into the uncanny valley can send people spiraling. I learned, for example, that when the original Shrek was first being test-marketed before the final version was released, some children watched a pre-release version and responded poorly to how Princess Fiona looked. The kids couldn't handle it. They were crying and scared.
The animators had to go back and make adjustments to Princess Fiona so she didn't look too realistic. Because crying and fear were not the response the filmmakers wanted from their audience.
For young people, particularly who are still developing their sense of self, cartoon-izing themselves with AI filters on Snapchat or filters on any of the photo apps may not be good. Sometimes the apps push back inappropriate images. (You can see one of my avatars has a weird third arm coming from who knows where.)
Already, they're susceptible to feeling like an outsider, not fitting in, wondering, Am I good enough? How do I compare? Asking these questions is part of growing up. When you mesh apps we don’t yet understand with easy access on phones, a recipe for a massive mental health disaster could be brewing. If you've seen The Social Dilemma, you know what I'm talking about: the constant exposure to everybody else's highlight reel is wreaking havoc. Magic avatars are not immune from the comparing equation. Artificial intelligence adds layers of complexity to this conversation.
AI Moving Forward
The conversation about the effects of artificial intelligence on people is just beginning to unfold. It needs to be had, and often. We need to be talking about the effects new technology is having on people of all ages now -- and into the future. As parents. As business leaders. As citizens. It’s a leadership question, for sure.
As we go deeper into the 21st century, and the line between living in the natural world and living in the digital world gets blurrier, we must think more critically about how we are showing up to technology and what tools we are using and engaging with each day. To manage our lives, to grow, to learn, to present ourselves to the world at large. We need to pay attention to trends and ask bigger questions.
Is artificial intelligence bad?
I’m not sure that’s the right question to ask.
It certainly isn't going away anytime soon. We all have a responsibility to think about it and its broader implications. First, to ourselves and how we are using these tools. And then, to our communities and the world so that we can develop programs and education around what AI means in the human conversation and how we can iterate it into our lives thoughtfully and respectfully.
Also food for thought:
- In what ways can AI be used for good?
- When does too much become too much?
- And how do we make sense of that extra arm draped unnaturally across our shoulder in the magic avatar?
