Unlike many previous technologies, AI has the ability to mimic the functions of a human being. When the camera was invented, no one was going to attempt to pass off a photograph as a hand drawing, but with AI, every student will be tempted to pass off an AI-generated essay as an original work. When air conditioning was invented, no one was going to pretend they were the ones generating cold air, but with AI, every programmer will be tempted to pass off Claude code as their own. As time passes, some of these will come to be understood as legitimate uses of the technology and some as illegitimate. 

Every new technology introduces both benefits and drawbacks to its users and to the wider culture. The world being what it is, there are always pluses and minuses, so that even as a new tech gives with one hand, it takes away with the other. We are quickly learning that Artificial Intelligence is no exception to the rule. 

When a new technology is introduced to society, there is a period of experimentation and negotiation, and in this time, people learn its acceptable and unacceptable uses. Together, they begin to construct the ethics and protocols that will govern its use in the future. Years ago, for example, we corporately negotiated that answering the phone with “hello” was acceptable, while answering it with “ahoy” was not, despite Alexander Graham Bell lobbying for it. More recently, we have corporately negotiated that it is acceptable to speak on your phone in public, but not on an airplane, or that it is legal to take videos with your phone’s camera in the gym, but not in the change rooms.

AI is still very much in the phase of experimentation and negotiation. As it develops, we are learning together how to use it well and how not to use it poorly. We are learning together what constitutes moral use and what constitutes immoral use. We are learning together what it may legitimately add to the human experience and what it may illegitimately take away. In the future, this will largely be codified in law, protocol, and accepted morality.

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