The AI adoption trap
Adapt, not adopt
Let’s talk about the AI adoption trap. When should we use AI? And when should we not?
AI, in many ways is a hype, another shiny object that people chase, a solution looking for a problem. The rush to adopt AI can overshadow the thoughtful, deliberate assessment of its real value and potential impact on society.
Will I be more fulfilled if I become superintelligent? If AI fills up my fridge when it’s empty? Is AI really helping my employees to become more ‘creative’ or ‘efficient’?
We should be careful not to fall into the AI adoption trap, and adopt AI for the sake of adopting it.
It is better to ask: What do I want more of in my life? What do we collectively want to pursue as a society or organization? Can we adapt AI to serve that end? In what ways can AI be adapted to reflect and respect diverse cultural values and norms, and a broad range of intelligences? And what are some of the steps that individuals and organizations can take to avoid the AI adoption trap and instead focus on meaningful integration?
Let’s break the adoption trap down on three levels: cultural, industrial and personal.
From a cultural perspective, the AI models emerging from Silicon Valley are pushing a standardized definition of intelligence, often at odds with diverse global cultures and the interests of nature. Many regions with limited AI adoption knowledge and literacy are forced to accept these technologies without the ability to influence or customize them. This offers increased adoption risks that could create societal frictions, even wider wealth gaps, further environmental distortion and the exclusion of minorities. This is why in this fragment of a long interview with Stability AI founder and ex-CEO turned decentralized AI activist Emad Mostaque places emphasis around building national, culturally nuanced databases owned by nations to warrant us against these risks.
On a industry/company level I see something similar, manifesting as two groups parting: on the one hand we see the tech enthusiasts who want to adopt for the sake of adopting. They are blinded by optimism, ‘efficiency’ wins, and an innovative drive that is to outpace the competition, often forsaking ethical questions. On the other hand we see the ones who are digging their heels in the sand, building a fortress around things ‘as they are’, sourcing from their favorite science fiction films to throw around existential threats to humanity, resisting to even to explore adoption. In every company or conference I enter, I hope to blend these opposing camps by helping the first group to build a strong ethical framework around AI adoption, and the second to see positive applications of AI and futures that give them hope and actionability.
On a personal level, let’s start with me. Over the past few years I’ve lived through many different perspectives on AI adoption, finding myself talking about AI on stage in front of business controllers, teachers and educators, art and design students, medics, think tanks, governments, data scientists, customer service experts, labour unions, renewable energy companies, boardrooms and my own friends and family members. While adapting my story to these different audiences, explaining AI in many different lingos, I say, rather than just seeking to adopt this new technology, or else resist it, become adaptive to this wave of change and adapt AI to your own values, wants and needs. I am very deliberate about which areas of my life I want generative AI’s help with, and which not, and I recommend you to do the same.
The adoption trap can be overcome by those who are adaptive, and adapt technology to their own values, needs, and desires, rather than simply adopting it.
Let’s explore a philosophical approach to adaptivity in the age of AI, and after that I’ll give you and your organization some practical tips on how to develop an adaptive AI adoption strategy.
What does adaptivity mean in the age of AI?
Overall, we humans have a complex relationship to change. Inevitable change is often evaded, denied, and suppressed. Meanwhile, nature has its own agenda. Everything changes every season. Most species: seaweeds, sea grasses, rabbits, bees, move along. Not man, who tries with all his might to swallow the waves of change before they engulf everyday life. Technology has made it possible to glorify this skill. Under the guise of “progress” we have become increasingly sophisticated at controlling nature and manipulating the flow of change.
Darwin already spoke of this: "It is not the strongest nor the most intelligent species that survive, but the ones most adaptive to change."
How can we become more adaptive in a well-considered and empowering way?
“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless yet be determined to make them otherwise.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald in his 1936 essay Crack Up
To be adaptive means becoming aware of many opposing ideas and beliefs, rather than adopting a particular one.
To be adaptive is to surrender ‘being right’, and explore ‘being free’.
To be adaptive, then, is to say: “I don’t believe anything.”
To be adaptive is to channel as wide a spectrum of possibilities and intelligences as possible, to morph in and out of perspectives, and inform decisions holistically.
To be adaptive is to be capable of rapid adaptation and align to natural principles as a survival mechanism.
To be adaptive is to embrace uncertainty, seeing it not as a threat but as a space for growth and new opportunities.
To be adaptive is to cultivate a mindset of curiosity and continuous learning, recognizing that every situation holds potential lessons.
For me, the question of adaptivity is closely related to the question of what gracious intelligence is. I will keep following my curiosity to dive deeper into the meaning of Gracious Intelligence, exploring the the questions: What is intelligence in the first place? How can we adapt our reality to our evolving definition of intelligence, leading to adaptive AI that serves all, not just a few?
Cultivating an adaptive AI adoption strategy
So let’s now dive into a more practical approach to adaptivity in the age of AI: how can we direct our efforts to adapting AI to our diverse values and worldviews?
On an individual level I can give you this:
Educate yourself:
As the pace of change is so radical, it is essential to strengthen your agency by staying informed about AI technologies, their capabilities, and their limitations. Understanding AI’s potential and its ethical implications can help you make more informed decisions.
Participate in workshops, online courses, and seminars focused on AI and its applications. Share your learnings, also with me!
Assess your personal needs and values:
Reflect on how AI can align with your personal goals, values, and needs. Consider how it can enhance your life without compromising your principles.
Avoid adopting AI just because it’s trendy; ensure it adds genuine value to your daily life.
Promote ethical awareness:
Advocate for ethical considerations in AI usage among peers and in your community.
Engage in discussions about the ethical implications of AI, contribute to public discourse on how AI should and should not be integrated in society, and support the development of ethical guidelines and standards, like we do here.
And on an organizational level, this is how to go about it:
Develop an AI strategy:
Create a clear AI strategy that aligns with your organization’s goals, values, and mission. Ensure that the strategy includes ethical considerations and long-term sustainability, for your own sake (hopefully internally motivated, but also: regulation is here, and reputational risks are lurking), and that of the collective.
Conduct thorough needs assessments to identify genuine problems that AI can solve, rather than adopting AI for its own sake.
Involve diverse stakeholders:
Involve a diverse range of stakeholders, including employees, customers, and community members, and preferably also spiritual advisors and nature representation, in the AI adoption process. Their insights can help ensure the technology meets diverse needs and avoids biases.
Establish advisory committees or ethics boards to provide ongoing guidance on AI projects.
Implement ethical AI guidelines:
Develop and enforce ethical guidelines for AI development and use within the organization. These guidelines should address issues such as data privacy, bias, transparency, explainability and accountability.
Regularly review and update these guidelines to keep pace with technological advancements and societal expectations.
Foster a culture of continuous learning:
Encourage continuous learning and development for employees on AI technologies and their ethical implications. Provide access to training programs and resources.
Promote a culture of critical thinking and questioning, where employees feel empowered to raise concerns and suggest improvements.
Pilot and evaluate:
Start with small-scale AI pilot projects to test and evaluate their effectiveness and impact before full-scale implementation. This allows for adjustments and learning without significant risk.
Continuously monitor and assess AI projects, collecting feedback and making necessary adjustments to ensure they remain aligned with organizational values and goals.
This is your adaptive AI adoption strategy.
By taking these practical steps, you can navigate the AI adoption landscape more graciously, ensuring that AI integration is meaningful, ethical, and aligned with broader goals and values.
To continue practicing our adaptivity over the summer, whilst taking some time away from screens, let me share with you a few activities that I feel excited to engage in that help me unwind and become more adaptive.
Practicing adaptivity over the summer
FERMENTING
No other species has led me to realize how little I know and how little I can perceive than bacteria. With an estimated 39 trillion bacteria in our gut and more bacteria floating through the air than dust particles (if you like to vacuum ;), we could say we swim in an ocean of microbes. It is an act of alchemy to engage in the process of fermentation and see their presence come alive in the form of sourdough, kimchi, fermented veggies, and natural dyes. This transformative process is driven by various bacterial species, such as Lactobacillus in kimchi and sourdough, which convert sugars into lactic acid, preserving the food and developing its flavor. With this, I can observe a process of adaptation that transforms sugars into alcohol through yeast fermentation, and then into various complex molecules through microbial activity, effectively changing the substance into something else entirely. Why it also informs our adaptive AI adoption quest is that the microbes you will ingrain within your fermentation processes are entirely different from mine. The microbial communities are influenced by factors such as local environment, ingredients, and techniques. Thus, there is no one way of adopting this technique; it is about adapting it to your circumstances, making it and the outcome your own.
This summer I will be fermenting veggies from our garden (broad beans, courgette, cabbage, cavolo nero, tomatoes and plums), and continuing my sourdough breadbaking. If you feel inspired to start fermenting something too, I really recommend turning it into a temporary obsession. Choosing some produce you have access to, spending at least 4 hours watching Youtube videos about fermentation. Then, forget about the tech and get your hands dirty. Learn by doing, failing, adapting, and eventually, succeeding.
Honeybees are masters of transformation, turning nectar into honey through a natural process of enzymatic activity and evaporation. Their collaborative work and creation of something beneficial from raw ingredients exemplify adaptivity by showcasing how they can effectively modify their environment to thrive. There are many ways to keep bees with reverence, and I find Ariella’s approach to be soft and empathetic, something to admire. If we want to continue the adaptation chain: fermenting this raw honey with garlic, chili, onion and thyme is an absolute Youtube hit.
OBSERVING
In our bedroom we have this picture of a whalepod by the artist Zana Briski, taken with her analogue camera. I love this image, because it captures something that we cannot see with the naked eye. I imagine it approaches how the whales must see light, darkness, and one another. The patience and attentiveness required in either making or observing analogue photography I’d love to invite into the adaptivity equation. Because, if our ability to perceive through different senses, notice subtle details, find reverence for what we perceive, and slow down can be taught to AI, we can expect a more gracious future.
In the short film SYMBIOTIC the artists have challenged themselves to empathize and merge their perspectives with those of other species, immersing themselves in the worlds of sperm whales, an ant colony, the gut-brain connection, and the network within a forest. The film aims to redefine our traditional views of intelligence and highlight nature’s interconnectedness, something well worthy of our attention in our quest for adaptivity.
Another project by Zana Briski is REVERENCE, inspired by visions of a praying mantis. Her insect portraits take hours of collaboration as she holds eye contact and allows for a deep merging of consciousness. The art of observation and adaptivity embodied.
Thank you for reading. I can’t see to the end of the AI chapter in the books of history, but I know that our efforts in scaling and distributing this technology should be around empowering people to be adaptive to change; and secondly, to invent solutions towards increasing the adaptivity of the technology to different value systems, local conditions and cultures. Therefore I will continue to dedicate my efforts to addressing those questions, and hopefully you and your organization will join.
Have a gracious summer, I’m off on a break now! 🤍
Some news to share:
My Tedx talk on Gracious AI Ethics is out! You can watch it here or below.
Also a worthy read is this article by What Design Can Do about I panel I joined: AI and designers, friends, enemies or frenemies?
Also if you don’t follow me on Instagram or LinkedIn, I’m more often active there than I have worthy enough thoughts (or time) to share here.
Please always feel free to email me with thoughts, ideas or suggestions, I love to hear from readers, makes this feel less of an echo chamber...:)
Also, please share this newsletter with others who may be interested, we have a growing community of AI ethics enthusiasts and forward future thinkers forming!
Gracious AI Radio is a monthly-ish newsletter and podcast by Lisanne Buik, Founder of Gracious AI, speculative designer, futures researcher, keynote speaker and AI ethics consultant, bringing a feminine, nature-inclusive perspective to our future with AI.
aloha@lisannebuik.com | https://lisannebuik.com