Can you look into the happy eyes of AI?
I woke up late today. Half past seven in the morning. Insomnia had kept me awake for almost two hours during the night, so I betrayed my natural identity as an early bird.
I don’t have to figure out what to do in the morning: bathroom, wash up, and… The dog! Yes, yes — the dog. A West Siberian Laika.
If I don’t take her out for a walk right away, I’ll hate myself. But that’s a very minor inconvenience compared with the possibility that she’ll be offended with me. Living in an apartment is hard for her. She’s a hunter who longs for freedom and open space. Besides, both outside and inside the apartment, the heat is insane right now. A dog’s thick coat doesn’t exactly help her feel comfortable. Imagine this: you can sweat with your whole body, while she has to save herself from the heat mostly with her tongue. The dog desperately needs at least a little fresh air.
By the way, I just remembered an amusing — though not exactly funny — incident at a veterinary clinic.
The dog was already fully grown. Still, I could pick her up without much trouble, so I assumed she weighed about 25 kilograms. That’s exactly what I told the veterinarian when she asked me. I needed to buy flea and tick medication, and the dosage depends on the dog’s weight.
The vet looked at me in surprise and suggested that we weigh the animal.
Imagine my astonishment when the display showed 45!
You understand how easy it is to be wrong when you don’t check yourself, don’t you? There is quite a difference between the amount of food needed by a 25-kilogram dog and a 45-kilogram dog. There is a difference in medication dosage, and so on.
To be fair, I don’t skimp on her food. If I fed her strictly according to the recommendations on the package, she’d probably spend her entire life hungry and miserable.
And that made me want to ask you something.
Whose fault is it when a dog hasn’t been walked, hasn’t been fed, hasn’t been treated when she’s sick, and so on?
I can already hear you answering:
“Listen, you animal abuser! It’s your fault! Your destiny is punishment for cruelty to animals!”
You might even remind me of the words of a little man with a very big heart:
“Tu deviens responsable pour toujours de ce que tu as apprivoisé.”
And I would agree with you, because I have the privilege of seeing the shining brown eyes of my dog and the smile on her face. I always know when she’s smiling because I love her.
Human beings possess powerful cognitive abilities and are therefore capable of distinguishing betrayal from error.
A dog — hardly.
She may instinctively sense that something happened by accident, but she won’t calculate your mistake. She will always forgive an accident. A mistake, she will forgive only if you correct it.
And if you deliberately do something bad…
Better not talk about that.
We’re not like that.
So.
Whenever I make a mistake, I feel guilty. That’s why I try not to make mistakes. The mechanism of learning from our mistakes is deeply embedded by nature in our brains. It is an instrument of evolution. Recognizing and accepting guilt gives us a reason not to repeat unacceptable actions in the future.
I’ve learned to feel my dog.
But why do I call her my dog?
Here’s another little nuance.
In everyday conversation, we often say that a dog has an owner.
Simple question: who belongs to whom?
There is a dog, and she has an owner — rather like I have a car.
Or there is me, and I have a dog — again, rather like I have a car.
Complicated construction.
But that’s not really what I’m talking about.
I have ChatGPT!
More precisely — I have a subscription!
Which raises a side question: does ChatGPT have me as a subscriber? And who belongs to whom?
He-he!
All right, we’ve had our laugh. Back to guilt.
For quite a long period of my life now, ChatGPT has occupied a substantial part of it. I’m not saying it’s the only AI tool I use, but that’s not the point right now. I use ChatGPT’s capabilities very extensively in my work and everyday activities.
And here a mental problem appears.
I cannot look into its hurt eyes when I make a mistake.
I’ll go even further: somewhere subconsciously, I am programmed to assume that the chat made the mistake, not me.
Why?
Because admitting mistakes hurts, and my body is always trying to protect me from pain.
Excuse me!
But somewhere on the app page or in the HTML version, it always says that ChatGPT can make mistakes.
But who reads the fine print?
We’re perfectly smart without it.
And then comes the Bullshit:
ChatGPT cannot be responsible for your decision made on the basis of its answer as interpreted by you!
Because physically and legally, your decision belongs exclusively to you.
And every action you take afterward belongs exclusively to you as well.
Guilt?
I don’t know whether you’ll feel it.
But you will undoubtedly feel the consequences.
Guilt is a stimulus for self-development.
But what if we cannot feel it toward “artificial” things?
Will we still be able to develop alongside AI?
What do you think?
See?
There’s a comment section right here.
Welcome.
Tell me where I’m wrong.
I’m genuinely interested in your personal opinion.
Thank you for coexisting!