Mount Pelion. [Intime News]
Whether seen through the telephone, movies, radio, television, internet or now artificial intelligence, village life offers lessons on human interaction with communication technology.
I learned this over the hot summer I spent in my home village in Evia conducting my dissertation research on how people adopt innovation. Villagers first glimpsed these new devices at the village cafes. Soon enough, radios, telephones, TV and the internet became indispensable to village life, even in the remotest village in Greece. These technologies pass the “village life test.”
Artificial intelligence froze this. One day it just appeared, ready for downloading. Medical, legal, financial, even marital or companion advice – all at our fingertips. Our own personal librarian talking to us in our own language, 59 of them besides English. This information is obtainable elsewhere, but not at the speed and ease AI delivers it. For many, it is a miracle device.
None of the previous technologies ever came with predictions of curing cancer or dooming the entire human race and our jobs as has happened with ChatGPT and the others. AI’s a utility, we are told, like heat or air-conditioning, ready when needed. It’s the best library in human history, and a “friend” to talk to when lonely, despite warnings some self-harm has come from this. It knows us like no other technology, even better than ourselves. And it mimics our speech, an “unhuman” human.
But it doesn’t bring the joy, emotions or spontaneity that a call to a long-lost friend does, or from a relative who’s not spoken to you in months, or your grandparent emailing you a favorite pasta recipe, or your friend sending you a clever TikTok video. You can live perfectly well never prompting AI.
That blistering summer, I interviewed the village’s general handyman about his communication use. My recorder was on. For the next hour he regaled me with his views of American politics. “Well, what do you have to say?” he stopped and demanded. Overwhelmed, I hesitated to respond. He shook his head disgustedly, adding, “Another stupid American!” He then jumped to his feet, saddled his old rusting scooter and with gusts of black exhaust smoke swallowing the air, disappeared like a ghost.
A few days later, when I listened to him on tape, I chuckled and marveled at this spontaneous, memorable moment. AI could never replicate it. AI fails the village life test.
Taso G. Lagos lectures at the University of Washington, in Seattle. He is the author of “American Zeus: The Life of Alexander Pantages, Theater Mogul” and “Cooking Greek, Becoming American.”