Have you ever really stopped to think about how you feel about an artificial, intelligent, non-human entity slowly emerging into our everyday lives? How it could possibly look like in ten years?

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After exploring AI’s ever-lingering presence, its dangers of getting poisoned, and how it already has made our connections more fragile and faded. We have nightmares of autonomous action and an now we have arrived at a moment of reflection:

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How can we shape the world we want to live in?

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Awareness as Power

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The first step is awareness.

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Understanding AI; how it’s programmed, built, and trained, and what its capabilities, limits, and vulnerabilities are, gives us agency.

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Awareness transforms passive interaction into intentional participation. Every choice we make, every system we engage with, and every dataset we curate becomes part of the story we are telling about our future with technology.

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AWARENESS

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1. Start by learning how large language models, such as ChatGPT, are built and where they collect the data they use. Learn about how they are trained and by whom.
2. Google about AI hallucinations, poisoned AI studies, and how it has already affected people’s behavior.
3. Assess your own relationship with AI. How would you like to coexist? What are the lines that you are not comfortable being crossed?

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ACTION

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1. Check your phone settings and social media channels’ AI training settings. Are you training AIs with your personal data without your knowledge? (propably yes)
   Many AI data collection practices have been rolled into our phones and social media platforms very quietly.
2. Think twice before believing the pictures or videos that you see on the internet. Read the news from a trusted source that uses human journalists.
3. Find and use ethical AI models

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LEGISLATION

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1. Stay informed about new legislations and petitions regarding AI and its usage.
2. If needed, contact your representatives, raise awareness and take part in protests.

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If we do not act while the guidelines are just being made, it will be harder to change them once they are set. We cannot control every ripple and unintended consequence. But we can and must choose where to focus our attention, how to cultivate trust, and which values to embed in the systems we build and use.

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Ethical Engagement

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AI is not an independent, self-thinking entity. It is not inherently good nor bad. Its outcomes are shaped by the intentions, assumptions and thoughts of the humans guiding it.

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This realization can be scary, when you think about who owns the biggest AI models at the moment, but it can also be liberating and a relief of some sort. It means that our responsibility carries real weight, and so does our ability to make meaningful change.

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Engaging ethically with AI requires curiosity, vigilance, and creativity.

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It is about asking questions before accepting answers. Ask AI for sources, check them to see that they are viable, not a random reddit post. When using any AI system, stay curious and if you see anykind of pattern forming, check if they are biased. If you get a chance to designing AI systems make sure that they enhance human potential rather than diminish it. Our actions, small or large, create the frameworks that will guide machine intelligence for years.

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It is almost like being a kid again. Endlessly asking “why?” and opening our minds to the wildest of versions of a future that is completely different than our current reality.

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Radical Dream

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Every tool we build, every system we refine, is an invitation to imagine not only what is possible, but what is desirable. By embracing curiosity, vigilance, and creativity, we can co-create a future where AI amplifies human potential, nurtures connection, and supports the values we hold dear.

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We need radically different ways of thinking and willingness to challenge the ongoing systems.

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The world is changing, but change is not destiny. Every day offers an opportunity to act with intention, to imagine boldly, and to craft the futures we wish to see. The story of AI is intertwined with the story of humanity and together, we have the power to write it well.

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The future is not somewhere we arrive; it is something we create, moment by moment, with every choice, every insight, and every dream we allow ourselves to pursue.

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This was the fifth and last part of a 5 part series talking about the nature and affects of AI to our future.

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