– English Lyrics

Lyrics & Translation

[English]

[music]

[music]

>> People worry about AI for all kinds of

reasons. It's polarizing, it spreads

misinformation, it's coming for our

jobs. And those are all good reasons to

be nervous.

But what really keeps me up at night is

something else. Something that feels

more personal and perhaps even more

concerning for the human experience

itself.

I worry that AI will make us boring.

You, me, all of us.

That's because the more we outsource our

decisions to AI, the more we surrender

something deeply human.

Our capacity to explore, to take risks,

to stumble into the unknown, and

sometimes surprise even ourselves.

I worry without that without the

potential for discovery, for

serendipity, we risk becoming more

shallow and unidimensional versions of

who we are and who we could be.

Not just as humans, as individuals, but

as humanity.

Now, let me make this idea a bit more

concrete and take you somewhere perhaps

unexpected, but also totally relatable.

Imagine walking into a Baskin Robbins.

What you'll see is an illustrious

assortment of 31 different ice cream

flavors. There's chocolate chip,

pistachio almond, lemon sorbet, and many

more.

You're now facing a difficult choice.

Are you going to go with an old

favorite, chocolate maybe, or are you

going to take a risk on something funky

and new like wild and reckless sherbet?

And yes, it's a real flavor.

The choice you're facing is a classic

human dilemma scientists call the

exploitation exploration trade-off.

Are you going to play it safe and

capitalize on what you know you like, or

are you going to take a risk with the

hope of finding something even better?

And our lives are full of these

trade-offs. Stick with your favorite

restaurant or try to fancy new spot on

the corner. Keep your usual haircut or

ask for something new and edgy. Stay in

your stable job or finally try to become

a pickleball champion.

We all differ in our appetite for

exploitation versus exploration, but

we're also all hardwired by evolution to

strike a certain balance between the

two.

Because for our ancestors on the African

savanna, the trade-off was actually

pretty simple. Stick too closely to

what's safe and you risk starvation when

the grove runs dry. Stray too far into

the unknown and you might get poisoned

or eaten by lions.

Luckily for you and me, the trade-offs

we face today are far less about

survival.

But our choices are still governed by

this instinct to balance caution with

curiosity.

If all you ever did in life was play it

safe and exploit, you'd never get

disappointed. But you'd also never get a

chance to advance and grow.

If all you did instead was discover and

explore, you'd collect endless

experiences, but you'd also never get a

chance to capitalize on your learnings.

So it's really this balance between

exploitation and exploration that fuels

our growth.

Not just as a species, but also as

individuals.

But that's exactly where AI throws a

wrench into the works.

Because AI hates risk.

And that's not because of its

algorithmic DNA, it's because the

systems we rely on to navigate our world

from Spotify to Netflix to ChatGPT are

overwhelmingly trained to optimize for

exploitation.

Or more specifically for short-term

engagement and satisfaction.

Did you click the link, watch the video,

like the song? If yes, AI gets a clap on

the shoulder. If no, gets a slap on the

hand.

Risk, discovery, and exploration are

simply not part of their programming.

Think back to Baskin Robbins. If 60% of

people prefer the flavor Pralines 'n

Cream, which is their best-selling

flavor, then that's what the AI is going

to recommend.

It's not that AI lacks imagination, it

lacks incentive.

Safe bets protect against

disappointment, which in turn reduces

customer churn.

So instead of taking this risky gamble

that helps you explore, companies tend

to err on the side of exploitation when

training their AI systems.

And to be clear, there's nothing

inherently wrong with that. I've spent

the last 15 years as a computational

social scientist working at the

intersection of psychology, computer

science, and business. And I know that

rewarding AI that way can be extremely

valuable.

Algorithms in a way only become so good

at figuring out what you might enjoy or

currently be looking for because they

focus on exploitation.

And that's not just good for business,

it's also good and sometimes even

necessary for us as consumers.

For me, the mere thought of having to

choose between 31 different ice cream

flavors makes me dizzy.

And yet, most of the choices that we

face day-to-day are far more complex

than that.

Netflix, for example, has over 5,500

movies to choose from.

Spotify, over 100 million songs.

So the truth is that without a little

help from our exploitation-loving AI

friends, we simply don't stand a chance

of navigating modern life.

But I've also become increasingly

concerned that this upside comes at a

somewhat existential cost.

And to give you a first flavor of what I

mean by that, let's go back to Baskin

Robbins.

Before coming here, I ran a simple

experiment. I asked ChatGPT to recommend

one of their ice cream flavors. I did

that 100 times, each round pretending to

be a new customer.

96 times, it recommended one of their

two most popular flavors, Pralines 'n

Cream and Mint Chocolate Chip.

Which, I realize and I'm sure you'd

agree, is not exactly a very diverse set

of choices.

And it could mean that we soon find

ourselves in a world where Baskin

Robbins offers only those two flavors.

If no one ever picks the other 29, why

bother offering them in the first place?

Now, this might sound trivial and not

really existential at all.

But that's only until you realize that

this flattening of the human experience

happens across every aspect of life.

In studies with my collaborators and

students, we've shown that when people

use AI for guidance,

their preferences become more normative

and less diverse. Their creative output

becomes less unique. And their choice of

the most important scientists, athletes,

and historical figures becomes the same

as everyone else's.

So in a nutshell, AI turns this infinite

diversity of human opinions, beliefs,

and preferences into statistically safe

sameness.

And that's only part of the problem

because even when AI learns your quirks,

say it figures out that you like nutty

coconut better than Pralines 'n Cream,

it will still play it safe within your

preferences. Meaning it is going to

optimize for what you are most likely to

like.

I went back to ChatGPT for a second

experiment and this time told it about

my personal ice cream preferences. I

said that during my last 100 visits, I

picked nutty coconut 70% of the time.

The remaining 30% I split evenly among

three of my other favorites.

I then asked it to make the next 100

choices on my behalf.

And guess what it did.

It picked nutty coconut every single

time.

Gone

are my adventures into occasional

chocolate fudge cookie dough or mango.

All I am at that point is literally a

nutty coconut.

But forget about ice cream. My students

and I have repeatedly shown the same

patterns when studying people's actual

preferences.

AI narrows your taste, it flattens your

personality, and it scrubs away the

edges that make you interesting and keep

you dynamic.

And the insidious part of all of this is

that the impact of AI on human

complexity is subtle. You won't notice

it happening overnight.

Rather, it's a death by a thousand

algorithmic recommendations. One

slightly safer movie, one slightly more

popular book, one slightly more

mainstream vacation at a time.

With every decision you outsource to AI,

you become more narrow. Then AI learns

from that shallower version of you and

narrows its recommendations even more.

The New York Times reporter Kashmir Hill

captured this dilemma perfectly in one

of her articles.

After outsourcing her decisions to AI

for a week, she complained about its

hidden agenda to turn her into a basic

...

And the funny part is it's the word

basic here that's the biggest insult.

Because being basic means being

unoriginal, unexceptional, and

uninteresting.

It's offensive not because it suggests

failure, but because it implies

mediocrity.

An absence of complexity.

And who really wants that for

themselves?

Nobody. We all like the feeling of being

unique, of being special, of being

someone who doesn't easily fit into a

box.

I for one don't want to become exactly

like everybody else. And I also don't

want to become a singular version of

myself.

So what can we do to course correct and

avoid destination basic

We can't hit the reset button on AI and

we shouldn't. As I said before, these

tools are incredibly valuable for

navigating modern life and they make us

better off in many ways.

But we need to reclaim our ability to

take risks and discover.

We need to find a way to rebalance

exploitation and exploration.

And ironically, AI could actually help

us accomplish just that.

But only if we ask it the right

questions and reward it for the right

actions.

So, instead of asking it to help us find

something we like, we could start asking

it to help us find something new.

Something we're likely to love even

though we've never tried it before.

And by that, I don't necessarily mean

you typing that question into ChatGPT

yourself.

Although you should certainly try.

What I mean is getting companies to

harness AI superpower. It's ability to

detect patterns in vast amounts of human

data for exploration purposes.

Because AI has seen the entire universe

of preferences, it knows not only what

you currently like, but also what lies

just beyond the boundaries of your

typical preferences.

Which means that it can help you explore

smartly. To take curated risks when you

want to.

Now, here's what this could look like.

Imagine a dial on your Netflix account

or your Google search bar that lets you

decide how far from your typical

preferences you want to stray at any

given point in time.

On a regular day, you'll probably keep

the dial close to the spot-on setting

because you want to get the most

relevant hits right away.

But then on other days, you might feel

adventurous enough to push it a little

closer to the me with a twist setting

and ask for content that's a little

outside of your comfort zone, but still

relevant.

And then on other days, for those rare

moments when you feel like you're really

ready to take on the world, you might

push the dial all the way to the wild

card setting and ask it to help you

discover something entirely new.

I for one would love to have such a

dial. It doesn't force me to leave my

comfort zone. I can always leave it on

the spot-on setting and benefit from the

convenience that comes with it.

But it gives me the choice and the

agency to break out of my little bubble

whenever I want to or I feel like I have

to.

But here's the catch. For AI to toggle

its superpower between exploitation and

exploration, we need to incentivize it

to do so.

Merely asking it to be more creative or

help you become more adventurous isn't

going to do the trick.

In most cases, it will still default to

the tried and tested output because it

craves that clap on the shoulder.

So, instead of punishing AI every time

it takes a swing and misses, we need to

start rewarding it for taking smart

swings.

For making bets that are a little bold,

a little unusual perhaps, but still

grounded in what it knows about us.

AI doesn't have to throw darts in the

dark. It can take informed risks. It can

help us optimize our exploration.

And when it does, we should treat it as

a success, not a failure.

Now, this isn't about desserts or

playlists. This is about preserving what

makes us uniquely, messily, and

gloriously human.

It's your random passion for ET

memorabilia, your weird detour into

geocaching, or your stubborn preference

for a stick shift car.

It's about all the contradictions that

AI can't quite explain and the beauty of

us being just a little weird once in a

while.

And if we believe that human complexity

is worth preserving, then the time to

act is now.

Because we're at this inflection point

where AI is no longer just recommending,

but starting to act on our behalf.

It's choosing, not suggesting.

And that's where the stakes become

really existential.

So, next time AI offers you pralines and

cream, maybe say no and ask it to help

you go wild and reckless instead.

Thank you.

>> [music]

Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
polarizing /ˈpoʊləˌraɪzɪŋ/ C2	adjective - causing people to adopt extreme opposing views
misinformation /ˌmɪsɪnfərˈmeɪʃən/ B2	noun - false or inaccurate information
surrender /səˈrɛndər/ B2	verb - to give up or yield control
serendipity /ˌsɛrənˈdɪpɪti/ C2	noun - the occurrence of events by chance in a happy way
unidimensional /ˌʌndɪˈmɛnʃənəl/ C2	adjective - lacking depth or complexity
illustrious /ɪˈlʌstriəs/ C2	adjective - well-known, respected, and admired for past achievements
exploitation /ˌɛksplɔɪˈteɪʃən/ C1	noun - the action of making use of and benefiting from resources
capitalize /ˈkæpɪtəˌlaɪz/ B2	verb - to take the chance to gain advantage from
insidious /ɪnˈsɪdiəs/ C2	adjective - proceeding in a gradual, subtle way, but with harmful effects
mediocrity /ˌmidiˈɒkrɪti/ C2	noun - the quality of being average or not very good
harness /ˈhɑːrnɪs/ B2	verb - to utilize or control something for a purpose
curated /ˈkjʊəreɪtɪd/ B2	adjective - selected, organized, and presented using professional knowledge
agency /ˈeɪdʒənsi/ B2	noun - the capacity of individuals to act independently and make their own free choices
inflection /ɪnˈflɛkʃən/ C2	noun - a moment of significant change
detour /ˈdiːtʊr/ B2	noun - a long or roundabout route taken to avoid something

Key Grammar Structures

• What really keeps me up at night is something else.

  ➔ Noun Clause as Subject

  ➔ The clause "What really keeps me up at night" acts as the subject of the sentence.

• The more we outsource our decisions to AI, the more we surrender something deeply human.

  ➔ The + comparative, the + comparative structure

  ➔ This parallel structure shows that one action or state increases proportionally with another.

• I worry without the potential for discovery, for serendipity, we risk becoming more shallow.

  ➔ Omitted 'that' in a subordinate clause

  ➔ The word "that" after "worry" is implied to connect the main clause to the object clause.

• If all you ever did in life was play it safe and exploit, you'd never get disappointed.

  ➔ Second Conditional (Hypothetical situation)

  ➔ Uses past tense verbs to describe a hypothetical, unlikely, or impossible scenario.

• I've spent the last 15 years as a computational social scientist working at the intersection of psychology, computer science, and business.

  ➔ Present Perfect Continuous (or Present Perfect + participle)

  ➔ "I've spent" emphasizes an action that started in the past and continues to the present.

• Without a little help from our exploitation-loving AI friends, we simply don't stand a chance of navigating modern life.

  ➔ Compound Adjective

  ➔ "Exploitation-loving" combines a noun and a participle to modify "AI friends".

• AI narrows your taste, it flattens your personality, and it scrubs away the edges.

  ➔ Parallel Structure (Parallelism)

  ➔ Using the same grammatical form (verb + object) for three consecutive items to create rhythm and emphasis.

• I don't want to become exactly like everybody else.

  ➔ Infinitive as object

  ➔ "to become" functions as the object of the verb "want".