For the past few months, I’ve been enjoying the podcast “Shell Game”. It offers an open, honest, sometimes uncomfortable, and often funny experience of the AI world. Evan Ratliff, in the first season, creates an AI version of himself and puts it through a series of real-life tests. In the second season, Evan creates a company run entirely by AI agents. As a tester, I experienced a range of emotions. Mostly shock and awe, because as a user of AI, I am a little bit hesitant for various, complicated reasons that I’m still wrapping my mind around. As a person, there are so many thoughtful touchpoints through the series that helped me pinpoint why I feel discomfort with how AI is being embraced by society.
It’s the latest episode that’s made me pause enough to reflect on AI. In the bonus episode of Shell Game: Shell Game x No Such Thing, the hosts of No Such Thing discuss the question of whether AI will take our jobs.
Recently, I’ve felt this. While updating a Cypress test to check for an edge case, as I type, I’ve thought, “AI could do this,” and existential dread rises in my chest. I give AI a title for a bug report, and it generates all the ticket information I need (not perfect, but very close). I can generate test cases in the test case management system. I ask it a question regarding a code refactor, and it spins up what I need for the latest automation update. I don’t mind incorporating AI in my workflow. The more I use AI, I start to wonder if I am still valuable. What do I offer that AI doesn’t?
I’m not up late at night sweating about this. Thankfully, Shell Game has given me a clearer perspective on AI, its current capabilities, and fallacies. Still, what Evan points out in the latest episode is what really gets to me.
Evan expresses the reality of the fact that even though AI agents are shitty, it won’t stop companies from using them, or using them to replace people who could accomplish the same series of tasks. What stuck out to me was his question of “Is a person a bundle of skills or a series of tasks to be replaced,” or “Is a person at a job wholistically doing something else?” (my paraphrase) And, it’s those questions that make me wonder what the industry is really thinking when it comes to embracing AI.
People are complicated. This I know. I am a wife to the love of my life, a mom of nearly adult children, a daughter with aging parents, and a caregiver for a dog who will jump you if you try to give me a high five. I get sick. I need vacations. Sometimes I need to help my family. Sometimes I need to help myself. I am doing all of this while I am holding down a full-time job. I’m even leaving out the fact that I am a citizen of Earth and the United States. Being a participant on this planet is hard and complicated. So, I understand. Wouldn’t it be nice to employ “beings” who don’t need a break or need to take care of someone else, who don’t have kids or dogs to care for? They can answer emails, update an automation test, review a pr, and plan for the next company hike (this episode was so funny). They can do what I do, without the hassle and complication of being human.
Is that what you want? “What do you want?” is one of my favorite questions. Yeah, what do I want? On the surface, I could say, “Well, I want another FP Movement sweatshirt”. But, if I work through the surface-level silliness, what I want is to do good work, be thoughtful about it, and make someone else’s day enjoyable because of my contribution. These are the things that drive me to be more human and do the best work possible.
Maybe that is the differentiator between an AI agent and me. I have wants. AI agents don’t. We program them to want what we want, but still, in the end, they will go off and do something, and we have no idea why. So, I don’t know. Maybe that’s what we’re okay with. Maybe we want something that doesn’t want anything without our defining what those wants should be, and oddly enough, being with something we really can’t control.
I don’t have answers. And, at this point, I’m not sure I’m even making sense. But, I have an inkling that in the end, it won’t be the AI agents saving us from whatever it is we are trying to run from or run toward. It’ll be one human, or maybe a few, who were human enough to reach out, make a connection, and make us feel more like ourselves again.
If you’ve listened to Shell Game, I’d love to hear about your experience. And, if you haven’t, go listen! It’s thoughtful, fun, and a little bit scary. Plus, there’s merch. Nothing like an AI-generated logo to brighten your day.
Till next time…
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Written with I was dreaming but I got lost | 432 Hz playing in the background.
