Is the Apple Vision Pro bringing "non-essential" technology?

Hot events are always short-lived, but AI-related news has continued to attract attention in the past six months. At the same time, Apple, which is considered absent in this generative AI revolution, unveiled a mixed reality wearable device Apple Vision Pro at the WWDC conference on June 5, and its extremely high degree of completion makes it stand out from similar products. Many believe that this is the first AR/VR device that can truly be used on a large scale and open up a new era. "My feeling is that the future is already here," tech blogger Chung Wenze said, holding back his excitement after being invited to try it on. In any case, the development of technology has become something that no one can avoid and must face.

But even as the Apple Vision Pro has been a hit, and is even thought to fulfill the desire of the movie Ready Player One to enter the virtual world, there have been lingering concerns about the technology, such as whether it will exacerbate the wealth gap and other inequalities - after all, in Ready Player One, the protagonist Wade, despite his gorgeous avatar in the virtual world, In reality, they live in run-down and poor neighborhoods, and they live a life of being crushed by big tech companies. In the article "Go Extinct or Adapt: It's Time for Humans to Govern AI," Joshua Bengio, known as the "Godfather of AI," also argues that the social impact of AI will be tied directly to its application and layout, and that due to the competitive nature of capitalism, making profits and capturing market share could lead to potential, uncontrolled AI.

On the other hand, ethical questions about technology have also emerged. Philosophers have long debated whether artificial intelligence will go out of control or even destroy humanity, but it has often remained at the level of science fiction, and as large companies accelerate the deployment of technologies such as AI, serious discussion of this topic is becoming more and more imminent. In May, a bipartisan U.S. senator and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said a new federal agency was needed to protect people from AI "going bad." As Bencio points out, AI systems like ChatGPT and GPT-4 have attracted a lot of attention mainly because they pass the famous Turing test, which makes it difficult to tell whether you're talking to a machine or a human, and this poses a considerable degree of danger.

"Non-essential" artificial intelligence helmet, the technological stagnation of the 21st century

Linderman: I was barely getting over the shock of ChatGPT when Apple unveiled the Vision Pro, and the number of breakthroughs in AI technology this year was dizzyful. Would it be luddite of me to say that I have no interest in the Vision Pro, or even dislike it? But I do think that technology is divided into "necessary" and "non-essential", and artificial intelligence helmets belong to the "non-essential" kind - yes, it can help us break through the limits of the naked eye and see more wonderful and rich things, but this need is created.

My biggest concern is that in an age of increasingly loose relationships, will such tools further undermine the very foundations of human society by drawing our attention further away from the world around us and into some virtual, customised, perfect world?

Xu Luqing: I also agree with the son's view, see some technical evaluation mentioned that the development cost of Vision pro and rocket SpaceX is almost similar, but all this is just to let us better immerse in the game? Or is it better to throw in 3 apps to handle work in the office?

Graeber agrees that the 21st century is an age of technological stagnation, "the pure physical power of technology itself makes us feel the wheel of history rolling forward, and now we only have screens and images to play with." Since the 1970s, he argues, our investment in technology has shifted away from technologies that will lead to a different future and toward technologies that strengthen labor discipline and social control. Technology either enhances management efficiency, surveillance capabilities, or increases consumption levels or military power. So we're going to see a lot of advances in technology to create mimics and landscapes, like the latest iPhone, like the Vision Pro. But so long after the Industrial Revolution, when people imagined technology to arrive at a world free of repetitive labor, bullshit work, and where everyone could live by their creativity, would they have thought that 200 years later, human beings would not even be able to work eight hours a day? Perhaps technological progress is never driven by real human needs, but by the logic of capital and bureaucracy.

Pan Wenjie: One of my childhood dreams is to have glasses like Ami Mizuno in Sailor Moon, which are relatively light and can directly see the outside world and be used to analyze the outside world. However, the Apple device released now is first of all a little weight, a long neck pain, and its headset is not transparent, wear it you will be immersed in the inside world, of course, you can also see the reality of the outside world through it, but it is through the front of the two cameras to shoot and return to the eye, which will certainly produce information loss. The reviews we've seen so far are that the perception of the real world is not that clear.

There was a very classic photo at the 2016 Samsung press conference, that is, the audience wore Samsung Gear VR glasses, and Zuckerberg walked by them, but everyone was unaware. Doesn't that sound a little paranoid? Zuckerberg's stunning walk among unsuspecting ordinary people is creepy, and even the smile on his face is interpreted as creepy. Many voices on social media are asking whether this is a parable for the future of humanity. People are immersed in a virtual world, and the people who lead us quietly walk by us? In any case, people are already glued to the world of mobile phones and laptops, and may continue to indulge in the world of AR/VR glasses in the future.

Yin Qinglu: This is also very similar to noise cancelling headphones, noise cancelling at the same time also cut off the natural birdsong and human voice, the so-called "transparent mode" is only to let you hear the minimum car horn or airport announcement, just like the "exquisite" design of Vision Pro - when a friend walks in front of you, he will break through the restrictions of the virtual picture and greet your eyes. But the real world at this time is also artificial, is purely functional.

Poor people are more likely to be immersed in virtual worlds, and technology cannot be divorced from physical objects

Pan Wenjie: In the future, MR (Mixed Reality) glasses should be transparent, like Ami Mizuno's glasses, at least it will look normal, and the most important thing is of course that people should maintain a connection with the real world. In fact, the more poor people are, the more likely they are to be immersed in the virtual world for a long time and lose contact with the real world.

In "Can't Stop: How to Break Behavioral Addictions in the Age of Scrolling," Adam Alter, a PhD psychologist at Princeton University, sees how those who produce and design high-tech products seem to abide by the number one rule of the drug trade: They must not become addicted. Mr. Jobs's children never used ipads, the Twitter founder didn't buy tablets for his two sons, game designers shunned World of Warcraft, and many Silicon Valley giants kept their children away from electronic devices at all. "It's like religious leaders not allowing children to participate in religious activities."

Yoo Hyun-joon, an architecture professor at Hongik University, said, The more you live in a narrow house, the more time you spend watching TV. The more crowded the subway, the more time I spend watching Netflix. In some ways, people with lower incomes are gradually being pushed into the online space." For people living in confined Spaces, as the offline space shrinks, the void will be filled by the online space. "Enjoying nature and having a lot of space, at some point, may become the preserve of the rich." It can be said that behind Zuckerberg's photo, there is an implicit concern that new technologies are exacerbating class divisions.

The Internet, artificial intelligence, these high-tech always give us an illusion, innovation is very light, wealth like alchemy's magic as from nothing, but in fact it can not be separated from the support of the material entity, the fact that it actually covers up some inequality. These two days read "Fulfilling orders: Everything and Nothing touched on a topic I had never thought about before, and I was struck by the fact that everything we do on the Internet today -- texting, shopping online, streaming music and movies, and in the near future, jumping into the digital world with Vision Pro headsets -- all rely on huge servers. These servers are located in huge data centers that create few jobs (20 engineers and technicians are needed to operate a data center that covers more than 200,000 square feet) but require a lot of electricity and water to run and cool the machines.

In 2018, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Facebook spent a combined $77 billion on capital expenditures, mostly to build and maintain data centers. Many machines last only a few years, meaning that the boom in data centre construction is accompanied by a lot of waste. At the same time, much of the energy needed to operate data centers comes from non-renewable sources, such as coal. Only 12 percent of the energy consumed in Amazon's data centers comes from renewable energy, which is behind Microsoft and Facebook but ahead of Google. Nationwide, for every $1 billion spent to build a data center, $7 billion in electricity is consumed over 20 years.

Even more surprising is that Jeff Bezos is quite dismissive of energy consumption - he is, according to the author, a dyed-in free-marketeer with no regard for "corporate social responsibility" - in his view, the Earth will run out of energy sooner or later, which is why we need to go to the moon. And if that ever happens, guess who gets a pass to the moon?

Xu Luqing: It reminds me that when ChatGPT4 was first launched, The Times published a story investigating the situation of low-wage workers behind OpenAl. To ensure that the final output of ChatGPT is standardized and civilized, a large number of artificial training AI is required, and they are generally outsourced workers with low pay and lack of security. According to the report, OpenAl hired tens of thousands of Kenyan contractors at $1.32 an hour to review the content, and many of the workers developed PTSD, depression, anxiety and other psychological problems, insomnia and nightmares as a result of their prolonged exposure to the shocking filthiness.

In the wave of AI development, many people worry that AI will develop to exceed the level of human intelligence, but there is also a concern about the abuse of mediocre artificial intelligence. If the conclusions or effects of mediocre artificial intelligence are not only not doubted, but also over-referenced in policy making, it may cause a lot of unfair consequences.

Virginia Eubanks, an American political scientist, wrote in Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor examines how the spread of AI technology could exacerbate existing poverty and injustice, and cases are happening around the world. Police departments in the United States, for example, will use predictive analytics software to patrol and search low-income neighborhoods more frequently. If ChatGPT is used as a decision-making information source, will it exacerbate existing systemic injustices and cause greater harm to the vulnerable groups in society?

AI and the Ethics of Love: Can technology alleviate loneliness?

Dong Ziqi: Recently, I saw the news that Internet celebrities at home and abroad made their own images, friend circles, and voice into AI and sold them to dating apps. Through the customized service, users can treat the influencer as their girlfriend, chat with her, share their observations, ask her for advice, and browse her social status. Some people say that this is the real version of the movie "HER", you can fall into sincere pure love with her, listen to her say love you with a sexy voice. Still, while engaging with you, she will also be saying "I love you" to thousands of paying men. Does this really alleviate loneliness? Is there any purity in mass-copied love? Maybe it's like the song says, "Love a person without a brain, just take what you need."

On the dark side of artificial intelligence transformation, think of George Sanders a thriller novel "Semplica girl", the beginning of the story has a suspense, many people want to install SG in the courtyard, and regard it as a symbol of wealth, but the novel does not explain what SG is, and later revealed that SG is the abbreviation of Semplica girl. They are poor girls smuggled from backward countries, and after a makeover, they can be used as decorations in the gardens of the rich, swaying gently in the wind. The ethics of AI modification have been presented in many works, such as the modified animal series in Guardians of the Galaxy 3 - intelligent raccoons, wheeled walruses, and minions - and the game Detroit Transformation, which features weaponized, mutilated humans that can only be held in prison. When the picture is aimed at them, I can't help but feel a strong sense of discomfort.

Raccoons in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Photo credit: Douban Film

Pan Wenjie: What Zi Qi said about using other people's AI voice is a little similar to fan creation? Fan creation is also pointed out that it may be illegal, for example, Jiangnan wrote "The Boy Here" was prosecuted by Jin Yong, mainly because of the high sales after the listing, there are great economic interests. If someone uses Stefanie Sun's AI voice to sell money, I think it may have to consider the legal issues.

But what about ordinary people's enclosure? When my CP was used by someone else to create a chorus with AI sounds, I just felt happy and applauded. If there is no competition with the original owner, is there no big problem? Moreover, now the top AI synthetic sound on the market, high-tech traces still exist, can not avoid professional voice recognition technology to fake the real, so even if AI does something that should not be done, it will still be caught.

Yin Qinglu: I think there is a problem of scale. Taking artificial intelligence CP chorus is harmless emotional comfort, but AI girlfriend touches the subjectivity, your belief in love will also face collapse. Another example is the use of AI to resurrect loved ones, which seems to bring salvation, but is this salvation too false and harmful? Ken Liu's novels explore this theme. It is also like the dynamic photo of the little girls sitting around blowing birthday candles in the Apple Vision Pro promotional film, which reminds me of Dr. Anna Sterling, the designer of replicator memory in Blade Runner 2049. She can construct flowers and trees and even beautiful snow, and also replicates the memory of blowing birthday candles. It looked very touching, but Anna had to be trapped in a sterile quarantine because she was ill. So it begs the question: Is it really worth it?