Where are we going, and why are we doing this? – is the question that comes to mind when I think about big tech these days. Usually there is a “f***” in there too. Why the F are we doing this? Why, as a society, are we choosing this? What in the world is going on?
Lately, I have become very anti-tech. Which is weird, given that I am a computer scientist. Or, perhaps, I have always been this way. When smartphones first came out, I felt a sense of dread. I noted the loss of time that we spent contemplating life, gazing out the window on a long bus ride. I noted the time we would no longer be alone with our wandering thoughts, to daydream, or merely just to be. I noted how we would never be bored again. The promise of entertainment always one swipe away. While my friends in Zurich complained about my lack of technology adoption – “But, you’re in computer science!!! Get a better phone!! Your texts are terrible!!”, I’d shrug. Of course my texts are bad. I have to press a button three times for a single letter. Deal with it.
Alas, my resistance ended in 2020. The first reason for my downfall, was a desire to see my hospitalized grandmother over videoconference during COVID-19. Before, I could merely go to my parent’s house and call her with my mom. But, during the pandemic, installing WeChat was the only option, forcing me to get a mobile number to link it with. The second reason, was to use a carshare service. While we are grateful to have saved numerous CO2 emissions from using CommuneAuto, without mobile data and thus a smartphone, I could not unlock a car.
In 2026, I am looking into sustainable “dumb” phones again.
And now, AI.
When prospective students write me, I have no idea if I am reading their words or that of AI’s. When I review papers, I must declare that I did not use AI to write my review, which made me realize, yikes, I guess people do that for peer-reviews of academic manuscripts, even in top-tier venues. When I teach an intro to computer science course, I find myself in discussions about how we should be teaching non-majors how to use AI in parallel to learning the most basic foundations of coding, as I am told they will likely be coding with AI as a collaborator in future jobs. I am dumbstruck during office hours by the questions I get from students who possess an easy confidence, even as they inadvertently share all of their misassumptions and incorrect strategies, revealing that they do not fundamentally get how to program. The other day, I interviewed a research participant, complimenting them on their Zoom background of a lively social scene, hoping it would build rapport before we got into the interview. I was surprised when they said the image – depicting nuanced social interactions among various groups of people – was AI-generated. As I’m writing this post, I wonder if I should put my content behind a subscription or paywall, so it isn’t scraped, summarized, and plagiarized by AI models without my consent.
I do not know the future of computer science. I do not know why we are blindly sprinting towards a future that we have put so little thought and intention in. I do not understand this race that we’re in. I do not know why we avoid the hard conversations and unanswerable questions. In a previous post, I wrote about how the AI revolution was “inevitable”.
Is it? I disagree with my own words.
