AI’s uncanny valley
Summary
The article explains the concept of the uncanny valley as it applies to AI, describing how AI-generated outputs often feel off or not quite human yet. It highlights this as a transitional phase before AI becomes seamless and indistinguishable from human work. For Salesforce teams, this insight encourages preparing for increasingly advanced AI integration while considering the impact on human roles and processes.
Takeaways
- AI is currently in a transitional phase producing imperfect human-like outputs.
- Expect AI-generated content and solutions to soon be indistinguishable from human ones.
- Preparing for AI’s evolution will help leverage its benefits in business workflows.
- The rise of AI challenges us to define what uniquely makes us human in tech adoption.
- Understanding AI’s uncanny valley can inform more thoughtful AI implementation strategies.
The uncanny valley is the uneasy feeling you get when you look at something that’s not quite human. That is, it almost looks human, but something is off. If something isn’t meant to look human, then we quickly classify it as non-human. And if something looks perfectly human, then we classify it as human. The gap between these two is the uncanny valley. For example, we already built robots that look non-human. Soon we’ll go through an awkward part because we won’t be able to create a robot that looks exactly like a human. However as technology progresses, we’ll eventually reach the other side. I believe we are currently experiencing AI’s uncanny valley. Today, AI produces things that feel off. It’s not quite human-like yet. But this is just a moment of transition. I believe it won’t be long before we really won’t know who or what produced something. The question then becomes, what happens then? The takeaway I believe AI will help us define our humanity.