The Design Fiction artifact explores the implications of AI on mental health and the potential need for interventions in an increasingly AI-driven world.
Dissonance Induced Cognitive Distortion is a design fiction artifact I put in the “
Applied Intelligence” newspaper from an AI Future.
I've been wondering about how my use of AI could result in a sense of dissonance as regards the usual assortment of topics and issues that has people mostly wondering, sometimes studying the phenomenon of a sense of disconnection from reality, whatever that is (or was.)
The artifact itself is itself something that has come back from some possible/probable future where people experience cognitive dissonance from heavy use of agentic intelligences. What sorts of treatments might obtain from what sorts of treatment facilities, companies, charismatics ('take a apple vinegar tonic', 'come to our fancy retreat near Big Sur'). What will Big Pharma offer in terms of medications to (allegedly/hopefully) help manage these symptoms?
The feeling of dissonance may be this sense that the world is not as it seems in some way instigated or certainly not helped by generative AI, particularly in the visual realm with image and video generation, but also certainly with the dialoging character of things like ChatGPT and the like. This makes it such that things we see and hear are not quite right, or that our own thoughts and feelings are somehow out of sync with reality.
To be clear, I'm not suggesting that I'm anti-AI or something, although there are plenty of reasons to be concerned about and open conversations about the implications of AI in our lives. What I do with these artifacts is to create a little McGuffin that can be used to explore the implications of AI in our lives, and how it might affect our mental health and well-being. The artifact is a way to start a conversation about the potential risks and benefits of AI, and how we can navigate this new landscape in a way that is healthy and sustainable.