The nonprofit Center for Humane Technology launched a campaign debuting Monday morning in the New York City subway system. Running for a month in numerous stations and cars, and featuring social media influencers, the campaign uses the slogan "Stop the AI drift." Ads present scenarios like "You won't tell your therapist. But you'll tell AI?" and "Did your kid write that essay? Or was it AI?" The effort seeks to help people name their uneasy feelings about outsourcing to artificial intelligence. It invites them to reconsider using AI for quintessentially human tasks and endeavors.
Camille Carlton, senior director of strategy and impact at the nonprofit, defines AI drift as the gradual erosion of human abilities as AI takes on more of our daily lives. She explained that when people increasingly use AI to think, communicate, create, and act on their behalf, a cost emerges. What is lost includes skills, relationships, and the meaning that gives lives purpose. The term "AI drift" is a play on "model drift."