AI without regulation is a ticking time bomb not just from the threat of misuse of the technology but equally important is that it is stripping us from our humanity as thinkers, discoverers and ultimately shapers of our own future. It turns us to robots expected to fill a tailored role for us to follow rather than helping develop our own experiences/skillsets and that of others. The question cannot be purely about what we want to achieve but rather how we go about achieving it while maintaining our own humanity even if it means there will be a drag on efficiency in the process. There are certainly areas where AI is crucial as a technology but there has to be clear red lines/guidelines to ensure its application makes sense. This leads me a personal short story that happened to me today while driving and as I sometimes do I turned on the cars cruise-control. For some reason this time it made me think about AI and how we’re slowly giving up control to automation, so I decided to switch it off a minute later. Similarly in my own profession as a nature/wildlife photographer I’m slowly minimizing my gear and photography style in relying mainly on basic gear and manual settings because as I mention in my blog this approach streamlines my workflow and generates more natural looking photos. I choose to think of all this NOT as a style or a reactionary approach towards AI threats but more of a philosophy in the way I choose to live my own life in a way that preserves my own sense of humanity. Hope that makes sense; sure these small actions signal a small step but lets see how far this new approach takes me.