CURIOSITY AND AI
By Larry Kilham
I have no special talent.
I am only passionately curious.
- Albert Einstein
By Larry Kilham
I have no special talent.
I am only passionately curious.
- Albert Einstein
Curiosity is a basic driver of human activity. Without it, our eyes are dim and we can become slaves of the media. With it, we can be driven to great creativity, discovery, and leadership. Life takes on new meaning and a sense of achievement. AI promises to give curiosity pursuits an extra boost.
I have spent my whole life following my curiosity wherever it leads. I still have curiosity but due to my advanced age of 82, I can't pursue the answers to my curiosity questions like I used to do. Just in time, I have discovered Generative AI or “AI GPT” (or did it discover me?). I have installed it on my computer and it has become my partner in researching and formulating my curiosities.
I think AI can help everyone and their curiosity projects, and I am especially interested in pursuing this further for applications to secondary school education. This could apply to STEM education and other courses such as biology and ecology.
When I was a child I asked questions like, “How does a simple radio work?” My parents and teachers would try to answer, and if they didn't know, they encouraged me to read books to find out more about electronics and radios. The library, however, was 3 miles away. We ordered a pamphlet “A Guide to Electronics: 10 Experiments You Can Do at Home!” That started my lifelong electronics career. Today, youth are seeking instant answers in greater detail and available on the smartphone.
I asked my AI GPT how to build a simple radio. In less than a minute it answered:
Building a crystal radio is a fun and educational project. Here are the steps to build a basic crystal radio:
Materials needed:
1. A diode: You can use a germanium diode, such as 1N34 or 1N60.
2. An earphone or a small speaker: This will be used to listen to the radio signals.
3. A variable capacitor: This will be used to tune the radio to different frequencies. You can salvage one from an old radio or buy a variable capacitor from an electronics store.
4. An antenna: A long wire, around 15-30 feet in length, will work as an antenna.
5. A ground connection: A wire connected to a metal rod or a water pipe can serve as a ground connection.
6. Connecting wires: To connect the components together.
Ten steps on getting the parts and assembling them into a working radio followed.
in the 1950s I successfully built a crystal radio using parts from junk radios, components I fabricated in my father’s shop, and ordering the crystal detector and headphones from a mail-order electronics store. Today, many students can find the components and tools necessary in their school's STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) lab.
Over several years, my curiosity about electronics became ever more passionate and I built my own electronics shop. I used it to develop my own receivers and transmitters for my amateur “ham” radio station. This led to a career based on electronics.
There are hundreds of lines of exploration where properly supported curiosity can guide the student into promising careers. AI makes this search for the answers so much more efficient and intelligent. As my AI GPT mentor in the Microsoft cloud said when I asked it about this:
Creating AI systems that can be curious in a meaningful and useful way is not a trivial task, as it involves balancing the trade-off between exploring unknown options and exploiting known rewards, as well as defining what constitutes interesting and relevant information for the AI agent.
AI for curiosity is a fascinating and challenging field of research, as it aims to emulate and augment one of the most distinctive and valuable aspects of human intelligence. However, AI for curiosity also poses some ethical and social issues, such as the potential impact of AI on human curiosity, the responsibility and accountability of AI agents, and the need for transparency and explainability of AI systems. Therefore, it is important to ensure that AI for curiosity is developed and used in a responsible and beneficial way, with respect for human values and dignity.
There you have it. And AI said it!
I will conclude by saying that AI will outperform humans in many areas, but to remain passionately curious about anything may be exclusively a human capability.
Additional Reading:
Mitchell, Melanie, Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans, Amazon, 2019
Comments from my book, Winter of the Genomes, click here
I have spent my whole life following my curiosity wherever it leads. I still have curiosity but due to my advanced age of 82, I can't pursue the answers to my curiosity questions like I used to do. Just in time, I have discovered Generative AI or “AI GPT” (or did it discover me?). I have installed it on my computer and it has become my partner in researching and formulating my curiosities.
I think AI can help everyone and their curiosity projects, and I am especially interested in pursuing this further for applications to secondary school education. This could apply to STEM education and other courses such as biology and ecology.
When I was a child I asked questions like, “How does a simple radio work?” My parents and teachers would try to answer, and if they didn't know, they encouraged me to read books to find out more about electronics and radios. The library, however, was 3 miles away. We ordered a pamphlet “A Guide to Electronics: 10 Experiments You Can Do at Home!” That started my lifelong electronics career. Today, youth are seeking instant answers in greater detail and available on the smartphone.
I asked my AI GPT how to build a simple radio. In less than a minute it answered:
Building a crystal radio is a fun and educational project. Here are the steps to build a basic crystal radio:
Materials needed:
1. A diode: You can use a germanium diode, such as 1N34 or 1N60.
2. An earphone or a small speaker: This will be used to listen to the radio signals.
3. A variable capacitor: This will be used to tune the radio to different frequencies. You can salvage one from an old radio or buy a variable capacitor from an electronics store.
4. An antenna: A long wire, around 15-30 feet in length, will work as an antenna.
5. A ground connection: A wire connected to a metal rod or a water pipe can serve as a ground connection.
6. Connecting wires: To connect the components together.
Ten steps on getting the parts and assembling them into a working radio followed.
in the 1950s I successfully built a crystal radio using parts from junk radios, components I fabricated in my father’s shop, and ordering the crystal detector and headphones from a mail-order electronics store. Today, many students can find the components and tools necessary in their school's STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) lab.
Over several years, my curiosity about electronics became ever more passionate and I built my own electronics shop. I used it to develop my own receivers and transmitters for my amateur “ham” radio station. This led to a career based on electronics.
There are hundreds of lines of exploration where properly supported curiosity can guide the student into promising careers. AI makes this search for the answers so much more efficient and intelligent. As my AI GPT mentor in the Microsoft cloud said when I asked it about this:
Creating AI systems that can be curious in a meaningful and useful way is not a trivial task, as it involves balancing the trade-off between exploring unknown options and exploiting known rewards, as well as defining what constitutes interesting and relevant information for the AI agent.
AI for curiosity is a fascinating and challenging field of research, as it aims to emulate and augment one of the most distinctive and valuable aspects of human intelligence. However, AI for curiosity also poses some ethical and social issues, such as the potential impact of AI on human curiosity, the responsibility and accountability of AI agents, and the need for transparency and explainability of AI systems. Therefore, it is important to ensure that AI for curiosity is developed and used in a responsible and beneficial way, with respect for human values and dignity.
There you have it. And AI said it!
I will conclude by saying that AI will outperform humans in many areas, but to remain passionately curious about anything may be exclusively a human capability.
Additional Reading:
Mitchell, Melanie, Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans, Amazon, 2019
Comments from my book, Winter of the Genomes, click here