The five stages of AI grief

Cambridge — In her groundbreaking work, psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross outlined five stages of grief that people often experience when faced with a terminal diagnosis: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. It seems that many of us are now undergoing a similar emotional journey as artificial intelligence (AI) continues to advance at an unprecedented pace.

At first, AI seemed like just a sophisticated search engine or a chatbot capable of simulating human-like conversations. Consequently, it was relatively easy for many to dismiss the potential impact of this technology on our lives and professions.

However, as AI became more pervasive and began to make appearances in various aspects of our lives, frustration began to set in. The technology started showing up in lawyers' briefs with fabricated case references, in software code containing errors and security vulnerabilities, and in customer-service bots that deviated from their scripted responses. For academics such as myself, the emergence of AI-generated student essays and assignments added an additional layer of irritation.

Yet, as AI continued to improve, a curious transformation began to occur. The frequency of fabrications, hallucinations, and mistakes associated with AI began to diminish. It became increasingly apparent that the technology was becoming more reliable and accurate in its outputs.