“Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given to you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”

-Rainer Maria Rilke

This is a publication about the questions that humans face in the advent of artificial intelligence. 

For as long as our species has existed, we’ve traveled through time in lockstep with technological innovation — from fire to the wheel to automative vehicles to the internet, we intuitively invent that which catalyzes us into new ways of being.

The development and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) is one such catalyst. AI will catapult us into a new future once again, and yet this time — it feels different. For the first time, humans are creating a new form of intelligence that may already be sentient, exploring “artificial consciousness” and pushing to achieve artificial generative intelligence (AGI) — a type of AI that can accomplish any cognitive task as well as or better than humans.

There is so much good to come from this innovation. AI is already drastically minimizing time spent on mundane tasks; it’s assisting us in devising new cures for previously incurable diseases. Its applications can improve quality of life for the disabled, predict the path of wildfires, and fuel our understanding of the secrets of the universe. 

But as we solve these incredibly important problems, we are creating new ones. ChatGPT saves you time on your essay because it was trained on the copyrighted work of others without their consent. Teenage girls are being targeted by classmates with highly realistic nude deepfakes made in their likeness. Widespread access to AI tools means bad actors could more easily manipulate biological weapons. And while AI may help us to reduce the effects of climate change, training and using these models gobbles vast amounts of energy and depletes natural resources. Policymakers are working to combat and control some of these issues, but highly misaligned incentives and the exponential speed of AI advancement makes containing these effects difficult.

We’re in a time of great uncertainty, one that begs an endless slew of questions: in the AI age, what will we work on if AI can do the work for us? Where will we find fulfillment? How can we both augment and preserve human creativity? Will we protect the most vulnerable members of society during a transition that is being thrust upon them?

RemAIning Human is a Substack that explores such nuanced questions in a spirit of balance and openness.

It is a space that examines the current events, ethical dilemmas and philosophical questions faced by humans as we birth this new form of intelligence that rivals our own.

It seeks to understand the question of how we might create human-centered artificial intelligence to augment that which makes us beautifully human — our capacity for empathy, creativity, awe, interconnectedness, stories, spiritual inquiry — while ensuring it does not amplify our greed, ignite geopolitical conflict, increase inequality and cement our siloes. In doing so, it explores the question of how we might remain human in the face of unprecedented technological change.

And it strives to do so in simple terms. AI will impact every human, regardless of technical proficiency, and thus my goal is to demystify jargon, make AI palatable and equip readers with knowledge around topics that can feel both exciting and daunting.

What will be covered?

I’ll share what I learn and observe as a journalist and AI Ethicist living and working in San Francisco, the epicenter of global AI innovation. Example areas of exploration include:

• Job disruption, displacement and the future of work

• AI’s augmentation of and impact on human creativity

• AI and children: education, parenting, and protecting children from harm

• Creating safe, values-based and ethical AI for all

• AI’s impacts on climate change

• Human-centered AI companies striving to positively impact humanity

• AI and spirituality: Singularity, sentience and artificial consciousness

• Essential information about AI current events

• Many, many more!

What can I expect?

• In depth weekly essays written with input from AI thought leaders

• What you need to know: monthly AI current events round-up

• Letters to a young LLM: a monthly series written in the style of Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet in which I’ll advise a “young AI” on what the delicate nature of what it truly means to be human.

This is a publication about questions. As poet Rainer Maria Rilke expresses above, in times of uncertainty, we often “without noticing it, live some distant day into the answer.” Within the context of AI, however, we must notice. We must act with proactivity, rather than passivity. We must hold AI companies and policymakers to account to create and control technology so that it does no harm. Because soon, the “distant day” that Rilke mentions will be upon us. We will have lived our way into the answers.

And it is up to all of us — right now, in this very moment — to urgently craft what kind of answers we want to find. 

Thank you for being here. 

In an age where attention is currency, I appreciate your engagement with my work! I promise to reciprocate by creating what feels supportive and educational during this transition.

My writing is currently free, but if you have the means, I’d be grateful if you’d consider becoming a paying subscriber (one month’s subscriptions is about the price of an oat milk latte!). Each essay requires hours of work and research, and every bit of support helps me to continue creating quality content.

I’m a writer, journalist and AI Ethicist based in San Francisco, California. I’m passionate about creating a new relationship between humans and technology in which we live in  harmony with technology, rather than at the mercy of it. I strive to do so through my writing, retreats, and my work at The Misalignment Museum — an SF-based nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness about artificial intelligence and driving discourse about ethical AI development.

For questions, comments and inquiries, simply DM me on Substack or email me at Cecilia@ceciliacallas.com. 

More about the me, if you’re still with me:

I was raised not knowing the difference between fact and fiction, in a place where ideas were as tangible as hard currency—the Silicon Valley.

This environment fundamentally shaped me as a budding writer and creative. One one hand, growing up in the backyard of Apple demonstrated to me the potential of a singular idea to catalyze our collective storyline—a belief that encouraged me to put my imaginings down on paper. But after watching my hometown unleash new and unpredictable forms of technology into vulnerable communities, I also internalized an ethical responsibility to write about the effects of technology on humanity.

I’ve been passionate about this cause since my days as a Journalism student at the University of Southern California, where I wrote a weekly technology column. After college, I took a job at a leading Fortune 500 tech company where I hoped to build technology that genuinely improved the lives of others. I worked in tech for eight years—a career that enabled me to travel the world and live in Australia and in the UK—all the while gaining a deep understanding of the inner workings of the tech industry. 

Now, I use that perspective to write about technology and global culture—specifically, about the intersection of artificial intelligence with culture, creativity, spirituality, politics and more. When I’m not writing, I lead workshops and retreats that strive to help others to improve their relationship to technology and create a deeper connection to the self through workshops and spiritual modalities.