When I first registered for the class “Literature: Octavia Butler & AI,” I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Obviously, we’d be discussing and reading things related to these two topics, however, I could have never imagined the way that it could change the way I think to make these two topics similar and cohesive. I wasn’t familiar with any of Octavia Butler’s work before this class (except for Bloodchild, which we read in African American literature), and I knew that she wrote science-fiction. I had some general knowledge about AI technologies and tools, like ChatGPT and Snapchat AI, but I was really not expecting that there would be so much to learn about AI. For an extreme example, I didn’t know that AI chatbots were capable of forming such strong and influential emotional connections with children, in one case, a chatbot successfully encouraged a teenage boy to commit suicide. Before stepping into the classroom, I was able to make one connection between the two: the one Butler story I had read featured an alien species; and we can also use the word alien to describe AI, since it is such a new concept to so many of us. So maybe this trilogy will feature some sort of alien AI bots? Or aliens that use some kind of AI technology? Although these didn’t actually end up coming true in Butler’s trilogy, they’re still not completely untrue to the story.
Earlier in the semester when we wrote our AI inspire essays, we wrote about the aspects of AI technology that seem inspiring or beneficial to us. My essay leaned more into the discussion about how anybody can utilize AI to help them to complete everyday tasks, like students in their schoolwork, or professionals at their jobs. I talked a little about how I sometimes use AI as a tool to help me with my homework/assignments. As an English major, I have to read a lot of content, and I don’t always have the time or energy to completely comprehend a difficult or lengthy text, so sometimes I’ll ask ChatGPT to summarize it for me so that I feel a little more comfortable working with it. As I discussed in my AI inspire essay, there are lots of benefits and conveniences that come with the use of AI, however, throughout our course content and discussions this semester, we have highlighted many of the ways that AI can be misused and actually cause an immense amount of harm.
One example of the troubles surrounding the use of AI has to do with students and using AI as a cheating tool. As a current college student who occasionally uses ChatGPT to assist me in assignments, I have also witnessed some abuses of AI technologies by other students to complete homework assignments. I am not saying this in a way to make myself sound better compared to my peers, but I think it’s an important thing to recognize. I’ve noticed that my peers in STEM fields use ChatGPT much more than my peers in the arts or humanities. To give an example, some of my peers in STEM will have a long list of math problems for homework some nights, and they can ask ChatGPT to solve all the questions for them. In comparison with the assignments, I get as an English major, which mostly consists of writing assignments where I have to respond to some sort of text or media with an original interpretation or thought about it. I think it’s harder to use AI as a tool for cheating for students who are forced to think with more originality and creativity, such as those in the arts and humanities.
Another and more extreme example have to do with AI technologies taking on the biases of the humans who created them. Biases can also be instilled in AI technologies when they are trained with certain data sets. According to the article “Medical Algorithms Are Failing People Of Color” from the Health Affairs magazine, “Medical algorithms are expected to make quick, precise decisions that help providers diagnose and treat patients faster and more efficiently”. However, most medical AI tools are trained with a very un-diverse variety in genetic data, with a majority of the data representing white genetic data. The article describes the devastating effects these biased technologies have on people of color:
a 2019 study found that risk-prediction algorithms led to Black patients receiving less quality care than their non-Black counterparts. The algorithm used the patient’s previous health care spending to determine future risks and thus the need for extra care. Since Black Americans have one of the highest poverty rates in the US and have reduced access to services, they tend to spend less on healthcare.
Reading some sections out of Dr. Joy Buolamwini’s book, Unmasking AI, provided us with a very nuanced perspective of AI because it describes the care and hard work put into creating these technologies by coders, but it also highlights the problem of biases in AI. In the chapters we read from this book, we learn about the Olay campaign that Dr. Buolamwini worked on, which highlights a case where an AI technology is proved to be acting with a bias. When Dr. Buolamwini confronts Olay about the bias they found in the technology, she is surprised when they decide to drop the project completely if they’re unable to make the technology fair to all who would use it.
Last but not least, and probably the most relevant problem today, is the environmental impacts of these technologies. With the rate that climate change has been escalating at in the recent years, it is especially important that we are not making even more significant damage to the planet. For example, a simple search on an AI site like ChatGPT requires 500 milliliters (or 0.13 gallons) of water, but people who are using ChatGPT are normally searching multiple things, and wanting the program to complete longer, more energy-consuming tasks for them as well.
When we wrote our Butler trouble essays, we discussed the troubling implications of the Oankali’s relationship with the humans, specifically, I focused on the problem that arises with the concept of consent being blurred. However, at the time of the semester when we wrote these, we had only read the first book in Butler’s trilogy. After completing all three books, there definitely have been more troublesome moments, but there have also been a lot of examples of how the Oankali portray positive and inspiring ways of living. I noticed that as we moved through this series, my thinkING around the Oankali changed in a few different ways.
I think Butler’s trilogy demonstrated a good representation of how vital connections with others are to our well beings and development. I think this is an especially important concept to highlight as American students, living in a world with westernized standards and norms, one of which being the encouragement of independence. Not to say that independence is bad, but a balance between independence and being/working/doing things with others is a necessity for all human beings. This trilogy highlights how maintaining each relationship in one’s life is vital to their wellbeing, but some relationships are more impactful than others, like mates for example, are necessary for an Oankali’s development to make connections with during the process of their metamorphosis.
Throughout Butler’s Xenogenesis Trilogy, we can observe how the Oankali/constructs become unhealthy and experience pain and distress when they are missing connections with others. More specifically, in Imago, we see how being unable to find any human mates affects Aaor while it is going through its metamorphosis. Jodahs describes how Aaor’s body is coping with the absence of mates: “In a way, then, Aaor’s body was trying to commit suicide. I had never heard of any carrier of the Oankali organism doing such a thing. We treasured life” (Imago 182). Because Aaor didn’t have any mates, his body started to shut down.
After an interaction with unfriendly humans, Aaor is shot, which is an injury any healthy Oankali can easily heal themselves from. But at this point in the novel, Aaor has found human mates and its state of health had improved significantly. Jodahs states in the text, “It was healthy, then. If we could keep its Humans alive, it would stay healthy” (Imago 223). If Aaor had not found mates for itself before this attack, it probably would not have survived being shot. This shows how much having relationships with mates impact the health and wellbeing of the Oankali because having mates gave Aaor the strength to heal itself from a deadly injury.
While Aaor experienced lots of pain from not having mates for so long after it began its metamorphosis, Oankali also experience pain when they are not within a certain proximity with their mates. For example, when Jodahs’ mates, Jesusa and Tomas, ran away from Lo to go home, Jodahs describes, “I began to feel loneliness as an almost physical pain. I hadn’t realized how much seeing Humans every few days had meant to me” (Imago 107). I think that humans often don’t have the same care for mental health versus physical health/they find physical health more important. By illustrating an emotionally traumatizing incident as a physically traumatizing one as well, it makes it easier for us to comprehend the weight of importance maintaining contact/relationships are because, as humans, we often downscale the impact of emotional trauma.
Overall, this course has completely shifted the way I think to create intersections between Octavia Butler’s trilogy and AI. What initially seemed to be the most random pairing ended up turning into a powerful lens for exploring both the benefits and dangers of unfamiliar technologies, abilities, and ideas. Through the Xenogenesis Trilogy, we learned about the deep importance of connection and consent—concepts that are just as relevant in conversations about AI ethics. At the same time, our discussions on AI revealed how bias, environmental harm, and emotional manipulation are very real issues that need urgent attention. This class not only expanded my understanding of Butler’s work and AI, but it also challenged me to think more critically about the the role technology plays in shaping our lives and relationships.