Not everyone is excited about technology.

I am a technology enthusiast. I closely follow the new and innovative trends and technologies that will shape our future. Because of my job and my curiosity in the space, I forget that not everyone shares my optimism.

At a Christmas party the other night I was talking with a couple of friends, both intelligent people, one working in law and the other in medicine. We talked about autonomous vehicles and AI. I mentioned my excitement for self-driving and spoke to how many lives it might save by removing human error.

The blowback stunned me. One of them vehemently opposed the idea, claiming that computer code is still written by humans and those errors will still lead to deaths. I didn’t argue this fact but merely pointed out that even a reduction in vehicle-related deaths would be an improvement.

She didn’t budge.

When the concept shifted to artificial intelligence, the response — this time from the other friend — was equally opposed. His reasoning was how unfriendly it is to the environment. He pointed to the amount of fresh water that is consumed by AI use — both in electricity production and server cooling.

Although his numbers were skewed (I happen to work in the server cooling industry), he was correct that AI consumes incredible amounts of fresh water. AI is not the most environmentally friendly technology.

Without going off-course, I will save my next thoughts for a separate post.

My point here is that there are a lot of negative feelings towards emerging technology. This encounter was a humble reminder of that fact. I’ve spent so much time in this realm that I’ve become somewhat oblivious to how outsiders might feel.

Although my opinions haven’t changed, this was a necessary perspective shift. Taking a moment to step outside of the echo chamber has been a breath of fresh air.