Humans are endlessly curious about humans. Our fascination with AI is not unlike when we encounter someone who can speak our language but with variations in word construction and phrasing. Like when we experience what seem to be exotic ways people live their lives as we travel beyond our familiar landscapes.
That experience is not the same as encountering artificial intelligence.
All people originate from their own multifaceted cultures and possess their own ways of thinking and knowing.
Conversely, artificial intelligence comes from us. There is no Other in the machine. AI presents us with shuffled digital bits of humanity. Though it appears authoritative even when offering hallucinations, this presentation is itself a reflection of our own human expectations of a computer.
The phenomenon is like seeing ourselves in a distorted mirror and playing with that distortion.
We humans are intrigued by pattern alterations of our realities. That intrigue can spawn an expanded perspective of ourselves. But AI, the thing itself, is not creative. AI is a magnificent toy.
In the future AI will still be a reflection of ourselves. But it's greater autonomy might make the distinction between non-AI reality and AI reflection even more confusing.