The graphic for Addrienne LaFrance’s Atlantic article.
Below is a 3:48 highlights VIDEO of a recent trip my wife and I took to Cabo San Lucas, specifically to watch whales. We were not disappointed. But aside from the Video, this commentary isn’t really about whales. It’s my take on Adrienne LaFrance’s article in the July/August 2023 Atlantic titled “In Defense of Humanity.” As the subheading says, “We need a cultural and philosophical movement to meet the rise of artificial superintelligence.” It’s more nuanced and sophisticated than my summary, so I’d urge you to read it for yourself. It’s not long. It amounts to four points from which a possible ethics for the age of AI could arise. Whales are an illustration of Point Four below.
1. TRANSPARENCY:If you’ve used AI to create anything, just tell us you did. Writers like Ayad Akhtar, who won a 2013 Pulitzer for his play Disgraced, are already openly making AI a part of their writing process, as are many visual artists. As a former writing professor, I would just ask students if they used AI and have them describe their process of using it at the end of their papers. A law or an ethic of transparency would do much to warn consumers about AI-generated pictures purporting to be of someone doing this or that, including posing naked. Short of banning such pictures or hunting down and prosecuting each offender—which would be the best solution, of course—a statement saying something like “AI was used to generate this image,” or “this sound,” would give consumers important information and afford victims some semblance of protection from the beginning. This point is related to Point Three below.
2. PERSONAL CONNECTION: How convenient to meet on Zoom. Yet this should not take away from meeting in person, face-to-face. Live, personal contact should be seen as a necessity. This point is related to Point Four below.
3. PRIVACY: LeFrance says, “privacy is the key to preserving our humanity.” On a personal level, this means learning that you don’t have to share everything you’ve ever done or thought. This calls for a measure of modesty, a growing sense of your inner vs. public self, and for a careful drawing of lines that will protect you and those closest to you from outside intrusion.
4. PERSONAL WITNESSING:Whenever possible, go see things for yourself and through your own eyes. Do not rely on a virtual reality tour of Rome, but go there yourself. Which brings me back to the Video below. How long I’ve wanted to actually see whales in the wild. I watched films, including one of my oldest son’s family going whale watching in kayaks and having a humpback surface no more than 10 feet from them. So during one of the coldest days in 2025’s Chicagoland winter, we were able to fly off to Cabo San Lucas and experience what the Video below shows. What a privilege. And how privileged was I. Not everyone can do that, or actually step onto Vatican Square in Rome, as I was also able to do many years ago, but the more you can see with, and through, your own eyes, with no intervening technology, the better. Actually see your neighborhood, your backyard, the people closest to you, and even those who are strangers.
For the Video below, I tried very hard not to watch through the lens of my phone’s camera, but just point the phone in the general direction I was looking. I was thrilled that I managed to capture a lot of what I saw with my own eyes. There were the breaches, the waving fins, the lifted tails gliding gracefully back down under the water, the simple arching of the backs so close to us. Most of all, as we headed back to dock, the captain of our little rubber boat spotted a mother whale teaching her calf to slap its tail down, smacking the water to say, Hello, I’m Here to other whales, or to say, Stay Away to predators, as well as a host of other essential things. The calf tried but was only weakly successful at first. It also breached instead of showing the mother he was trying to master the lesson. The mother seemed to remain unimpressed by this and continued smacking her tail down with both grace and splashiness until the calf caught on and smacked his tail. It was far less graceful, far less splashy, but soon they both swam off with a lesson just beginning to be learned.
Whales, and An Ethic for the Age of AI
The graphic for Addrienne LaFrance’s Atlantic article.
Below is a 3:48 highlights VIDEO of a recent trip my wife and I took to Cabo San Lucas, specifically to watch whales. We were not disappointed. But aside from the Video, this commentary isn’t really about whales. It’s my take on Adrienne LaFrance’s article in the July/August 2023 Atlantic titled “In Defense of Humanity.” As the subheading says, “We need a cultural and philosophical movement to meet the rise of artificial superintelligence.” It’s more nuanced and sophisticated than my summary, so I’d urge you to read it for yourself. It’s not long. It amounts to four points from which a possible ethics for the age of AI could arise. Whales are an illustration of Point Four below.
1. TRANSPARENCY: If you’ve used AI to create anything, just tell us you did. Writers like Ayad Akhtar, who won a 2013 Pulitzer for his play Disgraced, are already openly making AI a part of their writing process, as are many visual artists. As a former writing professor, I would just ask students if they used AI and have them describe their process of using it at the end of their papers. A law or an ethic of transparency would do much to warn consumers about AI-generated pictures purporting to be of someone doing this or that, including posing naked. Short of banning such pictures or hunting down and prosecuting each offender—which would be the best solution, of course—a statement saying something like “AI was used to generate this image,” or “this sound,” would give consumers important information and afford victims some semblance of protection from the beginning. This point is related to Point Three below.
2. PERSONAL CONNECTION: How convenient to meet on Zoom. Yet this should not take away from meeting in person, face-to-face. Live, personal contact should be seen as a necessity. This point is related to Point Four below.
3. PRIVACY: LeFrance says, “privacy is the key to preserving our humanity.” On a personal level, this means learning that you don’t have to share everything you’ve ever done or thought. This calls for a measure of modesty, a growing sense of your inner vs. public self, and for a careful drawing of lines that will protect you and those closest to you from outside intrusion.
4. PERSONAL WITNESSING: Whenever possible, go see things for yourself and through your own eyes. Do not rely on a virtual reality tour of Rome, but go there yourself. Which brings me back to the Video below. How long I’ve wanted to actually see whales in the wild. I watched films, including one of my oldest son’s family going whale watching in kayaks and having a humpback surface no more than 10 feet from them. So during one of the coldest days in 2025’s Chicagoland winter, we were able to fly off to Cabo San Lucas and experience what the Video below shows. What a privilege. And how privileged was I. Not everyone can do that, or actually step onto Vatican Square in Rome, as I was also able to do many years ago, but the more you can see with, and through, your own eyes, with no intervening technology, the better. Actually see your neighborhood, your backyard, the people closest to you, and even those who are strangers.