Neef Rehman - Machine Forgetting: Memory as Instruction & the Fallacy of Time

“The anthropomorphisation of AI is not the way to go. It is more interesting to look at how that impacts our interaction and perception of time.”

What does time look like for machines? Do machines understand time the way humans perceive it? And what happens when we rely on machines that have their own view of the world and on us? Neef Rehman discusses how the concept of time is unique to us and shaped by the people around us. But in an era of increasing interdependence, time as we know it — fluid, fallible and social — is challenged by generative, non-reliable agents that blur the past and the future. 

Machine Forgetting is a phenomenon that we need to remind ourselves more of, argues Neef. Why? As we rely on our extended network of technology and learned machines to remind us of memories or events, we must accept that these agents are not as shiny as they present themselves. They are messy, biased and will forget things — just like humans. So let’s not spend time feeling gaslit by these agents but radically accept that no one has certainty over memory.