Thoughts on the Cartographer’s Role in an AI Future

A few moments ago I was asked by a student about the “development of cartography over the next 10 years.” Here’s my somewhat off-the-cuff response, though my thoughts have been steeping in this for the past year or so.

In the next 10 years artificial intelligence, and probably artificial general intelligence, will have an unpredictable influence on nearly every aspect of our lives, and this includes the field of cartography. It will, however, still be important to command spatial, visual, and communication concepts such that humans have an understanding of, and insight into (and control/direction of), the output of AI systems. If we cede intellectual volition to AI, we will become blind consumers rather than partners with a new technology. Pulled, rather than pushing. Humans have a creative dimension that cannot be matched by non-human intelligence, even if we have to invent a new concept of “human creativity” and rely on that definition. While AI consumes the result of human creativity (in writing and art, so far) its output is a derivative product. We still ought to be the source of that initial, root-level, making -partners (or a raw material to put it more bluntly) in the creative process. There is a role for us, if we advocate for it and produce things that aren’t likely to roll out of an AI’s responses. Surprise, innovation, lateral thinking, unexpected connections, and love.

Cartography encompasses a broad range of disciplines, from statistics to artistic expression to visual design. A cartographer’s work is largely a collection of judgement calls, compromises, and intuition. It is in that alchemy that we cartographers can bring novel perspective and insight and create value…and a future. Analysts who require precedent and avoid hard choices and uncertainty will find themselves with fewer tasks. Creatives who replicate design as a rote library will grow marginalized by non-human competition. Our future is in creative and unexpected thought, and invention. Experimentation, whims, expressions, followed-up hunches. And a knowledge of best practice such that we retain corrective judgement and agency, if there’s a chance to act on it.