SPECIAL DISH: AI compared to a Costa Rican road trip
Musings on the state of Artificial Intelligence - Part 1
My apologies for the delay in the publication of Two Tuesday Tidbits but I’m on vacation: a driving tour through much of Costa Rica. I had it well planned with every stop orchestrated in advance. Like so many driving trips the unexpected can and does happen. Consequently I had less time peering into my iPad and more time driving, experiencing whole new things. I had partially written a long editorial about AI on the plane (it will be Part 2 on Monday), but I changed my mind. I decided instead to compare our society’s AI tour with travelling by car in Costa Rica.
I come by my love of long road trips from my dad. Starting in the late 1950s until 1970, he took our family away once or twice each year on long car tours - 4 weeks or more - across the West (Canada and the United States, when the latter country was a trusted friend not a backstabbing trumped up used car salesman, but I digress). In those days, cars were more temperamental. There were almost no divided highways, roads were windy and precarious, with frequent stops during the summer for construction, or Airstream trailer tailbacks. It was more hazardous yet also exciting. You never really knew how far you’d get or where you would stay. Choosing a motel at the end of a 7 or 8 hour driving day was one of the daily highlights for my sister and I. Of course, it had to have a swimming pool.
My dad was an outstanding driver, exhibiting all the common sense skills that years later would be called defensive driving. He understood the precarious nature of the roads, and of other drivers. This was an era when you were alert the whole time that you were on the road, not switching off while in a semi autonomous driving vehicle that automatically traverses well mapped roads while you scroll on your smart phone.
You also had to do lots of what we now would consider rule breaking behaviours to navigate around various obstructions and obstacles. There were always detours and unexpected diversions. Today, on the little island where I live people will not cross the white line to go around cyclists despite the road being straight with no oncoming traffic.
When I was 13, my father started teaching me to drive. He was a great instructor, patient with me, but he allowed me freedom to drive myself, with him sitting (mostly relaxed) in the passenger seat. His two greatest lessons were to treat every other driver as an unknown, and possibly dangerous difficulty, and that driving a car was like using a weapon: it could cause great damage if you got into an accident, so drive to not have one. Now those were the days when cars are actually made of real metal but you get the point.
Costa Rica Travel Notes: A short break in the essay to relate small things we have been doing
We watched dozens of little ants each carrying a huge flower umbrella scurrying home before a storm
We sat listening to a torrential tropical rain storm beat on our deck roof, sensing the immediate change of scent in the garden
We listened to the raucous sounds of a scarlet macaw couple (they are monogamous and mate for life) having a squabble before flying off in front of us
That’s what it’s like in Costa Rica: driving in Canada and the Western United States in the 1960s. The road conditions are highly variable, there’s construction everywhere that slows you down, and you never quite know how many other cars you’re going to encounter on the road. Somehow though all of the drivers are courteous and drive with common sense. For the most part they follow the speed limit, maximum is 80 km per hour (50 mph). The odd speeder who tailgates you before passing wildly is almost always a wealthy gringo who doesn’t slow down, even on vacation.
So consequently I got behind schedule with my writing. The second day’s journey was took much longer than we had anticipated. But when we had to make a change in our accommodation because it wasn’t very good, we decided to do what we’ve done in the past, to venture on the back roads and remote areas of Costa Rica, picking up accommodation wherever. The same way my family did in the 1960s.
What’s all that’s got to do with AI you ask. It is my contention that using AI is like driving on the roads of Costa Rica in 2025 (or America in the 60s), not like the 600 Waymo vans in Chandler, Arizona where most things are heavily controlled. But we act like it’s the latter. First error: in 1962 we actually understood the engine-powered vehicle we were using. AI is a complete black box for everyone except a small research elite. For instance, why do the various AI models lie (they aren’t peyote hallucinations people) and cheat? The next time some smartass smugly says LLMs are great, ask them to compare and contrast them to small language models. Huh will be the answer. (Yes there are SLMs).
The second error is that we are driving our AI without the necessary caution and attention that must paid on the roads of Costa Rica. We are all speeding recklessly, not paying any attention to the road conditions, other drivers, or our own safety. Common sense is highly uncommon when it comes to AI.
There is a highway in Costa Rica known as “Cerro de la Muerte” or “Mountain of Death”. My wife will not let me drive on it. It earns its name from history. Before the construction of the Pan-American Highway, travelers had to cross this mountain on foot or by horseback, facing harsh conditions like extreme cold, rain, and dangerous wildlife, leading to many fatalities. Although the road is now paved, it remains hazardous due to steep curves, fog, landslides, and reckless driving. I’m afraid as a society we are overlooking my wife’s prudence and my father’s driving caution to thoughtlessly push ourselves to the technology equivalent of this dangerous crossing. It is like we have purposely lost all control of our cars, without clearly understanding where we are.
See you on Monday if the roads and wifi are willing. Toss me a comment or a share to keep me going.
Your Costa Rica driving analogy nails what's wrong with our AI approach. We're treating black box systems like well mapped highways when they're actually unpredictable mountain roads.
Modern AI discussions talks about guardrails while ignoring that intelligence requires flexibility to handle the unexpected. I love your example of crossing the white line to pass a cyclist.
It's precisely what AI systems struggle with - safe judgment in context.
I hope you enjoy your weekend David.