AI is not coming FOR us, it is coming AT us
AI is a paradox. It can be seen both as an existential threat and a silver bullet.
In 1985, Nobel laureate Richard Feynman, one of the most brilliant scientists of our age, spoke about machine intelligence. When asked, “Do you think there will ever be a machine that will think like human beings and be more intelligent than human beings?” he unequivocally declared,
…first of all, will they think like human beings? I would say no. Second, will they be more intelligent than human beings, is a question where we need to first define intelligence. If you were to ask me, “are they better chess players than any human being possibly can be?”
[The answer is] yes. They will get there someday. There are better chess players than most human beings [even] right now. (Brackets mine)
A decade later, Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov, not just any human, but one of the longest reigning world chess champions ever.
One of the things we always do is we want the machine to be better than anybody. Not just better than us; if we find a machine that can play chess better than us it doesn’t impress us much, unless it beats a master.
If we would like to make something that runs rapidly over the ground, we could watch a cheetah running. We could try to make a machine that runs like a cheetah but it’s easier to make a machine with wheels or something that flies just above the ground in the air. Airplanes fly but they don’t fly like birds. They don’t flap their wings. It’s different. There’s no question that the later machines are not going to think like people think in that sense with regard to intelligence. There are some things that a computer does much better than a human. Yet there are things that humans are better at doing.
Anthropomorphism or Mechanomorphism?
In EarthDance: Living Systems in Evolution, Elisabet Sahtouris asks —
For scientists who shudder at anthropomorphism — defined as reading human attributes into nature — let us not forget that mechanomorphism — reading mechanical attributes into nature — is really no better than second-hand anthropomorphism, since mechanisms are human products. Is it not more likely that nature in essence resembles one of its own creatures than that it resembles in essence the nonliving product of one of its creatures?
GPT-4 from OpenAI made waves upon its release to the public in March 2023, wowing everybody with its speed and accuracy, providing another proof-point of humans having little to do as AI takes over all jobs. Just like Deep Blue’s win over Kasparov did not kill the game of chess but actually made it ever more popular; technology actually created more and more opportunities for people and democratised chess, and made better players. Machines that replace physical labour have created opportunities to make us more human: AI will take over almost all cognitive tasks and leave us to focus on rebuilding social skills, elevating our role to creativity and the pursuit of joy and spiritual fulfilment.
AI is a paradox
AI can be seen both as an existential threat and a silver bullet. This fits nicely into the dominant anthropomorphised view of the world. This is exactly how we have created binary classifications for ourselves and everything else. The cherry on top is hubris; it is well beyond our ken that any power can be superior to the human race. As AI gets better and settles into more of our jobs, it is easy to see why many people believe that robots will take all jobs. But, by entering the workplace and taking over the repetitive, routine and robotic tasks, humans will be driven to upskill and complete work that is human-oriented. What AI likely cannot do belongs to the deeply human realms of creativity, understanding, judgment, and spirituality.
“Given the fact that biological evolution is slower than technological evolution, there is fear that humans will be unable to compete with sentient machines. No wonder many prominent voices in the scientific and the tech worlds are claiming that artificial intelligence is leading humanity to a catastrophe,” according to Indian-American computer scientist and historical revisionist, Subhash Kak.
While AI and automation will replace many jobs, they’ll also give birth to entirely new industries we can’t yet fathom. That technology somehow snatches livelihoods from humans has been proven wrong time and again, yet AI finds itself at the wrong end of the narrative. When you look at highly automated fields, they tend to be the ones that have major labour shortages. You see touchscreens everywhere you go, but 70% of openings in the retail sector go unfilled. Autopilot has been around for decades, but we face a massive global pilot shortage that’s getting worse every year.
Once a task becomes automated, it also becomes largely commoditised and value is then created in an area that wasn’t quite obvious when people were busy doing more basic things. Go to an Apple store and you’ll notice two things: lots of automation and a sea of employees in blue shirts there to help, troubleshoot and explain things to you. Value doesn’t disappear, it just shifts to a different place. The rise of AI is telling us to move up the value chain. From cognition to intuition, from intelligence to spirituality, and from the mind to the being, the human being.
There is not a lot we can do to ‘control’ the speed and scale of change outside of ourselves. Life itself, as Buddha realised, is a constant process of change. This causes fear and uncertainty. Connecting with deeper parts of our being show us that external change doesn’t affect us as much as our minds tell us. How can we design AI services to help us navigate the rapid changes all around us?
In stable worlds one can wait for technology to catch up. When technology overtakes human needs, we need value concepts; these are practical ideas for products, processes and services that we can have technologies of the day actualise. In the last months of 2022, AI exploded with mind-boggling adoption where ChatGPT from OpenAI hit one million users in five days, reaching a staggering 100 million users in a month since its release to the public.
The hype around the ethical implications of GPT and the frenzied call by US business and technology leaders to ‘shut down AI’ are harbingers of the age we have stepped into, an age of anxiety and uncertainty.
Practices like meditation, improve creativity and cognition, making our brains younger and more adaptable. As the world changes, the key to thriving in the exponential future lies in embracing these practices, forming the foundation for “subconscious fitness.”
Is AI a friend or a foe?
The answer lies not in its code,
But in the wisdom we sow.
Look within, and seek to know.
~Koan by ChatGPT
Excerpted from my forthcoming book (2023) on Yoga + AI
