Artificial Intelligence

Seventy-five years ago, we found ourselves on the threshold of a new era where machines would manipulate data much faster than the human mind could.

While a few seers could look beyond and dream of the day when machines could mimic humans in their ability to think and create, this possibility remained far beyond the ability of most people to conceive. 

Today, we are on another threshold.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is learning how to manipulate and generate language, and this is one step removed from being able to do what Yuval Harari calls hacking the operating system of our civilization.

According to Harari, human culture is not a product of our DNA. Rather, it is a product of the stories that our minds create and the laws that we devise. Cultural artifacts are man-made, and they develop over the ages as we develop our abilities to conceive new ideas and new visions of what is possible and what is desirable.

A group of scientists at the University of Texas (Austin) announced recently that AI could translate a person’s thoughts by analyzing MRI scans that measure the flow of blood to the brain. This is still in its nascent stage, but one imagines the possibilities, both positive and negative, that this development could portend for human privacy and freedom of thought. 

Technology has no morality.

Its ethics depend on whether the user is looking to enhance the human experience or attack human rights and freedoms.

AI could be used to reach people incapable of speech but capable of thought. This would be invaluable in psychiatry and neuroscience. It could enable AI to further mimic human activities – creating stories, music, film, and other elements of the arts and sciences.

But does mimicry equal creation? Can AI learn to feel the way humans do, to appreciate beauty and relate to it with its soul as well as its mind. In short, can AI learn to create these feelings within itself without resorting to simple mimicry?

That is the question that leads me to wonder is we are reaching the limits of AI or whether we are at the beginnings of a quantum leap into an unknown future.

I have always believed that sentient beings are composed of matter, minds, and souls. The matter – our bodies -- provides the physical elements required for mobility and the biological elements required for reproduction Our minds formulate thoughts and ideas that can be translated into physical realities. I view the soul as the center of creativity – where emotions meld with ideas to create products that make esthetic decisions that appeal to others by awakening feelings that connect with others.

Can we create AI machines capable of reproducing themselves physically and emotionally to not only equal human beings but actually surpass them in their humanity. 

According to Harari, we are now encountering an alien intelligence, here on Earth—one created by us. We don’t know much about it, except that it might either help build or perhaps destroy our civilization. 

Unregulated AI deployments could benefit autocrats and ruin democracies. The ability to control people by influencing thought and manipulative messaging could well drown out strictly human dialogue and conversation. We have already seen how AI manipulates reality so that it becomes biased to the controller’s objectives. 

In the recent past, the pace of technology has far outpaced the capacity of legislators to develop coherent and timely policies to mitigate the potential risks that accompany the exciting benefits of progress. The potential far reaching impact of Ai however calls for a more urgent, consultative approach between governments, corporations and developers of AI to develop a code of enforceable ethics so that this evolving technology can be controlled and kept from being manipulated by the wrong people. 

Are we still in time to do so or is the universal search for improved AI so widespread that we are beyond such a possibility? Can democracies that follow a rules-based system control the efforts of totalitarian governments that have little use for rules as their leaders strive for full control over their societies and are prone to violate basic human rights and freedoms?

Is the international community able to come together to create the institutions required to control the scope and direction of AI and enforce strict sanctions against those who break the rules?

Can the creators of AI products be trusted to release them only when there are effective controls created and implemented fully over their use?

Finally, do our political leaders even understand what we are up against to the degree that they can devise and implement the policies required to save mankind from itself?

Food for thought!

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Edition: Estefanía Cardeña