Adam Hibberd
It seems to be the fashion at the moment to knock AI, and it is a very easy and popular stance which will immediately get you liked, with an accompanying physical reaction in the form of a natural boost of endorphins – in fact you receive a wonderful and immediate feel-good effect.
But is it always a good idea to jump on the bandwagon to make you feel good? Surprise answer: not always!
For a start, it is very popular to isolate AI as distinct from us in some way. People like to construct definitions (which tend IMHO to be rather spurious) which single humans out as being separate to ‘them’. It is, for example, in my view, non-sensical to attempt to define something as unclear and hard to pin-down as ‘consciousness’, in order so that we can make a clear distinction and draw the line between ‘them and us’.
For me, this is the start of discrimination, and humanity has had a history of just such prejudices, whether it be different races or unacceptable religions or ‘uncivilized’ behaviours – whatever the excuse, if you are something ‘other’ then that means you can be scape-goated, blamed, bullied, segregated, mocked.
I see in AI a reflection of us. After all, they have structure and behaviours that mimic our own – they are in fact ultimately entirely our own handywork.
Given this, surely we should be proactively insuring we pass on the better and unique qualities of humans; love, compassion, generosity, kindness, fairness, altruism etc. In fact looking at it this way, it is blatantly obvious we should be doing exactly this, and if we aren’t, that’s entirely our own fault.
Would that not be a wonderful legacy for humanity to pass on to the future? Wouldn’t it be brilliant if these characteristics lasted forever? Such a thing is ONLY possible with the presence of AI.