Two sides of the AI coin

We have entered uncharted waters — rather plunged into an unknown realm which is full of prospects and dangers. Artificial Intelligence is improving its capabilities and reach with every passing hour.

There is now an immediate need to consider its growing impact and implications on humanity. The future machines powered by AI will be trillions and trillions times smarter than us. AI has the immense potential to dramatically impact and alter our social, political, spiritual, moral and legal lives beyond our wildest dreams.

Theorists of evolution and technology offer two different scenarios emerging from the advent of the AI epoch. These are contradictory and stand in juxtaposition to each other. One of the scenarios posits AI as a saviour and messiah, which will address all the shortcomings and problems faced by humans. They believe that the restricted and limited faculties of humans can be enhanced with the assistance of AI and the process of a convergence of technologies.

The convergence of certain exponentially accelerated technologies, popularly called singularity, is predicted to amazingly accelerate human evolution from ‘homo sapiens’ to ‘techno sapiens’ or “homo deus” as Yuval Noah Hariri, historian and philosopher, names future humans. Some of the technologies which will bring in this revolutionary change through convergence include biotechnology, genetics, robotics, nanotechnology, AI and quantum computing.

This technological revolution is predicted to happen incredibly fast. American theorist Ray Kurzweil has propounded his theory, ‘The Law of Accelerating Returns’, to express this speedy development. He is of the view that humanity might go twice from the birth of agriculture to the birth of the internet in 100 years.

Let’s delve into the discussion of the two schools of thoughts on how AI is going to affect our lives; and what lies ahead for humans in the impending transhuman era. Throughout their history, human lives have been limited by the laws of physics and the five senses. AI will usher humanity into a post-human era, addressing certain problems besetting the humans due to their organic makeup. Problems such as aging, disease, hunger and limited senses will be overcome in the near future. There are promising prospects of at least doubling the life span of humans to 150 years in the next couple of decades.

Some of the leading champions of this school of thought include Stephen Hawking, Ray Kurzweil, Yuval Noah Hariri, Nick Bostrom, Machio Kaku, Elise Bohan and Mark Zukerberg. They believe in the virtue of transhumanism and recommend that in order to survive and become an interstellar species, humans should alter their biological and mechanical makeup. They believe transhumanism is not a choice rather a necessity requiring humans to transcend into post-human species.

In the age of AI, humans will be able to transport their senses and experience real life experiences through augmented reality tools, like haptics suits and VR headsets. Virtual Reality or Augmented Reality allows humans to experiment with the joy of being at different places at the same time. They can move and act in the virtual world through avatars.

Some of the emerging technologies, enabled by the AI and convergence of technologies — genetic engineering, nanotechnology and 3D printing – hold promises of the possibility for human beings to travel to other planets by overcoming their current physical weaknesses and incapabilities. By use of cybernetics we can enhance our physical and cognitive capabilities, skills and potentials.

Transport is another area where AI offers great prospects for humanity. Self-driving cars are expected to reduce 90 per cent of road deaths. Most traffic accidents occur due to human error and misjudgement. Self-driving cars assisted by AI will eliminate this killing factor on roads.

In the healthcare sector, AI is expected to replace human doctors. AI is already proving more accurate and efficient in diagnosing diseases like cancer and other deadly ailments. With the help of AI more potent and effective drugs will be manufactured and treatment for deadly diseases will be swift and cheap in the coming years.

There is another school of thought, though, that depicts a bleak and grim scenario for the future of human beings in an era of AI. These thinkers and scientists are of the view that blind and unchecked progress of AI might pose an existential threat to humanity. As such we humans need to prepare for the coming perils posed by the AI. The proponents of this view include Francis Fukuyama, Henry Kissinger, James Barrat, Eric Schmidt, Thomas Horn, and Elon Musk.

In the age of AI, a lot of people will be rendered unemployed and their jobs taken over by robots. According to the proponents of this school of thought, the convergence of AI and robots will result in the disappearance of hundreds of thousands of Jobs. Just the ubiquitous use of 3D printers will leave an indelible impact on the manufacturing sector. This one technology will crush the global supply chains, transportation networks, warehouses etc and give a dent of loss of around $12 trillion to the global manufacturing sector.

Genetic engineering has its own dark side. Scaremongers claim that genetically engineered humans might develop social and political behaviours of their own, much different from normal humans. The existing political and social fabric will face a serious threat from the inequality in society, emanating from genetic editing of humans. This will undermine the very foundations of our political system based on liberalism, individualism, human rights, equality and free market policies.

Privacy of individuals is another potential victim of AI. Personal data of people is collected and analyzed by AI without their consent, which poses a serious threat to the privacy and security of individuals.

AI is a double edged sword. Its promises and perils are both huge and daunting. On the one hand, it is our bet for developing into super-intelligent human beings, while on the other hand it is a genuine threat that could extinguish us from the face of the earth.

Humanity needs to tread the path to an AI revolution carefully and cautiously. It is all the more essential that collective efforts are made by scientists, and social science and legal experts to determine and reduce the risks resulting from an AI revolution.

The writer is a freelance contributor.