Will AI Benefit or Destroy Intelligence, Creativity, and Initiative?
With the rise in prevalence and power of Artificial Intelligence throughout a wide range of software applications and websites, it is hard not to begin addressing the issue. Is using AI something to ease into or should its applications and capabilities be resisted as unethical and possibly harmful? Since the beginning of human existence, man has searched for better tools. Archimedes, a Greek citizen living in Sicily during the 3rd century BC, is famous for creating compound pulleys, a crane-like device, powerful catapults, and other simple tools which produced leveraged output sometimes for improvements in society and at other times for the defense of Syracuse from the Romans. In principle, AI is like these simply tools which can amplify our efforts. Neil Postman in Technopoly writes, “Technology is both an amplification and an amputation.” On the darker side, tools also relieve or remove abilities from us as well. It is no shock to see children who rely on calculators too early struggle with arithmetic mentally or on paper. Long division which third graders used to master now becomes too cumbersome for high school students.
On a wider scale, the Google search created by Larry Page and Sergey Brin made commercially available in 1999, is often conflated with the beginning of research. The vaunted PageRank algorithm has become the first step in seeking to answer an unknown question. The Google query produces a curated list of hundreds of websites where information might be gathered. An AI query on the other hand produces summarized content in which citations may or may not be listed. Some estimates suggest that up to twenty percent of answers are fabricated by AI. The term for this is hallucination. As children and adults become more accustomed to engaging with AI chat, there is a greater probability that AI summaries will gain authoritative acceptance without verification against traditional sources of expert or time-tested opinions.
Even though AI can be flawed, it is easy to imagine most businesses adopting the benefits of AI on some level. What accountant doesn’t use the latest Excel spreadsheets, accounting software, and calculators? These time saving devices allow them to charge less on each tax return and month end report but also offers a better work life balance not to mention accuracy. In fact, business people in general will either be faced with being displaced by AI, subject to it, or empowered by it. The employment landscape is changing quicker than ever before.
The question then is whether students and children should start to rely on AI to help them with tasks such as computation, writing, presentations, and traditional research? Without developing basic skills, will our children who are already immersed in screens and virtual reality be able to function as normal humans used to even 20 years ago? Sheryl Turkel who studies the effect of technology on culture has noticed a trend that children have delayed maturity due to the lack of adult interaction. In some studies, children are spending less than five minutes a week in conversations with adults. The absence of human mentorship in the life of children leaves them looking to fill the void in other places.
Parmy Olsen, in her recent book Supremacy, tracks the competition to develop the preeminent AI program. As Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and others spend billions of dollars to create large Superclusters of extremely fast high-end Nvidia AI-chips for the purpose of training Large Language Models, the question that remains is to what end? Sam Altman talks about creating a god-like creature to help humanity solve its most pressing problems. He also dreams of transferring human consciousness into the cloud to allow for immortality. Elon Musk is pushing humanity towards becoming a multi-planetary species and reaching Mars before the end of his life. Also, in the background there is always the threat of malfeasance by a bad actor or state gaining the upper hand. And so, the race goes on.
In the end, the choice of extremes, being a Ludite and eschewing all technology or becoming an early adopter and placing meaning in the latest and greatest are poor options. A culture that discerns the trade-offs can see both the positive and negative implications of new inventions in the lives of its citizens and society. More importantly, society can then seek to mitigate the destructive consequences while strategically utilizing its strengths. Ultimately, it is only through wisdom, which comes after knowledge and understanding, that allows for just the right amount of technological consumption in our lives. Not everything should be allowed in, but even things that are healthy and useful in small or moderate amounts can become toxic or deadly in high dosages. Humans need human relationships. Humans need to struggle, to grow, to develop skills, to think, and to pursue truth, goodness, and beauty for a reason beyond themselves. Our recorded past from Homer, to Scripture, to thousands of years of literature and history attest that faster, better, and stronger doesn’t lead to a fulfilled life. AI will most likely make our lives more efficient while increasing the average standard of living. However, AI will likely be incapable of helping us with the essential practices of love, devotion, character, and sacrifice. Those activities cannot be outsourced. If we stand ready to consciously assess how to use such a powerful tool, we might not lose sight of that which is of lasting significance.