AI will not supplant human spirit
We seem enamored of the synthetic worlds that we create. Witness the efforts of many top scientists at AI companies like Anthropic and OpenAI aiming to develop artificial superintelligence vastly smarter than humans. There are clear benefits of the technology likely to transform many fields, including science, medicine, and education. Microsoft’s co-founder Bill Gates proclaims A.I. “will change the way people work, learn, travel, get health care and communicate with each other.”
But, there are caveats. “There is no guarantee that these systems will be correct on any task you give them,” Gary Marcus, emeritus professor of psychology and neural science at N.Y.U., writes: “because such AI systems contain literally no mechanisms for checking the truth of what they say and can easily generate misinformation. They have no ethical understanding of the world, have no sense of truth, and they’re not reliable,” We may rely too heavily on these systems for medical and legal advice and other information we use to make daily decisions.
I think those who hype AI and predict subservience to it are failing to appreciate qualities of being human. They exhibit little understanding of our intelligence: our abilities to learn from experience and to adapt to, shape, and select environments. Think of human characteristics like ingenuity, self-awareness, compassion, civic-mindedness, sense of beauty, sense of wonder. These are characteristics that cry out for attention when we think of ways to educate and nurture humane citizens of the future.
Short story writer, David Means’ in his essay, “A.I. Can’t Write My Cat Story,” explores themes of “loss, memory, and the nuanced, independent nature of animals, emphasizing deeply human emotions that AI cannot replicate.” He states, “A.I. will never be able to do what I can do because A.I. has never felt what I’ve felt.
Remember:
• A.I. will be only as powerful as we let it.
• AI creates the illusion of connection: only people can make deeper connections with others.
• Relationships cannot and should not be sustained in the digital realm alone.
• AI erodes our understanding of what is real.