AI: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE or ALIEN INTELLIGENCE*?
As I was walking toward the medieval castle of Frankenbourg, in Alsace, my French home region, the conversation about AI with a young Colombian engineer prompted a reflection.
As many people, I am both mesmerized and frightened by AI possible use and misuse in high schools, and by its wonderful potential in the field of medical research, for instance. Seems like it is a repeat of the irresponsible implementations of social media, whose initial intent of connecting and reconnecting was diverted to profit and only profit coming from attention grabbing .
As often when dealing with new discoveries, it is our intentions, values and ethics that will indicate our capacity to responsibly be using and implementing them.
The young Colombian engineer in an exchange program in France seemed quite reasonable in stating that robotics in health centers’ operating rooms are decades away from protocols lead by non humans. Surgeons use a fine line between facts and intuitions lead by their experience. Using AI presents the surgeon with potential AI lead visuals of same issues and decisions made by others. It may help him/her make a better micro-decision in the seconds or minute he has to make one..
The other interaction I had was with a 3rd year medical student in the same town who was concerned by how today’s high school students automatically get their home work done by the likes of ChatGpt or Perplexity. She was hoping that, in the future, newly enrolled medical students will still be able to use their own thinking to study and solve issues. That may prove invaluable when in need to make these life savings decisions! or would they also inquire ChatGpt in that moment?
As of now, it seems like we are not yet in a danger zone as we are still in a form of honeymoon period with AI. It's the habit forming that may be consequential.
Our awareness and intent is clearly required here.
I am not a scholar, I am more of a practical implementer. In my opinion, the danger zone may appear in the future when self driving machines will start producing disasters - by the way didn’t self driving Teslas start the trend?
If we compare with the excitement felt by the brothers Montgolfier in 1783 *birth of manned flight- and its perfected versions centuries after, it lead to the Zeppelin Hindenburg catastrophic 1937 landing in New Jersey, and the quasi abandonment of that mode of transportation. Airplanes of course have become much safer as we rely on lots of sensors and computers . So we might be years away from self flying machines relying on AI… or may be not so far, as time has been accelerating drastically.
Are we heading in the wrong direction thinking to go to Mars as billions of people live in extremely poor conditions and as we produce enormous amounts of waste? Is the pursuit of happiness for all citizens a byproduct of that paradigm?
Buckle your seat belts for whats coming with AI!
As we were descending from the Himmelsreiter’s path (Ladder to the Sky) with my Colombian engineer friend, I recalled and shared the explanation that Yuval Noah Harari gave in his book NEXUS*: AI = ALIEN INTELLIGENCE. “It is framed as a transformative agent with the capacity to fundamentally reshape human society and autonomy. The risk of manipulation of information, narratives, and human cooperation, with the existential threat to undermine truth, autonomy and possibly human existence itself”.
So what will happen when computers network with each other’s networks and we forget to be aware of our intentions, get overwhelmed, and unable to react to an already started sequence?
And on another note, what will all these autocratic/oligarchic regimes make of it, as we already start observing it?
At the foundation I co-created, we implement Collaborative Learning Environments Centers (CLECs) with the hope to balance technology and collaborative collective awareness in high schools in remote areas of Nepal. Kathmandu University School of Education is now helping study its impact. It’s an innovative adaptation that could likely change the ways students and teachers learn and think collectively, using a more responsible attitude towards using AI.
Please check our foundation page on this site and support us https://www.creativecollaborativecoaching.com/foundation-db4n
*Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI: https://www.ynharari.com/book/nexus/
