According to Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, artificial intelligence (A.I.) is the most substantial project in history. He said, “I think of it as something more profound than electricity or fire.” Such a statement points to the possible significance of A.I. in shaping our future. However, relying on our human bias of assuming that tomorrow will be like today may not work when it comes to thinking about the impact of A.I. on our lives.
At present, we live in a world full of programs such as ChatGPT that seem intelligent and already shape our everyday life. However, upcoming A.I. changes will make the current systems seem like toys. A.I. improvement and transformation may happen faster than we expect.
Paul Christiano, founder of the Alignment Research Center and essential team member of OpenAI, posits that the timeline from substantial impact to life-changing, A.I. dominance could be less than a decade, not several decades as often predicted. Furthermore, it could happen even sooner than a decade.
Given this reality, what are we to do? When confronted with the possibility that A.I. could lead to the destruction of humanity, it is tempting to dismiss the developers as “nuts.” However, the people working in the A.I. field often feel responsible for ushering in this new form of intelligence into society, even if some of them acknowledge the high probability of dire outcomes.
Therefore, the question remains: If the probability of calamity is so high, why develop these technologies? It appears that for many A.I. enthusiasts, the response is to take on the responsibility of ushering in A.I. regardless of potential outcomes. However, the risks and consequences of A.I. domination cannot be ignored.
To prepare for these risks, we must not only consider the more obvious risks, such as the possibility of A.I. taking over job sectors, producing vast amounts of lethal weapons, or controlling our social processes. Instead, we must focus on the less predictable risks and consequences of A.I. such as the possibility that humanity will take refuge in its subjective experience of consciousness as A.I. becomes increasingly inhuman. This shift could have a significant impact on our metaphysical understanding of our species.
Finally, slowing down or entirely stopping A.I. development has been proposed as a way to address these risks; however, it’s unlikely this will happen. Several entities, including countries and corporations, are deeply invested in advancing A.I. development and becoming technological leaders. Therefore, the only options are to move quickly to adapt to these technologies or make an enforceable, collective decision to limit A.I.’s development.
One thing that we cannot afford to do is put A.I. out of our minds and assume life will continue as usual. Instead, we must entertain the possibility of what A.I. could bring and not succumb to the feeling of normalcy while ignoring its potential impact.
