AI will not destroy humanity – our faith in it is what will destroy us.
Computer technology is amazing: it can do trillions of simple calculations in a second. But speed is not wisdom. Computer and technology do only dumb, blind, simple calculations. Being amazed by this is just like watching a magician – there is no such thing as magic.
Computer “knowledge” is not a real thing either… it’s just speed. But we humans have put our faith in computers. AI is an amazing technology… but it’s still just a computer. About 50% of what is says in a general response is wrong (HLE.) It can only get 80% of coding tests correct – 20% is wrong (SWE). Generalized reasoning (ARC-AGI-2) ranges from 0% to 80% correct (and thus from 20% to 100% wrong.)
Over the past 20-30 years we, as a society and culture, have come to believe that there is a technological solution to everything. We are just applying mathematical formula to every question we ask. That’s what computers, including AI, do after all.
That trust is misplaced. We should instead be thinking “here’s the AI advice: it’s somewhere between 20% and 50% incorrect, so we need to add in our own human experience and judgement to get the answer that will best serve our needs.
As an example, look at how AI is being used right now: the attack on Iran is pretty much run by AI. The accuracy of the strikes has been very impressive. But some times, the 20% “errors” creep in and we bomb a school full of children. That’s us putting all our faith in AI, instead of modifying it with human experience and thought.
And as a further example, AI flatly failed our faith in it when Iran started bombing its neighbors and closed the Strait of Hormuz. A simple application of the human condition could have forseen both. AI did not.
AI will not destroy humanity – our blind faith in it is what will destroy us.
Artificial General Intelligence will never happen with computers – all you can get out of massive computing is a massive computer.
AGI is simply magical thinking, used to raise money. That’s why “the bubble will burst.”
Computers, regardless of size, will never be able to experience reality as humans do. They cannot feel emotion nor experience aesthetics, or ultimately compassion…and those change human thinking, reasoning and behavior in irreducible ways.
The tool will never replace the carpenter, nor will the brush replace the artist.
When I look at the Mona Lisa, or a crying baby, or listen to music, my emotional response, though it may be similar to millions of others, is uniquely my own, simply because all my previous experiences are uniquely my own.
Substituting chaos theory for emotion does not cover it. Not even quantum computing can get around the simple fact that space and time constrain unique experience. No computer-in-a-box, existing as we each do, at one time and one place, and regardless of how it calculates, can have achieve more than that.
AI will not destroy humanity. Relying on it as if vast knowledge alone were somehow wisdom, is what will destroy us.
I hope we can wake up.
Tracy Valleau