Artificial Intelligence And Humanity

Narayan Prasad Ghimire , Currently, I am going through a new book on Artificial Intelligence (AI). It is, 'The Age of AI and Our Human Future', written jointly by Henry A. Kissinger, Eric Schmidt and Daniel Huttenlocher. The three writers are formidable figures. Their joint work is a lucid book on one of the most engaging issues of our time, AI. Earlier, I had read a similar book– the one by Rajiv Malhotra, 'Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Power: 5 Battlegrounds'. While reading the book by the triumvirate, one of the arresting sentences in the book is, 'Created by humans, AI should be overseen by humans.' Similarly, they, explain further, 'The AI age needs its own Descartes, its own Kant, to explain what is being created and what it will mean for humanity. 

 Moreover, talking about artificial pleasures and emotions, Malhotra writes: 'By manipulating hormones, neurotransmitters, neural networks, and eventually artificial memories, machines are rigging out human physiology to produce pleasure and avoid pain. Certain kinds of private experiences are already being technologically engineered to alter individual emotional states.'

What Makes a human?

The above excerpts from the seminal books may be thrilling and appalling and horrible at the same time. Going through the denotation and connotation of the points they raised, every aware person is forced to think: Where are we heading? What's the destination? Who is our guide? How is the guide behaving with us? What makes humans human? Both books are genuine efforts to bring the technical glitch, the term of the geeks- AI, to the general public. There is no denying that they have aimed at throwing light on how the general people and policymakers should understand the most defining feature of technological advancement. The trepidation of the future on the one hand and techno-optimism and utopia on the other are contrasting points through which the present world is undergoing. The present world is undoubtedly the age of digital disruption.

Let's ponder - why are we called human? Humans have emotion and reason- these faculties control and direct humans to act as per time and context. They have the feeling- love, hatred, liking, disliking, sympathy, empathy etc; and a conscience that helps them judge the situation. We can not deny that with the ability to use reason, human behaviour is different from other animals. Humans are supreme. In absence of reason or conscience, any person can be dubbed unfit or emerge awkwardly to his/her family and societal norms. In many cases, the absence of reason in a human being may result in the commission of lawlessness, which takes him/her behind the bar. Similarly, the faculty of emotion is equally imperative to make one's life balanced and social. Love and logic seem distant opposites but are inseparable from our lives. 

Emotional Hijacking 

Technological advancement has brought us to such a state that our agencies are exploited in a way that we had never imagined. The technological facilities or let's say, digital gadgets have explored every nook and corner of human life. It is time Facebook knows well about what makes us happy than our mothers and loved ones know! It is said once we take to Facebook for 55 minutes, it perfectly measures our emotional status- knows our likings, dislikes and others. Similar it is in the case of Google. The time we spend on the content on YouTube is studied so meticulously that we are chased frequently by these platforms. For example, once you listen to Shiva Strotra or Bhajan on Monday morning on YouTube, it would be the same on the top to serve you next Monday morning. What is behind this? What reads our brain? Yes, it is artificial intelligence that tech companies employ. 

The data that we produce day to day while working/playing on digital gadgets are the major resources for tech companies to expand algorithms and adopt AI. 

So simple these seem, but the 'Like' and 'Love' buttons on Facebook have a huge capacity to sway human emotional state. One may however argue that clicking 'Love' is simply a click on the Love button and not the expression of love. At the same time, an argument may surface that those clicking the 'Love' button are expressing love. Then, is the digital expression of love identical to the physical or normal expression of love?! If it is different from physical, or let's say, human and natural, to what extent it is different? 

Moreover, when a media is live-casting a political leader giving a speech, one can see the Facebook comments. There is a brawl, oodle of invectives, incendiary allegations and so on. Even the love and like are there. Human psychology is spilt on digital platforms. The anger and frustration, protest and opposition, panegyric and eulogy, what not! Similarly, some people are becoming platform populists, garnering Love, Like, and Comments. A new norm of digital popularity has emerged at the cost of human psychology. Is digitally rich (many Likes, many Love, many Comments) satisfied in his real life? These points warrant the study. Huge psychological research can be done.

Once the things that are served on digital platforms guide the human emotional state, isn't it the machine rigging out human physiology to produce pleasure and avoid pain as writer Malhotra said? Isn't it the manipulation of hormones and neural networks?  

Intelligence On Fruition? 

The brain is to think- good and bad; right and wrong etc. The brain is for balancing the binaries. It is the most wonderful organ and asset of human life. This very decision-making capacity of the brain, or let's say, intelligence has separated humans from the animal.  Intelligence is not only for a particular individual but for family and society. It is essential for norm building. Control of societal, national and international affairs rests entirely upon human intelligence. As the binary actor, both creation and destruction are guided by the brain. Human beings are therefore responsible for both the mess and development in the world. 

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the product of the same natural intelligence as the human brain. What a magic and miracle it was when humans invented the computer, the internet, and AI. The creation of AI is itself an extraordinary achievement. A miracle happened in 1997- world chess champion Gary Kasparov lost the game to the machine. Kasparov was defeated by an IBM supercomputer, Deep Blue. The machine turned master over human (mind), the original master who built the computer! Wasn't it a tragedy for the human brain? Or, was it the unprecedented gain in human life? Since this epoch-making event, scientists have added new dimensions to AI. AI-run robots are now becoming commonplace. AI has indeed come from easing life to pleasing life.  

Need for human-centred AI

Now, let's check the emphasis of the triumvirate: 'Created by humans, AI should be overseen by humans'. It means AI can not be left alone and scot-free. It needs to be guided by its master. AI must not be mastering the human mind, but the reverse. Scientists in recent years have been repeatedly stressing to tame AI. They are advocating for the supremacy of the human brain or the mastery of the human mind. Once the continued new dimension or the advancement in the AI chases away and dominates the human mind, the master, does the world run normally? 

The mastery of AI over the human brain is rendering humans subordinate where the machine is on top and the human in the second. Isn't it the new hierarchy? It is therefore compelling that the AI age needs its own Descartes. We are well aware of 'Cogito Ergo Sum' or 'I think therefore I'm', which was propounded by philosopher Rene Descartes in the seventeenth century. Descartes' philosophy of 'reason' (thought) is a central feature of the Age of Enlightenment. The Age of Enlightenment is the celebration of the human mind or the reason, conscience. A similar formidable figure of the time is Emmanuel Kant who also underscored rationalism.  Why is a human? Human is human because he thinks, reason, judge, or he has a brain. 

Finally, AI, as the creation of human intelligence, can not be avoided but nurtured together where mastery of human intelligence prevails. It is not only impossible and impractical but also sheer unwise to avoid AI from modern life. Belittling AI capacity is reversing the pace of science and technological advancement. It is therefore time for human-centred AI, which is for the future of humanity.

(A journalist at RSS, Ghimire is an internet governance enthusiast)