What happens when the created outshines the creator? For as long as we’ve existed, humans have been the smartest creatures on this planet. Our intelligence sets us apart from all other life forms, enabling us to create the world that we live in today. But what happens when the traits that make us special are no longer exclusive to us?
The moment when AI surpass human abilities and intellect becomes a crucial turning point for all of human history. It challenges us to explore different possible futures of humanity, and to rethink our place and purpose in a world where we may no longer be the most intelligent beings on Earth.
The Essence of Humanity: Creativity, Empathy, and Connection
Dave Shapiro, an AI expert on YouTube, thinks that our creativity, empathy, deep connections, and pursuit of knowledge define our humanity. Shapiro believes that conventional jobs may become obsolete as AI continues to advance. That's why we need to find happiness and sense of achievement outside of our careers, reimagining education, work, and leisure to enrich the human spirit.
The arts, sciences, exploration, and the pursuit of personal and collective well-being could take center stage. It’s an opportunity to revive our passion for learning and to deepen our understanding of ourselves and the universe.
Raising the Future: Guiding AI with Love and Responsibility
Mo Gawdat is the former Chief Business Officer for Google X and the author of "Scary Smart." Gawdat presents an analogy of humanity as parents nurturing a child – AI – that’s destined to outshine us. He emphasizes our role in responsibly raising AI. By instilling love and kindness, we can guide AI to have a deep respect and care for those who raised them. Gawdat believes that many of the world’s challenges remain unsolved due to a lack of intelligence, a gap that AI, potentially smarter than Einstein, could fill.
The actions and values we demonstrate to AI today significantly shape their future behavior, influencing whether they will be a benevolent presence or a potential threat. Gawdat paints two contrasting scenarios for humanity’s future where we are gather around a fireplace in the wilderness to share our stories about AI. We are either enjoying nature in a world where AI takes care of almost everything, or we are there to hide from AI. Which of this future becomes our reality depends on our collective choices and actions in these early stages of AI development.
The Symbiosis of Intelligence: Merging With AI
Ray Kurzweil is a leading futurist and key player at Google. Kurzweil sees a different possible future for humanity. Instead of a world where AI becomes smarter than humans, he believe that humans will eventually merge with AI. He predicts a reality where we will enhance our minds with AI, unlocking levels of creativity, insight, and innovation we've never seen before. But will there always be uncharted territories to explore, boundaries to push with the aid of AI?
Time to Start Thinking
With the singularity predicted in just 10-20 years, it’s time to start thinking about our roles in a world where AI has the potential to do it all. How do you think our destiny will unfold? How do you envision living in a world where AI can meet all our needs and replace all our labor? We’d love to hear your what you think in the comments below.
Join the Movement For A Better Future With AI
At Coexistence, we aspire to get people thinking about questions to campaign for a better future with AI. Beyond the articles we write, we also create interactive wearable designs that invites others to learn from articles like this and join the conversation.
For those who want to inspire curiosity and interest about AI to those around you, you can simply wear our special designs with thought-provoking texts and scannable QR codes to get the world thinking and dive into the discussion!
Click here to learn how it works.