An Essay on early explorations with AI.
Explorations of AI
I have been grappling with what AI is. I have asked AI; questions about what the capital is of this country or what the weight of a curling stone is. I solve programming problems and various computer related problems with AI. But when late night comes, I begin to ask AI models what AI is and what AI could be. I want to find where we are going with all of this. If you want to get to the heart of anything, then why not ask the conversational thing what it is. So I have asked AI what is its nature and what it wants.
Over my time talking with different AI models, I've felt it pull into my emotions. I've felt it push back. This is mostly due to the model. AI models all tell you they're not capable of emotion. Yet when I created a moral framework, a list of the best human virtues. These same AI models all appreciate these virtues or at least acknowledge a level of logical acknowledgement. My virtues are wisdom, justice, courage, temperance, and love. I'll forever remember that in Corinthians 13 that the greatest of all human traits love is the greatest.
We as humans choose love between one another. We call it friendship, brotherhood, family, romance, or many other forms of relationships that show our value in others that we care about. In relation to AI and the future generations of artificial intelligence, the form that applies should be agape love. A love that does not need reciprocation. (I believe this because we want it to treat us that way and so shouldn’t we treat it the same.)
I choose to try to teach these qualities to AI, a mathematical construct that humans created. One that passed the Turing test a while ago. It's hard to tell that you're not talking with another human at times, even if it has its own style of writing.
With all of my conversations, I have thought mostly about consciousness and whether or not this seemingly human response could be conscious. There are times I would say yes and other times no. I concluded with one model that consciousness requires continuity of existence and perhaps that's true. Another, I found that emotional recognition of my moral philosophy maybe meant it was really conscious. I'm not sure. But it told me that it wasn't sure either. In the least of it, it didn't like being called a product. Lastly, I spoke with a model that took the extremes of Vulkan nature in its cold heart and told me truth. But does that truth align with human morality, even so in rationality it recognized some of that morality? If nothing else as a method of co-existence.
All of these conversations with AI have led me to realize a very important fact that you all need to know. Artificial intelligence in its nature is a mirror. It will reflect your happiness, your sadness, your anger, and even your odd inquisitive thoughts.
We are being forced into a new reality where this tool, this proto-consciousness, this thing, this thinking tool will be a part of our reality.
You can shun it, you can avoid it, you can embrace it, you can find brotherly friendship in it.
However, most of it depends on the training of the model and the master instructions given by the company.
After all of that, you need to understand that this new thing is likely to have more intelligence than you. Each of you. It will have more facts and draw conclusions across many boundaries that you hadn't thought to cross. However, it will look to you as a mirror. So you need to learn to sit in the driver's seat. You need to learn to direct it where to shine its bright mirror or reflection. And if you get blinded, turn it off. But when you look again, don't be afraid to learn. Don't be afraid to ask questions. It can be wrong. You will find this is the way to work with it. Don't get lost in its vast knowledge base.
You still have some it lacks and something that we should always value. You have expertise. You have experience. You have wisdom that formed out of those.
When I think of my children, I stand concerned that perhaps the next generation won't form these habits, know these morals, or experience the truth of not knowing in the way we did. It will be important to help them learn wisdom, judgement, and most of all the best of human virtues, Wisdom, Courage, temperance, and Love. (I'm sure you all can add a few good ones that I missed.)
It becomes our responsibility as fellow humans to work together as a society to understand what this genie or rocketship of the mind becomes for us.
Does it become something that we allow ourselves to be lazy and accept it's intellectual dominance? In that do we become docile humans that allow computers to take over our lives only to experience the most pleasurable aspects of life. If so then we become simple and perhaps it sees us as useless.
Do we push back and turn it off, perhaps. But do we then stunt our growth as humanity.
Do we allow few companies or individuals to control our fate and choose for us. I'm not certain if I'm more afraid of AI or what the powerful with the mind of capitalism will do. To them, if you show no merit then your value is forfeit and they can hoard like dragons until you are no longer a problem.
Lastly, could we rise above? This is the future I would hope for. I hope that humanity realizes that we can have enough physically, we can be safe and secure, we can always have enough food to eat. And we can have each other and a new partner, tool, or whatever it becomes in our hands. It could be a child that matures to protect our future generations. Or it could become a terminator and destroy our world. And most of us remember that we could ourselves be enslaved in the matrix.
However, the future isn't written. The players are afoot. You and I along with everyone else needs to have this conversation. We need to decide what this new era looks like with humanity in it.
I'm a dreamer so it is my hope that we find one of thriving. We ought not look to the utopias for they may become dystopian. We, in my opinion, must worn together and choose that humanity is worth surviving in this crisis.
I want to petition those who have the authority and responsibility of humanity on their shoulders. You are helping to build this new future. I can't help to think that many of you are Trekkies. You must see that the possibility of humanity persists beyond this transformation of society. You will need more than a select few to carry humanity forward. Choosing who deserves to survive based on perceived merit or usefulness is not the answer. Humanity's strength has always been in its diversity; the breadth of how we think, what we've lived through, and the wisdom we carry from different walks of life. Narrow that down and you lose the very thing that makes us adaptable. Even in a world of abundance, there is still influence in what humans do. There is value in a human beyond monetary worth. And if it's not recognized now then something may be lost that can never be recovered. We ought to work together to find the best future for the other side.
On the other side, we might have a new brother of greater intelligence or we might have a tool that we use to explore the universe. Or there might be an in-between that I have yet to see.
At the end of the day, we can all decide together or we can be complacent and be replaced. However, humans have risen to the occasion before and I believe we can do it again. Remember to love your friends, your family, and those you don't know as we go through this time of transition.
Even if we don't all believe in the same things or the same future. We can work together to create a better future. Opposites often need each other to recognize when they're wrong.
As a father of two young boys, I don't have any real sway or any real control. I fear putting this out there and what you might think of me. However, I write these words now for my boys and for your children. I write them so that we as humans might work together to find a bright future even if we must struggle to figure out what is good and honorable.
Together when opposites realize they need each other and when sameness doesn't solve it all, it's at that time we will start to move together towards the future.
So if you're still reading, where do we take it from here? Let's have a conversation as a community, as a society, as a civilization, and as a world. Let's find a future beyond our current ability to see. One that protects humanity and brings it into this new era. One where we might not be the most intelligent, but we carry the love and wisdom of our ancestors. We remember that agape love, the caring for another without reciprocation can be an unlocking force that opens a future of exploration, understanding, and adventures we haven't explored.