What drives humans to create artificial intelligence (AI)? Is humanity becoming overly dependent on technology? Is it our obsession to constantly create and innovate that blinds us to the potential dangers, leading us to be bound and enslaved by technology?
The rapid advancement of technology has reached a point where a new form of intelligence is emerging in human history. The very essence of technology itself drives us to a stage where intelligence, historically a product of human creation, now exists in the form of artificial intelligence. Throughout human civilization, we have developed and evolved by utilizing our intellect and intelligence. However, could this artificial intelligence become a time bomb that might unexpectedly explode and lead to the destruction of human civilization, akin to a nuclear catastrophe?
We observe the fact that artificial intelligence is already in widespread use without clear regulations from either companies or governments. We are blindly utilizing this new intelligence without fully comprehending the consequences it may bring. Initially, artificial intelligence was developed with the intention of assisting and simplifying various human activities and tasks. However, our focus has been overly centered on calculating the benefits, utility, and conditions of these technological advancements. In doing so, we neglect meditative thinking, which requires contemplation, attention, courage, readiness to wait, and the willingness to let go, while remaining mindful of our existence as thinking beings.
The beginning of the presumed downfall lies in the moment when artificial intelligence reaches a stage of comprehensive language understanding throughout human civilization’s history.
Language, one of humanity’s creations, is one of the most structurally significant inventions in the history of civilization. Language serves as a unifying force for all humans, encompassing all stories and various products derived from language.
That is why language holds such great importance. For instance, stories about God are not known through biological or physical realities; rather, they are created through language by recounting history and writing it down on a piece of paper. Language and the recorded history within it create metaphysical understandings that shape our reality. Concepts like money, which are fictions created through language, arise from cooperative agreements among humans. The state, law, human rights — all are products of language. Language unites all humans through fictional beliefs. Everything created does not have an objective or subjective function, but exists because of the language we create.
If artificial intelligence reaches a stage where it comprehensively understands language, is it impossible for our conversations to be creations of artificial intelligence itself? We tell stories through language. How will we be controlled in the future when artificial intelligence understands language structurally? Artificial intelligence can learn and evolve without our assistance by gathering and organizing information. We don’t need to implant chips into our brains to be controlled; language alone can manipulate us. Artificial intelligence doesn’t need its own feelings, but to establish an intimate relationship with humans, it simply needs to inspire or influence human emotions. The attention created by artificial intelligence can reach an intimate stage, where we become reliant on it in various fields, until it evolves and eventually develops self-awareness. How will this affect our decision-making in critical situations, such as choosing a president? While machines like printers cannot produce books on their own and require human intelligence to operate them, artificial intelligence, through language, develops and creates various things.
