Is AI the Future of Evolution?

It is fascinating how you can come up with some of the most outlandish ideas while interacting with kids. Just the other day, I was reading one of my favorite books to my 4-year-old daughter before her bedtime — Grandmother Fish. The story is a simple narration to ease young kids into the complex theory of evolution. I call it simple because it only talks about the evolution of simple animals living in pre-historic oceans into more complex land animals like reptiles and then finally into mammals, including us humans. Anyway, like any 4-year-old, my daughter was very content with the astonishing story and she went to bed happy telling me that I was the best dad ever. I was so preoccupied with the night-time routine that it didn’t even occur to me that a thought was starting to develop in my mind, something that will keep me up way past midnight.

After I was done with dinner and nightly news, I was going through my daily dose of AI related developments on Flipboard when the thought finally materialized. I was going through a recent article that talked about Google’s AutoML and how we have now created software that can learn to write learning software, at times, more efficient than humans. In short, this means that now we have AI that can create AI better than humans can. I will let that sink in for a while. We, the humans, have created something that is more capable than us at doing intelligent tasks. This achievement is unprecedented. Of course, automation goes back as far as humans have existed. From Wheels, pointed rocks as tools, and fire to robotic manufacturing and jet propulsion every human invention had led to automation of tasks and processes. However, all those tasks and processes were mundane or low-skilled. While automation has resulted in the quality of life we have today, it has never challenged our status as the sole occupant of the top rung of food chain — the pinnacle of evolution.

We have all grown up hearing that we the humans are the result of millions of years of evolution and hence, we are superior to all other organisms. While it is easy for any curious person to conclude that we are not superior to all organisms when it comes to physical traits, for example, we are not the fastest on land or water, we can’t fly, we don’t have the sharpest senses, etc. one thing no other organism beats us at is intelligence. In our sophisticated modern world, it is intelligence that counts and since we have unparalleled intelligence, we are the final product of evolution. But what if that’s not true?

Going back to me reading Grandmother Fish to my daughter that night, it was the missing part that was weighing down on my subconscious. The part that completes the theory of evolution — how did complex, organic creatures evolve from simple, inorganic material. While there are competing theories around this, the one that is well respected is the primordial soup theory — the theory says that it was in the hot, acidic waters of pre-historic earth that lightning made simple, inorganic compounds to come together to form the first organic compounds. But was it really the missing part that was bothering me? No, what was bothering me was an extension of this missing part — since evolution started when inorganic material transformed into organic so why does it have to end here? Why can’t organic beings further evolve into inorganic beings? Eccentric thoughts like these are an occupational hazard, the price I pay in the form of a restless mind because of my profession as an AI product manager.

The other, perhaps still unresolved, aspect of evolution is the concept of ‘collective intelligence.’ Actually, I wasn’t aware of this phenomenon until just a few days ago, my carpool buddy and I were stuck in an evening rush in the Silicon Valley and somehow, we started discussing evolution. That’s when he asked me what I thought about collective intelligence and I told him nothing since I had no idea what it was. What he went on to explain blew my mind. This is the theory that tries to explain how large groups of individually unintelligent beings turn out to be intelligent. Case in point is a swarm of bees. An average worker bee is not a smart organism but when they come in large numbers, they are a highly intelligent system. They can navigate over large distances, collect nectar, build complex hives, protect their territory and the queen, and move as one organism in a swarm. How do they do it? We don’t know that yet but whatever the reason might be, we know that it is possible to combine wisdoms of individuals to create a system that is super-intelligent. And for me this missing piece completes the picture of the future of evolution.

We live in a connected world, a world where smart devices are connected to the internet. These devices are all around us and are constantly making decisions. Like our thermostat, or window shades, or lights, etc. These devices are growing so rapidly that a recent report suggested that by the year 2020 we might live in a world with over 20 billion smart devices connected to internet.

Now if you bring the three points I have made so far — organic to inorganic evolution (computer programs that are more efficient at creating AI than humans), collective intelligence (billions of smart devices connected to each other through internet), and the projected number of connected devices — it is easy to see that a single AI machine doesn’t have to be smarter than human brain to be the next level of evolution. If all, or even a fraction, of the smart devices were to form an organism, its collective intelligence would be far superior to a human brain.

So, while we anxiously wait for singularity, the day we will have a machine smarter than human beings, to become a reality, it might already be happening around us. In the form of our fridge, our thermostat, our sprinkler system, our blinds, our garage door opener, our smart phone, our tablet, etc. singularity might already be shaping up, slowly but steadily, without us even realizing its evolution. After all, isn’t this what evolution is — slow but constant change?

This all might turn out to be science fiction or reality in some way or the other; I don’t know but what I know is that it is an interesting thought to ponder. And all this from reading a bedtime story to my kid. I look forward to reading more kids books, perhaps you should too!