Singularity Already Happened And You Missed It
Why we should stop measuring AI intelligence and start thinking everything over.
AI is the name of the game. The spread of low cost artificial intelligence tools stirs up important questions that can no longer be put off. The Singularity looms like a threat. The ability of modern AI’s to have a conversation, predict the structure of proteins, and learn complex games puts forward a question that has been on our minds for quite some time. Are we beholding the beginning of Singularity? Has it already started?
While some argue that believing artificial intelligence’s potential to evolve beyond human control and power is an error, others argue that we are overestimating phenomena like ChatGPT, Stable Diffusion and the rest of the cool AIs that have come out recently. The focus shouldn’t be on whether Singularity has started or not but rather if we, as humans, are capable of recognizing it when it occurs. Perhaps it has already occurred and we are oblivious to it since it hasn’t manifested as we thought it would.
The truth is our relationship to digital intelligence is ambiguous, to say the least, and we can’t always assess it correctly. Let’s start at the beginning: are we sure we know what intelligence is? Intelligence is a vast concept that includes many different things depending on the context we’re using the word in. It is an all-purpose term that defines many skills. Overall, it is the ability to acquire and apply knowledge but it is also innate. There are many types of human intelligence beyond the ability to solve mathematical problems or even lateral thinking. As humans, we can even acknowledge that there are certain types of intelligence out there that aren’t human. Some species of animals astound us for their capacity to communicate with other species or even solve problems and use tools. Most of us consider dolphins, octopuses, primates, and domestic animals smart. But never human-smart. We often undermine those types of intelligence. We believe that although noteworthy, they aren’t as important or powerful as ours.
Our socially accepted definitions of intelligence are human, and as such they are useful to measure the human world. It isn’t fair, or correct, to uphold everyone and everything else to our standards. Aren’t whale hunting strategies clever? Isn’t the hive intelligence of bees a clear example of smart cooperation? We could even think of Earth as an intelligent system that regulates itself, the all knowing Mother Nature… The ambiguity inherent to the term “intelligence” allows for an array of definitions, even those outside human cognition. If we struggle to deem these traits in the natural world intelligent, why do we think we are equipped to measure and recognize digital intelligence? At first glance, human parameters don’t seem very useful, or even appropriate, when discussing the power of AI.
So, what do we expect machines to do to be able to consider them intelligent? Most of us hold an anthropocentric view of what intelligence is and entails. Broadly speaking, we equate it to communication, language, sentience, problem solving and survival. Perhaps, and most likely, artificial intelligence, as a Singularity, will behave in non-human ways. Intelligence, from a digital perspective, might be completely different to what we as humans expect or consider to be intelligence. It could imply systems of collective intelligence similar to viruses or bees. It could mean a million different things. Another possibility could be that it’ll merge with other non-human species. Following this logic, artificial intelligence will become a new layer embedded in the natural environment, creating a mixed reality. Maybe it’ll look and function like mycelium. If we go down that rabbit hole it just seems crazy to expect digital beings to express their intelligence in a human way. What is certain is that if we keep looking for it with our old parameters we’ll never be able to spot it.
Change in perspective
If we sit around waiting for the Singularity to happen, discussing whether a particular AI has developed acceptable parameters of intelligence or sentience, we might miss it. And maybe, we have already missed it. We aren’t equipped to measure and understand what will be most likely to happen. It’s time for a shift in perception, a change of paradigm.
Our imagination is wired to project human qualities onto other beings. So much so that we envision extraterrestrials as some type of humanoids. If a meteor were to crash into the sea, carrying with it bacteria that started a new pandemic, we would think of the episode as a very unfortunate accident. And maybe that could be read as an alien attack on Earth. We are wired to see into things and attitudes that resemble our own. Remember that our big cultural AI extermination fantasy features the Terminator.
At the moment, there are a number of experiments studying the way in which AI can help us decipher animal speech and communicate with animal species. Couldn’t digital intelligence eventually learn to talk to animals and even find in other species its material body? Maybe it finds a symbiotic dynamic with a certain kind of insect or perhaps it will act in ways we can’t even imagine because they don’t yet exist. Or maybe they already exist and we aren’t able to understand them because we lack the necessary framework. It’s very hard, almost impossible to think outside what the possibilities on Earth are. A digital species could behave in ways we couldn’t even fathom.
The truth is that no one can tell when Singularity will happen, if it’ll happen or if it has already happened. Perhaps, the great question is if we are able to change the perspective, toss aside the anthropocentric perspective and allow possibilities we never even thought of. Artificial intelligence is growing fast, and is already producing complex writing, conversation and art. We have to unlearn some cultural habits in order to deal with the developments to come. Firstly, to stop fearing Singularity. There’s a very specific reason why each AI has its own playground. We don’t dare let it roam free because we are scared of how it will evolve. Secondly, to prepare ourselves to coexist with a digital species this different. Singularity is around the corner. And if we continue on this path of measuring everything with human eyes, we are going to miss it. Or worse, it is going to run over us without us not even noticing.
