Visions of AI Utopia
Our future will be built on systems of artificial intelligence. In many ways, it already is. All of us have now seen the potential AI has to transform every aspect of human society. We’ve also started to collectively realise that the time is now.
Indeed, the impact will be so huge that people such as Sam Altman (CEO of OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT) have publicly stated they are slowing the release of technology platforms to give society time to catch up to the idea. AI is here and it’s already begun to change everything — we’ve got a few years to adapt before it will be embedded in every aspect of society.
We’re used to hearing about the potential risks that AI represents and there are plenty of them. From job insecurity and privacy concerns to automated weaponry, individually targeted propaganda and geopolitical instability. There are serious ethical concerns and dangers that AI brings with it that must be carefully and collectively addressed. Even an accident could lead to catastrophic effect if the systems are embedded and automated enough.
But only talking about how things can go wrong means we sometimes overlook the uplifting social change that AI can enable. So it’s important that we always take a balanced approach. By considering the best outcomes, we can start actively supporting those organisations and people that are building towards them. Yes, we do need to defend ourselves from the dangers of AI — but we also need to proactively work towards the positive outcomes. By doing so, they have a greater chance of occurring.
For this week’s R Planet Together discussion, I thought it would be interesting to look at some utopian visions of what AI could achieve. What are the best possible outcomes that it might bring to humanity? Which areas should we be getting excited about and supporting? What does an AI utopia look like and how might we get there?
Solving Food/Energy Scarcity
Perhaps one of the most immediate applications of AI is to enhance supply chains and provide greater efficiency in the delivery of goods and services. When it comes to food or energy scarcity, this can remove wastage and increase production by huge amounts — ensuring that resources can be allocated to all those who need them, not just those who pay the most.
With an ever-growing world population, AI will be a vital tool in overcoming many of the devastating effects of economic inequality more generally. Not just in the delivery of resources, but also in discovering new ways to improve production and increase efficiency at all points. Done in a way that is dynamic and able to adapt instantly to new information and circumstances.
Moving to models where efficiency takes precedence over growth not only has an impact on human wellbeing, but improves our relationship to the environment and the impact that our production has on the planet. By minimising our waste, while simultaneously improving technologies of production, AI can help us overcome many of the detrimental impacts that humanity is having — both on the planet and ourselves.
Perfect Tutors
One of the early uses of platforms such as ChatGPT has been that they make fantastic tutors. By being able to directly interact with AI, users can learn about any subject they wish. There are pros and cons to relying on the information received, for sure, but even at this early stage we can see how effective AI will be in helping us to learn and problem solve. It has already been shown useful in high-level training of surgeons, for example.
The ability to tailor education to each individual will completely revolutionise how we learn about the world. It will encourage people to deepen their interests in topics that excite them, while at the same time providing solutions to many of the problems we face that discourage us along the way.
When learning about new subjects there’s always a point in which the challenges of problem solving cause many people to give up. Learning how to overcome these challenges ourselves is, of course, an important part of truly understanding a discipline. But to be guided by a tutor that can help overcome many of the difficulties that stop us in our tracks, while also knowing your history of learning and how new information can relate to it, will mean that AI can guide us to follow our passions more effectively than we might have otherwise.
Unlimited Creativity
In the past six months, anybody with access to the internet could feel like a world-talented artist and see their ideas come to life. The experience of using AI-generated art platforms is so satisfying and compelling, that we can already see how unlocking this kind of creativity will impact us at the deepest levels.
Creativity is at the core of what makes humanity special. It drives everything that we are and is the foundation of living a happy and successful life. Being able to see our creativity flourish and suddenly understand that our imaginations can have real results, is perhaps one of the greatest gifts that AI has already provided us.
This not only unlocks our ability to imagine new things and have them created for (and with) us, but it means that bespoke entertainment becomes possible. That you can watch, listen to, view, learn from the specific things that you are most interested in. In time, this will even extend to exploring the (virtual) environments that you want to be within — with an infinite horizon of adventure as new worlds are created around you as you journey deeper into them.
Medical Advancements & Longevity
Perhaps one of the key utopian areas of AI is its ability to accelerate medical and scientific advancements. AI can find connections that haven’t been made before, with a level of accuracy not possible by human researchers. This allows research done by teams around the world to come together in ways that are greater than the sum of their parts — with new innovations discovered and novel ways of viewing problems brought to the surface.
We have already seen huge strides made in medical imaging and the development of new drug treatments through the use of AI. New treatments for afflictions such as dementia and Alzheimer’s, cancer and even just the unstoppable effects of aging all suddenly become solvable through systems that can collect, analyse, correlate and interpret data faster than humanly possible.
This will have an effect not only in the treatment of diseases, but in their detection. By being able to detect problems at the earliest possible moment — through the automated collection and analysis of biological data — we can drastically improve the overall health and wellbeing of society.
This comes at a cost to privacy, of course, so there will need to be clear guidelines and self-ownership of our personal data. But when it comes to medical intervention, as long as there are clear regulatory boundaries in place, the social benefit is substantial and will impact all of us as individuals too.
Smart Cities
Improvements in industrial design, software development and engineering will bring the efficiency of our resource economies into contact with the infrastructure of our towns and cities. This begins with providing energy and other utilities to where they are needed, reducing waste and decreasing costs, but the effects will go much further.
We’ve heard a lot about how automated-driving will change the way we consider travelling around cities, leading to a much stronger focus on public transportation and urban planning free from many constraints of personal transport. But there’s also the impact that AI will have on our own homes.
The potential for smart homes that adjust to our needs is likely one of the first steps towards a fully-integrated AI society — primarily because it will have such a strong commercial component. We’ve already seen the first steps in this direction, with rudimentary forms of AI-assistants; cleaning robots; and climate controls.
But beyond customised news feeds and grocery ordering, we can also see how AI will remove a lot of the difficulties in caring for a property. Identifying key issues — including potentially dangerous ones — and also being able to provide the solution, will bring significant improvement to our lives. Being able to have a home that responds to our needs and preferences, while keeping everything safe and engaged in a way that increases individual happiness and wellbeing, can create the personal utopias needed to deal with many stress-related challenges of modern life.
Translation & Cultural Understanding
One of the earliest uses of generative-AI has been translation. As the online models improved, and even started including live translation through our phones, language-barriers around the world started to dissolve and we could communicate with one another more confidently and effectively. This will become more integrated and accessible, to the point of being seamless in coming years (and occurring instantly, for those willing to embed AI into their own bodies).
This can extend even deeper than written or spoken language, with the interpretation of symbolic meaning embedded in the religion, art, literature and philosophy of different cultures. This goes beyond translation, because it starts to unlock entirely different worldviews. When you begin to understand the symbolic foundations of different cultures, real empathy can emerge. Instead of just trying to fit their words into our own models of the world, we can start to enter into different parts of the human experience in newly compassionate ways.
Companionship & Care
Social care work is one of the most under-served yet vital parts of society. How we look after the most vulnerable in our communities says a lot about the value we place on human beings over profit and material things. Unfortunately, in many areas, it seems that we tend to pull back much needed support because it is too costly or time-consuming. This says a lot about our priorities.
AI will help us solve many problems around vulnerability, particularly when it comes to monitoring those who might need assistance and also helping to overcome feelings of isolation and loneliness. We know that automated systems can’t be used to entirely replace the need for human interaction and compassion, however, by using these systems to create an ethos where we ‘don’t leave anyone behind’ will help keep us connected, safe and stimulated as we live increasingly long lives.
Governance & Legal Representation
One of the more curious pieces of news recently, is that AIs will soon be used to represent individuals in the legal system and have already helped judges make court rulings. Building off the ability to cross-reference vast amounts of data, AI is already becoming adept at understanding the many nuances and technicalities involved with putting forward a legal argument.
This can have positive implications on equality of representation, whereby it’s not just the most wealthy who can afford good legal teams; but also in helping with the consistency of decision-making and helping to both spot and mitigate biases in the legal system.
Similar improvements to decision-making can be made at a government level. AI will be able to point policymakers directly to areas that need attention, while at the same time offering up potential solutions that take into account the entirety of the economic, legal, social and ethical implications and aren’t so heavily skewed by the wants of lobbyists.
Enabling new forms of direct democracy that are both informed and actionable could revolutionise society. If that can be done while also overcoming the regulatory capture increasingly seen in the modern world, then that could truly be considered a utopian outcome facilitated by AI.
Conclusion
Working towards a vision of AI utopia requires a few elements. It requires corporations and governments to be transparent with their development of AI-systems, so that we can cater for the wide variety of use-cases that will be possible. It also requires us to ensure there is an egalitarian component to the roll-out of AI, particularly in regards to who can access these platforms so that they can be used for the benefit of all.
Then there are some technical considerations that must balance the sheer power of these platforms with a degree of social responsibility that is non-restrictive, while also protecting against misuse. For example, ‘permission to act’ can be an important fail-safe built into AI and will likely become an increasingly important part of the workflow of any automated systems. This might slow down their productivity, but will vastly increase their safety and ensure a degree of accountability in the results.
We also need to note that these systems will be used by bad actors seeking to do harm — whether intentionally or through their own greed. Building towards a positive future requires us to consider how we are going to overcome these scenarios, yet we don’t want them to dominate the discourse to the detriment of developing the more utopian use-cases.
All of the examples included here are just a small part of the potential AI has to build a more positive and uplifting future. There are many risks involved, but there are also many tangible benefits — ones that are in much closer reach than we might realise and, in many areas, will likely emerge before some of the risk factors come into play. It is encouraging to think that AI itself can help us solve the potential problems of its use, because the repercussions are so all-encompassing as to be impossible to manage every potential outcome.
It’s important to focus on the potential downsides of AI, but it’s equally important to consider how AI can lead us into a utopian future. By doing so, we can give those seeking truly good outcomes the resources and societal energy required to bring the best possible results into reality. Ultimately it comes down to the motivations of those creating and using these systems — and that we collectively get to decide where we point them and how they help enhance our lives.
