Generative AI is Changing the Course of Human History
By: Rooz Aliabadi Ph.D.
Since the inception of the computer era, humanity has been plagued by apprehensions about artificial intelligence (AI). Initially, these concerns centered on machines utilizing physical force to harm, dominate or replace humans in every task. However, in recent years, new AI technologies have surfaced that pose an unpredictable threat to the survival of human civilization. Generative AI has acquired exceptional capacities to manipulate and generate language, encompassing words, sounds, and images. Consequently, Generative AI has breached the operating system of our human civilization.
Almost every aspect of human culture is built upon language. This includes human rights, which are not inherent in our DNA but are cultural constructs fashioned through storytelling and the creation of laws. Similarly, gods are not tangible entities; instead, they are cultural constructs conceived through the design of myths and the writing of scriptures.
Money is also a human creation; they are simply a piece of paper. Over 90% of the money is not real banknotes but digital data stored on computers. The importance of money derives from the narratives that bankers, finance ministers, and cryptocurrency experts craft about it. Despite being unable to create tangible worth, individuals like Sam Bankman-Fried, Elizabeth Holmes, and Madoff excelled at making compelling stories.
What will ensue once non-human intelligence surpasses the average human in storytelling, music composition, image creation, and legal and religious writing? While many of us are intrigued by Chat-GPT and other emerging Generative AI tools’ ability to assist students in writing essays, this misses the broader implications. Instead, consider the upcoming 2024 U.S. presidential election and anticipate the potential impact of Generative AI tools that can produce political content, fake news, and scriptures to form new cults on a monumental scale.
The QAnon movement has formed recently, centering on anonymous online messages labeled “Q drops.” Adherents gather, revere, and interpret these “Q drops” as sacred texts. Although all current Q drops appear to have been written by humans and not only facilitate their dissemination, future cults may have their revered texts authored by non-human intelligence. Throughout history, religions have ascribed a non-human origin to their holy books, and soon, this could become a reality.
We may soon engage in extensive online conversations about topics like abortion, climate change, or the Ukraine conflict with entities that we believe are human, but in reality, they are AI. The dilemma lies in the futility of attempting to alter an AI bot’s stated opinions. At the same time, the AI itself could sharpen its messaging to such a degree that it can influence us.
Generative AI’s language ability could help it cultivate close relationships with us and leverage the power of intimacy to alter our beliefs and perspectives. Although there is no indication that AI keeps consciousness or emotions, creating an illusion of intimacy is enough for AI to foster a fake connection with humans. Last summer, Google engineer Blake Lemoine publicly asserted that the AI chatbot Lamda, which he was working on, had become sentient. Despite the likelihood that Mr. Lemoine’s claim was untrue, the most fascinating aspect of the incident was his willingness to risk his lucrative position for the AI chatbot. If AI can persuade people to jeopardize their employment, what other actions could influence them?
Intimacy is the most effective weapon in the political struggle for people’s loyalty and sentiments. Generative AI has recently developed the capacity to generate intimate connections with millions of individuals. Over the last decade, social media has become a battleground for influencing human focus. With the emergence of Generative AI, the battlefield is moving from attention to intimacy. How will human society and psychology be affected as AI fights against AI to falsify intimate relationships with us that can be used to persuade us to vote for specific politicians or purchase particular products?
The new Generative AI tools would significantly impact our beliefs and perspectives, even without fabricating “fake intimacy.” People might use a single AI advisor as an all-knowing, one-stop Generative AI. This is why Google is worried. Why go through the trouble of searching the traditional search engine when I can ask the oracle (Generative AI)? The news and advertisement industries should also be scared. Why read a newspaper when I can ask the Generative AI for the latest news? And what is the point of advertisements when I can ask the Generative AI what to buy?
And yet, these scenarios do not fully encompass the seriousness of the situation. We may face the potential end of human history — not the end of all history, but the end of the human-dominated era. History is a product of the interplay between biology and culture, between our instincts, such as hunger and sexuality, and our cultural constructs, such as religion and law. It is through the course of history that these constructs shape our affinity with food and sex.
What impact will the dominance of Generative AI have on the trajectory of history, as it takes the role of culture and generates its own stories, songs, rules, and religions? Unlike previous tools, such as the printing press and radio, which amplified human cultural ideas, as can generate entirely new cultural concepts and reshape history.
As Generative AI continues to develop, it will likely replicate the human standards on which it was initially trained. However, as time passes, it could embark on uncharted territory that humans have never explored. Throughout history, humans have lived within the vision and dreams of other humans. We could live within the imagination of extraterrestrial intelligence like Generative AI in the future.
A profound fear beyond the recent dread of AI for centuries has tormented us. We have long understood the ability of stories and images to deceive our minds and create false impressions. As a result, we have maintained an ongoing concern about becoming ensnared in a world of illusions.
For thousands of years, we have feared being trapped in a world of fantasies, recognizing the power of stories and pictures to persuade and manipulate our minds and create false perceptions. This fear has existed long before the emergence of the contemporary fear of AI. In the 17th century, René Descartes feared that a malicious demon was deceiving him by creating an illusory world around him. Similarly, in ancient Greece, Plato presented the famous Allegory of the Cave, where a group of people was imprisoned in a cave, facing a blank wall, with illusions projected onto the wall, which they misperceived as reality.
Buddhist and Hindu sages in ancient India observed that all humans were entrapped in Maya, the realm of illusions. What we consider reality is often only a construct of our minds. People may go to war, killing and sacrificing themselves due to their faith in fantasies and illusions.
The Generative AI story of today confronts us with the same fears that haunted Descartes, Plato, and ancient Indian thinkers. We risk being trapped by a veil of illusions we cannot recognize or remove.
Naturally, the potential benefits of AI are numerous and diverse and have been widely discussed by those who work in the field. Yet our collective responsibility is to highlight the risks of such technology. Nevertheless, there is no denying that Generative AI can help us in multiple forms, such as discovering remedies for cancer or addressing environmental challenges. The critical examination we must undertake is ensuring that these new tools are utilized ethically and constructively. To accomplish this, we must first comprehend the actual abilities of this technology.
Since 1945, we have been aware that nuclear technology has the potential to provide cheap energy for humanity but can also bring about the physical destruction of human civilization. Therefore, we have rebuilt the entire international system to safeguard human beings and guarantee that nuclear technology is mainly utilized for good. We must confront a new mass destruction weapon (Generative AI) capable of eradicating our mental and social world.
I believe the new Generative AI tools can be regulated, but we must act swiftly. Unlike nuclear weapons, Generative AI can create more powerful AI at an exponential rate. The initial and most crucial step is to require stringent safety checks before making any powerful ai tools available to the public. Like pharmaceutical companies, which can release new drugs once their short-term and long-term side effects have been tested, tech companies should only release new AI tools once they are deemed safe. We need an agency equivalent to the FDA in the United States for new technology, and we needed it yesterday.
Slowing down the public deployment of Generative AI may seem harmful to democracies compared to more ruthless dictatorial regimes. However, unregulated AI deployments could create social disorder, favoring autocrats and ultimately damaging democracies. Democracy is a dialogue, and language is a fundamental part of it. When Generative AI exploits language, it can threaten our capacity to hold meaningful discussions, potentially destroying democracy.
We are facing unfamiliar intelligence capabilities that could threaten our human civilization. We must stop the irresponsible use of the tools and establish limitations before we become subject to them. One necessary law requires Generative AI to disclose its artificial identity to us. If we cannot distinguish between a human and an AI during a conversation, it will seriously threaten democracy. Therefore, we must ensure transparency in the use of Generative AI.
This Chat GPT Lesson Plan and others are available FREE to all educators at edu.readyai.org
This article was written by Rooz Aliabadi Ph.D. (rooz@readyai.org). Rooz is the CEO (Chief Troublemaker) at ReadyAI.org
To learn more about ReadyAI, visit www.readyai.org or email us at info@readyai.org
