Rethinking AI
A conversation with students and teachers around the world.
By: Rooz Aliabadi, Ph.D.
As someone working in artificial intelligence (AI) education for over eight years, I’ve witnessed its incredible evolution firsthand. When I began, AI was considered a growing area of research, often dismissed in K12 education as a small part of CS education. Mentioning terms like “artificial general intelligence” (AGI) in classrooms would provoke strange looks and doubt, with many believing it to be 50 or even 100 years away from realization.
Despite the doubt, AI quickly began outperforming humans in tasks once thought impossible. From understanding images and translating languages to playing games like Go and chess and even diagnosing illnesses, AI has proven its potential to solve real-world problems. This rapid advancement pressed all of us to ask tough questions: Can AI solve the climate crisis? Will it revolutionize education as we know it? Does it mean universal basic income is coming? Should we fear it or love it? These are all valid questions.
I get one simple yet profound question from young students in the classroom, which makes me pause and reflect on the core of my work at ReadyAI: “But what is an AI anyway?” The innocent curiosity of these young students (Gen Alpha) emphasized the need for a clear and accessible explanation of what AI truly is and what it means for our future.
Let’s consider AI a new digital species to help everyone, from policymakers to children, understand this complex technology. While not a literal description, this analogy captures what AI represents. It suggests that AIs could become digital companions and partners in our lives, helping us navigate the future.
Life on Earth has evolved over billions of years, from the earliest tiny organisms to the dawn of humanity. With our unique ability to use tools, we (humans) have created a fascinating collection of technologies, from stone axes to language and industrial machinery. Each technological leap has accelerated the pace of innovation, culminating in today’s digital revolution.
The invention of computers sparked a new technological era just eight decades ago. We’ve since progressed from rudimentary mainframes to sophisticated smartphones and virtual-reality headsets. AI is the next wave, transforming every aspect of our lives. Nearly two billion people have used large language models in just over a year, witnessing AI’s creative and empathetic capabilities firsthand.
The growth in AI’s capabilities is nothing short of exponential. For example, Inflection 2.5, one of the latest Open AI models, used five billion times more computation than the AI that played Atari games a decade ago. This level of advancement is staggering, with models growing from millions to trillions of parameters and consuming trillions of words during training.
As AI becomes universal, it will transform how we interact with technology. Imagine having a personal AI tutor, medical consultant, lawyer, and coach in your pocket, available 24/7. These AIs won’t replace us; they’ll enhance our capabilities, making us more efficient and effective. Companies, cities, buildings, and objects will all have unique interactive AIs, improving our personal and professional lives.
These AIs won’t be mere assistants; they’ll be companions, confidants, colleagues, and friends. They will seamlessly integrate into our lives, managing everything from community events to scientific discoveries. This new AI wave will be intimate and vast, impacting every level of society.
We must rethink our AI metaphors to harness AI’s potential while mitigating risks. Traditionally, AI has been viewed as a tool, but this perspective is limiting. AIs are dynamic, integrated, and emergent, resembling a new kind of digital species more than mere tools. They communicate, see, and consume information, and they have memory, personality, creativity of different sorts, and autonomy far exceeding the capabilities of any tool.
While this view of AI is fundamentally about math and code, it misses the point. Just as humans are more than carbon and water, AI is more than algorithms and data. Thinking of AI as a digital species sharpens our focus on critical issues: risks, boundaries, and the kind of AI we want to create.
In every classroom, I tell students that we must design AI with safety in mind and ensure it serves and amplifies humanity. We can better understand AI’s potential and challenges by viewing it as a new digital species. This perspective encourages us to be explicit and transparent about safety, avoiding capabilities like autonomous self-replication, which could pose significant risks. We all must play a part in responsible AI development.
AI should not be separate from us; it reflects humanity, encompassing our empathy, kindness, curiosity, and creativity. As we build AI, we must ensure it embodies the best of what it means to be human. That is why we made it our number one mission at ReadyAI and WAICY to promote AI Thinking among students worldwide. This is the greatest challenge and opportunity of the 21st century. By embracing this vision, we can harness AI’s potential for the betterment of all, creating a future where technology and humanity thrive together.
AI represents a profound shift in our technological journey. Understanding it as a digital species allows us to responsibly prepare for and shape its impact. As we navigate this exciting frontier, let us strive to reflect all that is good about humanity in the AI we create, ensuring a bright and hopeful future for all. Everything we love about civilization is a product of intelligence, so amplifying our human intelligence with artificial intelligence can help civilization flourish like never before — as long as we manage to keep the technology beneficial.
The future lies in combining computers’ artificial intelligence with humans’ cognitive, social, and emotional skills and values. Our imagination, awareness, and sense of responsibility will enable us to harness technology to improve the world.
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.
