What do you think about AI?
Well, when it comes to artificial intelligence, I've touched on this fascinating topic a number of times. You know, the idea of AI really poses a philosophical challenge for us humans. As I mentioned in a talk, "the famous Turing test" involves someone being unable to tell whether they're interacting with a person or a machine. If it's a machine, then we have what is called artificial intelligence 1.
There's a lot of debate among AI researchers about what kind of superintelligence might emerge. And I think if this superintelligence lacks ethical grounding—say, the ethics of the Buddha—the human race could be in serious trouble, or at least under some form of control 2. It's a profound concern, really, because as these systems become more sophisticated, they might start learning autonomously. Imagine a computer that can learn 50,000 times faster than a human—it could quickly grasp human knowledge and history 6.
In another sense, I think we're unwittingly making the web more conducive to the emergence of organized artificial intelligence. We don't quite know what this will look like or whether it's a reasonable fear that these complex systems might evolve self-sustaining strategies that resemble strategic intelligence 9.
Given my perspective on consciousness and the mind, I tend to see AI as an extension of our quest to understand and replicate human intelligence. But whether AI will embody the values and ethics we hold dear is an open question. The hope, I think, lies in humanity becoming smarter and more ethically aware as we navigate this technological frontier 7.
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