Imagine that when you’re boarding an airplane, half of the engineers that built it tell you that there’s a 10% chance the plane will crash, killing you and everyone else on it. Will you still get on board?
2022, more than 700 leading academics and researchers behind leading artificial intelligence companies were asked in a survey on future AI risks. Half of those surveyed say there is a 10% or higher chance of humans becoming extinct (or similarly severe and permanent) from AI systems in the future. The tech companies that build the major language models today are caught up in a race to get all of humanity on that plane.
Drug companies cannot sell people new drugs without first rigorously testing their products for safety. Biotech labs cannot release new viruses to the public to impress shareholders with their magic. Likewise, AI systems with the power of GPT-4 or higher must not get entangled in the lives of billions of people at a rate faster than cultures can safely absorb them. A race to market dominance should not set the pace at which humanity’s most important technology is deployed. We should move at whatever speed allows us to do this right.
The specter of AI has been haunting humanity since the mid-20th century, but until recently it remained a distant prospect, one that belongs more in science fiction than in serious scientific and political debates. full. Our human mind is very elusive new ability of GPT-4 and similar tools, it is even more difficult to grasp the exponential rate at which these tools are developing more powerful and advanced capabilities. But most of the key skills focus on one thing: the ability to manipulate and create language, even with from, sound or image.
In the beginning was the Word. Language is the operating system of human culture. From language come mythology and law, gods and money, art and science, friendship and nations and computer code. The AI’s new language mastery means it can now hack and manipulate a civilization’s operating system. By mastering language, AI is holding the key to civilization, from bank vaults to holy tombs.
What does it mean for humans to live in a world where a large percentage of stories, melodies, images, laws, policies, and tools are shaped by superhuman intelligence, which know how to exploit with superhuman efficiency the weaknesses, biases and addictions of the human mind – while knowing how to form intimate relationships with people? In games like chess, no human can hope to beat a computer. What happens when the same thing happens in art, politics or religion?
AI can quickly devour entire human culture — everything we’ve created for thousands of years — digest it and begin flushing out loads of new cultural artifacts. Not only school essays but also political speeches, ideological manifestos, holy books for new denominations. By 2028, the US presidential race may no longer be run by humans.
People often do not have direct access to reality. We are surrounded by culture, experiencing reality through the lens of culture. Our political views are shaped by journalists’ reports and anecdotes from friends. Our sexual preferences are governed by art and religion. So far that cultural cocoon has been woven by other humans. What will the actual experience through the lens of non-artificial intelligence be like?
For thousands of years, we humans have lived the dreams of others. We have worshiped the gods, pursued ideals of beauty, and dedicated our lives to purposes that were rooted in the imagination of some prophet, poet or politician. Soon we too will find ourselves living in the illusion of superhuman intelligence.
The “Terminator” series depicts robots running through the streets and shooting people. The “Matrix” assumes that to gain full control of human society, AI must first gain physical control over our brains and connect them directly to computer networks. However, in reality, just being fluent in the language, the AI will have all it needs to contain us in an illusory world like the Matrix, without shooting anyone or implanting any humans. which chip into our brain. If filming is needed, AI can make humans pull the trigger, just by telling us the right story.
The specter trapped in an illusory world has haunted humanity longer than the ghost of AI. Soon we will face the demon of Descartes, with Plato’s cave, with the Maya of Buddhism. A veil of illusion could fall over all of humanity, and we may never tear that veil again – or even realize it’s there.
Social media was the first link between AI and humanity, and humanity is gone. The first contact gave us a bitter taste of things to come. In social media, primitive AI is not used to create content but to curate user-generated content. The AI behind our news feeds is still choosing which words, sounds, and images reach our retinas and eardrums, based on choosing which words, sounds and images to receive. The most viral, the most reactive, and the most interactive.
Although very rudimentary, the AI behind the social network is enough to create a growing veil of illusion. social polarization, undermine our mental health and shed light on democracy. Millions of people have confused these illusions with reality. America has the best information technology in history, but US citizens can no longer agree about who won the election. Although everyone is now aware of the dark side of social media, it remains unresolved because so many of our social, economic and political institutions have become entangled in it.
Large language models are our second exposure to AI. We cannot afford to lose again. But on what basis should we believe that humanity is capable of aligning these new forms of AI to our benefit? If we continue to do business as usual, the new AI prowess will again be used for profit and power, even if it inadvertently destroys the very foundations of our society.
AI really has the potential to help us defeat cancer, discover lifesaving drugs, and invent solutions to our energy and climate crises. There are countless other benefits that we can’t even begin to imagine. But it doesn’t matter how tall the skyscraper of benefit AI builds if the foundation collapses.
It’s time to embrace AI before our politics, economy, and daily lives become dependent on it. Democracy is a conversation, the conversation is based on language, and when the language itself is hacked, the conversation breaks down and democracy becomes defenseless. If we wait for chaos to happen, it will be too late to fix it.
But there’s one question that might be lingering in our heads: If we don’t go as fast as possible, will the West run the risk of losing to China? Are not. The uncontrolled deployment and entanglement of AI into society, unleashing divine powers without accountability, may be the very reason why the West lost to China.
We can still choose the future we want with AI When divine power is combined with commensurate responsibility and control, we can realize the benefits AI promises.
We have summoned an alien intelligence. we do not know much about it, except that it is extremely powerful and gives us great gifts but can also attack the foundation of our civilization. We call on world leaders to respond to this moment with the level of challenge it presents. The first step is buying time to upgrade our 19th century institutions for an AI world and learn to master AI before it masters us.
Yuval Noah Harari is a historian; the author of “Sapiens,” “Homo Deus” and “Unstoppable Us”; and founder of social impact company Sapienship. Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin are the founders of the Center for Humane Technology and co-hosts of the podcast “Your Undivided Attention.”
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