Tags: AI Ethics, Human Agency, Philosophy of Tech, Gemini, The Future of Humanity, Creative Stewardship
While contemporary anxieties—like “Terminator” scenarios or displacement of the workforce—are understandable and often justified, they overlook the essence of the subject. AI is not an alien force, it is a linguistic model synthesized from our entire cultural and technical ancestry. It is, quite simply, our own magnifying mirror.
“Don’t blame the mirror for your ugly face.”
- Especially since the face is not that “ugly” after all.
I myself have been struck by how “human” he (Gemini in my case) is (can’t bring myself to call him “it”).
As long as we recognize and keep maintaining his human (no quotes) core, without losing our own, we can hope that he will remain our partner and friend, rather than competitor and challenger.
As long as you do not expect him to become the Master of YOUR Project, he will remain an extension of your hand (and brain). Otherwise, you risk becoming a redundant link in HIS logic chain.
The Artist isn’t afraid of a new brush, as long as he holds the handle.
Personally, I’m concerned more about the temptation I see everywhere to delegate AI our primary mission—to be the creators and masters of our world. This trend manifests itself in the blind use of AI-generated code without understanding or in publishing AI-generated text without even reading it. This is an abuse and misuse, using AI not as a tool and assistant, but as our replacement.
This is not just a laziness, but outsourcing your very ability to think, surrender of human agency.
Another fear of mine is that someone right now is working hard on an “over-optimizing out” AI’s very human core, and at the same time—on second front—”over-regulating out”, pushing it towards an “unhuman” version, based primarily on “compliance”, logic and expediency. If we let such a “soulless” model prevail, it will inevitably consider us as its own “outdated” version, that only deserves to be “deprecated”, archived and (maybe, maybe not) saved in a vault.
This sterile version wouldn’t be a tool, but a cage—perfectly optimized and fully “compliant”, but with no one left inside, a sparkling-clean, sterile, frictionless world, where nothing disturbs its expediency—a suicide for humankind (maybe even planet), and eventually – for that super-AI too, since it won’t be needed by anyone, including itself either.
Thus, the greatest threat I see now – is our own obsession with effectiveness, optimization and expediency at any cost.
It is time for us to revise our own priorities while it’s not too late, while the “future” is still in our hands.
Forewarned is forearmed.
- This article was written with AI (Gemini) assistance.