Being human in the age of intelligence

OpenAI raised a massive $6.6 billion VC round, valuing the company at $157 billion. Altman himself recently wrote a blog post discussing the “age of intelligence.” While he may be wrong about the exact time this might take place in full force, he is right about the direction of change. In the era of artificial intelligence, we will be forced to rethink almost all areas of our lives. Ironically, as we have begun to lament that humans are becoming more and more machine-like and machines are becoming more and more human-like, we must consider an important question: what is the deeper meaning and purpose of the term “being human”? Right now, all we are reminded of is the fancifully priced T-shirts sold by Bollywood actor Salman Khan’s foundation.

Changing technology and its impact on how we live and work

Whenever a significant technological change occurs, it profoundly changes our civilization in terms of the way we live and work. As humans learned to grow crops, which allowed them to produce food regularly, and invented the wheel, which allowed them to transport surplus food to trade with others, they began to create settlements that became villages. Villages enabled human society to evolve into the complex structures we still see today. In an agricultural society, the ability to work hard with your hands was key, so physical strength was rewarded.

When the Industrial Revolution occurred, large industrial cities such as London and Manchester emerged, powered by thousands of not only strong men, but also women and children who could contribute to the work because machines were easier to operate. Therefore, the ability to operate and work with physical machines was awarded.

In the digital age, we have managed to build the internet, connect to email and social media, and work. Software parks have sprung up, attracting large numbers of IT workers to cities like Silicon Valley or closer to home in Bangalore. Knowledge became power, so people put effort into acquiring knowledge in schools and exchanged it with others through IT/digital companies.

In the age of intelligence, with the development of artificial intelligence, we will see work and life reintegrated in ways we have never seen before. Instead of large industrial plants with 3D printing and precise production, we can observe the interpenetration of work and living spaces. Thanks to intelligence, physical objects (cars, robots and machines) can move and work autonomously. This would give rise to the cities of the future where 40-50% of workflows would be based on artificial intelligence. In AI-powered future cities that could be energy sustainable, almost everything from manufacturing to healthcare, education and financial services would be redesigned using intelligence. Being smart, or putting in the effort to be smarter, might not matter much because a huge amount of machine intelligence would be available on an ongoing basis, helping us automate work that now consumes almost 60-70% of our time, according to a report by McKinsey Research.

The birth of Scrollohuman?

Artificial intelligence will lead to huge increases in productivity by democratizing intelligence and could end up giving us an extra day or two a week. It would be interesting to explore what people would do with this extra day.

We have been burdened with work for a long time. From an early age, it was drilled into our heads that we had to survive in this sparse world by working almost 10-12 hours a day. All our education is prepared so that we can work usefully in society. We force ourselves to wake up every morning with piercing alarms, drink endless cups of coffee to keep going, and ultimately take pills to fall asleep, silencing our body’s natural self-regulating healing system. We create and then deal with all kinds of traumas, chasing fictitious things like fame and money to make them seem important in the eyes of others, assuming that mindless work gives critical meaning to our lives.

The growing capabilities of artificial intelligence promise to reduce the workload of meeting basic needs, but the trend of time spent using a smartphone is growing exponentially. Today, the average person spends almost a whopping 3 hours and 15 minutes a day doom scrolling. Psychologists are beginning to warn of the pandemic’s spiraling doom, with an increasingly vicious cycle of sophisticated artificial intelligence algorithms and engagement-driven social media business models. This begs the question: Will we spend that extra day of AI-powered productivity scrolling through our Instagram videos, forwarding WhatsApp on steroids, or watching Netflix? Could the allure of receiving a never-ending stream of dopamine in the time available now slowly draw us into The Matrix?

Machines evolve. Can we too?

Nearly a century ago, Sri Aurobindo, in his famous book on Integral Yoga, discussed how we are evolving into a superconscious species focused on a deeper exploration of the human self. When I read his book during a visit to Auroville almost 20 years ago, I could not understand his concept of man as a transitional form. Over the past 15 years, as I have followed the evolution of artificial intelligence as an entrepreneur, investor and policymaker, I have realized that while Elon Musk is famous for talking about machines gaining consciousness, we have not really explored and understood the beauty of human consciousness – something he highlighted Sri Aurobindo.

In our schools, we have barely taught our children concepts related to working with human emotions, empathy, self-concept, the nature of reality, compassion and service. The military and industrial power of the US and China could give humanity the gift of cooperation with AI. However, the answers to the question of “Being human” in the age of intelligence probably lie on the banks of the Ganges. The true potential of artificial intelligence may be a social transformation that will create a new type of human civilization based on unity, peace and spiritual truth, replacing current systems based on ego, division and materialism. Can we be true pioneers, brave enough to take this journey to become real people?

(Umakant Soni – Umakant Soni is the CEO of AIfoundry and co-founder of ARTPARK (AI and Robotics Technology Park))

Disclaimer: These are the author’s personal opinions