Will AI Destroy or Save Us?

Prometheus Fire Unleashed

Divine fire, image by Midjourney. Hmmmm.

The god Prometheus stole fire from Mount Olympus and gave it to us humans. In these flames was the power of technology, knowledge, and civilization.

For this crime of advancing our species, he was punished by Zeus. Real nasty situation; chained to a rock, waiting for an eagle to eat his liver every day for eternity.

He was punished because the gods saw us as naturally evil, greedy, selfish, so that with every increase in our power so too would the suffering we cause with it. Think nuclear energy and the bombs we now have.

AI is the new form of divine fire. It has the potential to solve all our problems and create a much improved world; or, it can kill us all.

I’ll start by saying I don’t believe AI will gain awareness of itself and terminate all humans Skynet style. Of course it’s possible but let’s not even go there, we won’t have to.

The threat AI poses is in that power and decisions will be taken out of human hands. But some people think this will only benefit us. Others, that it may ruin us.

AI Will Enhance and Change Our Intelligence

So let’s start with the positive side shall we?

Marc Andreessen argues that:

What AI offers us is the opportunity to profoundly augment human intelligence to make all of these outcomes of intelligence – and many others, from the creation of new medicines to ways to solve climate change to technologies to reach the stars – much, much better from here.

• Economics will benefit everyone because AI create new jobs and maximize growth.

• War will kill less people by erasing poor decisions from command.

• Every kid will learn and grow due to perfect AI tutors.

• Art, music, writing will enter a golden age because we can produce more, faster, and beyond our current ability.