The emergence of augmented intelligence, which is currently still referred to as “artificial” intelligence, has led many to bemoan the approaching theoretical singularity, where machine and man become one. Sone welcome our new A.I. overlords and others equate the potential singularity to one form of apocalyptic portent. The end is nigh, for humanity, for the world.
We embrace augmented technology here at The Freedomist, and hope to employ augmented intelligence tools to enhance our ability to cover more stories. Yet, not even we are without concern about the uncritical, unchecked rise of A.I., never mind the reliance on A.I. analysis alone to base critical life-affecting decisions not only for yourself, but for others (through governments and corporations).
A.I is not intelligence, it’s an augmentation of intelligence, which is an exclusive human quality that cannot, nor ever will be, duplicated by machines. Machines analyze what is and what might be. They have no “oughtness” to them. That is, they have no capacity to provide for humans an objective, material justification for value that produces oughtness, what humans should or should not do ethically and morally.
We fear more the application of augmented intelligence in a way that assumes it’s full intelligence, and thus fully capable of defining for anyone an objective assumption of value from which objective moral and ethical standards can emerge. We EMBRACE the exciting possibility of A.I to augment our own intelligences, from which our values emerge.
Machines limited to man’s definition of oughtness are a blessing. Machines that begin to define our oughtness are an abomination to the human race.
Europol has released a new report on the use of A.I in content production and has concluded that by 2026 90 percent of the internet’s content will be created by A.I. The report focused on the misinformation-spreading potential of relying on A.I to be our main content producer even as it acknowledged that most applications will enhance the human experience, not detract from it.
The report states, “Experts estimate that as much as 90 percent of online content may be synthetically generated by 2026,” the report warned, adding that synthetic media “refers to media generated or manipulated using artificial intelligence.”
We at The Freedomist don’t welcome our A.I. overlords, because we don’t seek understanding of value, of ethics, of morality from them (at least not directly). We DO welcome our augmented intelligence tools as they emerge.
A.I is to intelligence what guns are to intentional force, a multiplier of the individual’s potential and a leveler for individuals found lacking in comparison to others. With A.I, we can analyze and process thousands of data points at a time that are impossible for the human mind alone. We can accelerate our path to understanding by shortening the time it takes for us to analyze and process thousands of data points.
We can create content-making A.I. tools that will enable us to share many more news stories than we can at present with our limited staff. So long as the A.I. creation is duly noted and is not used to create an analysis of morality or ethics itself, the content creation will be an enhancement of our human-based understanding. Otherwise, A.I content creation can become the dangerous tool of misinformation the report warns us about.
Perhaps if people start calling A.I augmented intelligence instead of artificial intelligence we can begin to treat A.I within the contextuality of the human rather than allow it to become the new definer of our humanity.
We welcome our A.I enhancers of the human mind.
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