A New Symbiosis

  Most people don’t know it yet, but we have entered a new age, a new time in human history. For a new revolution is underway, right before our very eyes, and yet we are going about our lives like we’re none the wiser. AI technology is the next technology to transform humanity fundamentally, a paradigm shift in our way of being. Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, has compared the advent of AI to that of fire, which we understand as one of, if not, the most consequential technology of our history. A paradigm shift so profound, it may have made us into who we are today.

Being on the precipice of something this great lends me a feeling of connectedness with our past. Was this how we humans felt when we first discovered agriculture and industry? The wheel and, of course, fire itself? Have we always stared so wide eyed at the scenes painted by brewing advancements, where on one hand, we can’t ask for it to come any sooner, and on the other, we’re stricken, fearful of what is yet to come? I’m sure during the agricultural revolution, there were those saying “Yes, we can make all our food through farming and domestication, but what of those who like to hunt? Where will there be room for them?” And though you are free to hunt, and some still do so to survive, agriculture has proven more efficient for feeding large numbers of people, and thus, farmers have largely replaced hunters. Just like industry became more productive than artisanal production, and cooked meat via fire proved more fit than raw, when we find something that works better, we mobilize it. But with AI it’s different, deeper, more profound. With agriculture we said “what about the hunters”, with industry, the craftsmen. But what of AI? What are we asking in this case?

Is the question now “Yes, we can automate everything a human does with a machine, but what if some of us still want to be human? In a world where AI does everything, will there be room for us?” If so, what actions are manifestations of what we consider human, and what of our lives do we feel we can do better without? What do we want these machines to do, and who are they doing it for? And as profound as these questions may be, these questions also have a dark undertone packaged alongside them, for it follows the same pattern as all the other paradigm shifts. Obsolescence at scale. These machines may make human cooperation and work at scale obsolete across as many domains as we’d like, and in the pursuit for ever more productivity, in the drive to satiate molochs hungry stomach, this is exactly what will happen. Self-Planned Obsolescence.

When it comes to questions like these that hit at the value of our very being, we must be wary of the direction of progress, because when it comes to said progress, we always look back wondering how we could have let the negative repercussions of such happen. Extinctions in our forests, plastic in our oceans, excess carbon in our atmosphere, and recklessly made debris in our orbit. Human progress often leaves a stain. A mark. A reminder of the compromises made for what we call “the greater good”, for we don’t hate the advancements, we hate what we gave up for them, and, as such being the case, we must therefore consider the horizon before us. The most powerful technology that humanity has ever created is coming online as you read, and its reach within society will be unbounded, so again, I say, we must ask ourselves: What are we willing to give for the benefits begotten from this technology, and what are we hoping to gain, for if we don’t ask these questions, we may forever lose something so deep to humanity, it might as well be fatal.

A new symbiosis is underway

Elon musk claims that we are already cyborgs, and I personally experience this sentiment. When leaving the house, I feel a little naked without my AI enhanced AirPods on, where I can listen to and seamlessly respond to texts. Where I can ask Siri to pause, play, or skip a song by speech alone. AirPods are a simple yet definitive example of the coming times ahead, where AI models of multiple modalities are embedded in our everyday lives. We see it in our phones, in our google homes, and soon they’ll be in everything.

When it comes to symbiotic relationships in the wild, they form out of convenience, and sometimes one of the party’s becomes dependent on such relationships to survive. Is this the fate of humanity, where our symbiotic partner is not only artificial, but evermore so tied to human values (ideally). Could this be the most powerful symbiotic relationship to exist, and it’s entirely of our own making? Once AI becomes entrenched in our everyday lives, is it then feasible that we can then live without it if need be? Be wary of what you make uneditable, for as we all know, what you wish for may not be what it seems.