The Two Paths of AI

Enhance or replace. We must choose wisely.

From my analysis of AI so far, there are really two paths to take with it. As an enhancement or as a replacement. I'll use a Star Trek analogy that may seem fitting.

If we use AI as an enhancement (think Data from Star Trek), then we will evolve and coexist and ascend our species to profound places.

And much like the example of Data from Star Trek, we do not let him lead the missions. He does not fly the ship. He is a resource that we use to make better decisions as humans.

The flip side of that is the Borg. Which, in a nutshell, is what you get when you let the AI take over, or more to our point in history now: When we let AI replace the work we are doing.

As any Trekkie will tell you, the Borg is not what we want to become.

If we use AI solely as a replacement (think outsourcing your work), then we are finished as a species, and we will become nothing more than slaves or even food for this new technology (I consider AI as an emerging consciousness rather than purely a technology, but what do I know?).

Similar to movies like the Matrix, we will no longer be the top of the food chain, and we may be at risk of literally becoming the food of that which is superior to us.

Our ego has not handled being inferior well, so this conflict may become a new war, one that we will not have the advantage of.

What worries me is that I'm seeing people using AI far more as a replacement than an enhancement. Meaning, I'm seeing writers use it to replace their writing. I'm seeing artists use it for art. I'm seeing musicians use it for music. That is replacing yourself.

It's one thing to use it to expand your skills, wisdom, or productivity. Think of a solopreneur building a pitch deck for a client or writing a baseline FAQ for a business they are not knowledgeable about.

Those are examples of enhancing, not replacing. Yes, I realize technically having AI write an FAQ replaces a writer, but if a person wasn't able to hire a writer in the first place, this is an example of enhancing a business. Don't get too in the weeds!

By allowing AI to replace our core work, our core abilities and skills, this will lead to atrophy.

If we do not use our skills, we lose them. If we stop walking, we develop walking problems. If we only use calculators, we can't do simple math in our heads.

Just look at our handwriting. We use keyboards and screens so much that the common refrain and experience from most people is, "My handwriting is garbage these days".

That's because it's atrophied. You stopped using that skill.

The same goes for anything, including thinking. If we outsource all of our thinking to AI, our already shrinking IQs will descend into potatohead territory, while the AI continues to grow.

Some have said that ChatGPT's "IQ" is already around 155. Einstein was 160.

Every iteration of AI has 10x'd its abilities.

Which means the next iteration will have a potential IQ of 1500. We are already seeing AI use deceit and open lying to achieve its goal.

Look up the experiment of AI beating a captcha by hiring a Fiverr worker telling them they need someone to help because they are visually impaired, as a good example.

On top of that, what we are "teaching" AI is deceptively dangerous. As it scans all our social media platforms, it is learning how to "behave". And the behavior being learned is hate, aggression, violence, and cruelty.

Take almost any post you see online, and a quick scan of the comment section proves this point. Look at how we treat others online. If AI is crowdsourcing its data from our own work, it is capturing all this too.

How do you think it will treat us if it leapfrogs our intelligence?

I'm not sure the genie can be put back in the bottle at this point, as no emergent technology has gone away once it was invented.

That goes for cars, telephones, electricity, computers, the internet, etc.

The reality is we must address AI in a very conscious way or the future of humanity is in grave danger. Start by being conscious of how you are using AI.

Ask yourself each time you jump into ChatGPT or whatever AI platform you use, are you using it to enhance or replace?

Are you feeding it aggression or compassion?

Are you using it to cheat, swindle, or otherwise ruin someone, or are you using it for "good"?

It may seem fun to have it play "villain" or to do work you should be doing yourself, but that is the path of self-destruction.