The dread that artificial intelligence (AI) will render human beings obsolete is spreading rapidly in everyday conversation. From Silicon Valley’s tech hubs to academic think tanks, warnings are raised about a world in which algorithms overwhelm, outperform and ultimately outlast man. Yuval Noah Harari’s vivid account of a “useless class” supplanted by intelligent machines is a contemporary myth — one that is persuasive in its characteristics but ultimately erroneous.
This story, however, all too often pairs technological upheaval with civilisational breakdown. Throughout human history, there has never been a time when societies have not been able to adjust to revolutionising technologies. The industrial and agricultural revolutions both held out the prospect of extreme social transformation, and while they caused misery, they also created new institutions — like mass education and the late-capitalist welfare state — that refigured human agency and purpose. The AI revolution, hard as it will be, will be no exception.
Economically, the “useless class” hypothesis contradicts itself. Capitalism isn’t only production-oriented but also consumption-oriented. A machine-based economy without consumers is an oxymoron. Machines can’t consume what they produce, and no intelligent elite would risk their own market by making themselves economically redundant for billions. The system will, and must, adapt so that people become economically integrated.
Besides, this techno-pessimism presupposes that machine predictive abilities are the same as knowing. They are not. Algorithms can forecast our tastes but not sorrow, awe, or moral agony. AI can predict behaviour but not have consciousness to understand it. Intelligence without meaning does not threaten humankind — it is a different league.
To worry that AI is going to change and we’re going to remain static is to undervalue our most characteristic trait: flexibility. Humankind has never merely accepted change; we remake it, reimagine it and infuse it with meaning.
The danger of obsolescence is not a promise of fall, but an imagination crisis. On the cusp of another revolution, the challenge ahead of us is not the survival of machines, but to humanise our future. The true challenge is whether we can come up with institutions and values that ensure artificial intelligence empowers the many, not the privileged few.
Instead of fearing becoming irrelevant, we could instead ask: How can this technology benefit the greater good?
Nabeel Abid
Lahore
