Artificial Intelligence and the end of the human race

We are humans — the most intelligent species on Earth. We are masters of our destiny. We are rulers of this planet. We invented medicine to combat disease. We invented weapons to kill each other. We built cities for people to live together. We built an atomic bomb to destroy homes and level down cities. We know how to enjoy the blessings and privileges we have in this life. We know how to deprive others of the same blessings and privileges. We are saints. We are demons. We have built skyscrapers and slums, mansions and prisons. We are politicians and economists. We are scientists and philosophers. We are monarchs and dictators. We are warriors and plunderers. But we don’t always need precision-guided missiles to target each other. We have think-tanks. We know how to spread disinformation through news media as well as social media. We know how to indoctrinate minds through education. We know how to launch a fifth-generation warfare. We can make good look bad and bad look good.

We are humans — the most insecure species on Earth. Angst is our biggest enemy. If we ever realise that our life has no purpose or meaning, and that there is no life after death, we will immediately become anxious, even clinically depressed. Why? Because we are pleasure-seeking, pain-avoiding creatures, physically and mentally both. We like to believe in what makes us happy. And we like to avoid unpleasant thoughts. We want to stay relevant. We want to be happy even if it means lying to ourselves. We especially cherish the idea that we are important. The question is: are we more important than a house fly?

A house fly (the omnipresent makkhee) lives for 28 days. A honey bee, in busy summer months, does not survive beyond 5-6 weeks. The average lifespan of a mouse (chooha) is one year. A drone ant (looks like a wasp) is a male who lives for a few days and dies soon after it mates (having served its purpose). Fish can live for 1-200 years. Let’s think about it. What if we, the humans, lived for only 28 days, like the common house fly, 10 days of childhood, 10 days of adult life, and remaining 8 days of old age before dying. But we live for 80 years, not 28 days. Is 80 years too much longer than 28 days when compared against eternity? Feel free to use your calculator.

We do have a short lifespan. So what? We are still the most powerful animal. We are still a thousand times more intelligent than our closest relative, the chimpanzee. But imagine another species, another form of life, organic or inorganic, that is a thousand times more intelligent than us. In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has sprouted all around us like pansies and marigolds in spring. GPS can guide us to our destination. Siri can answer our queries and make recommendations. IBM’s AI bot Watson can beat the best players in a Jeopardy competition. Automated cars are about to replace the cars we drive today. An AI bot will soon become our personal doctor, lawyer and consultant. According to a survey of AI researchers, machines will outperform humans in all intellectual tasks within the next 60-70 years.

The next step will be the emergence of an artificial super-intelligence (ASI). The human brain, with organic neural networks, has on average an IQ of 100. A genius may have an IQ of 140-170. Now close your eyes and think of a machine that has an IQ of 50,000! “With perfect memory and unlimited analytical power,” according to an article in Harvard Science Review, “this computational beast could read all of the books in the Library of Congress the first millisecond you press your finger on “enter” on the program, and then integrate all that knowledge into a comprehensive analysis of humanity’s 4000 years of intellectual journey before your next blink.” Now imagine that this computational beast can “think” and improve upon itself by designing more complicated algorithms and AI neural networks. The exponential growth in intelligence could result in an intelligence explosion with consequences we are unable to fathom. Is this the end of us as the most intelligent creatures on this planet? Most definitely.

Animal life evolved on Earth around 800 million years ago. How many animals have become extinct ever since? Too many to count. The dinosaurs. The wooly mammoth. The Eurasian wild ox. Vaquita, a species of dolphin, is on the verge of extinction. Are we too on the verge of extinction? Whether we get killed by Artificial Superintelligence (ASI) directly or by a psychotic who uses the ASI to kill us, what difference does it make as far as the universe is concerned? Our planet is nothing more than a pale blue dot in the vast cosmic arena, as Carl Sagan once reminded us. “Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.” Codswallop, you might think. But in final thought, if we ever become extinct, will the universe owe us an apology?

Published in The Express Tribune, September 26^th, 2023.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.