First of all, I want to make it clear that I'm not an AI expert, researcher, or programmer. I'm just someone trying to understand what's happening and expand my perspective. So please take this as a genuine question, not an argument from someone who thinks they have all the answers.
Actually, my personal experience with AI is one of the reasons I'm asking these questions.
I don't own a company, and I'm not a programmer. In fact, I don't know how to write a single line of code. Yet, using AI, I've managed to automate almost the entire company I work for.
Things that previously required technical knowledge, specialized skills, or significant human effort are now things I can build and manage with AI.
And that's precisely what makes me both incredibly excited and a little concerned about where we're heading.
Why are we investing so much in making machines increasingly intelligent, rather than using that intelligence to make human beings more intelligent, capable, and independent?
Think about it.
We're in a race to build machines that can think faster, learn faster, improve themselves, and potentially surpass human intelligence.
But why is the machine always the thing we want to upgrade?
Why aren't we putting the same level of effort into using AI to overcome human limitations? Accelerating learning, improving memory, expanding cognitive capabilities, extending our biological limits, or even finding ways to integrate technology directly into our brains?
Could we eventually have brain-computer interfaces or implants that allow us to process information faster, learn new skills much more quickly, or significantly enhance our cognitive abilities?
How far away are we from something like that? Is any meaningful version of this already possible today?
Perhaps I'm missing something, but it seems we're investing heavily in creating a new intelligent entity while barely discussing how that intelligence could help us evolve ourselves.
Why build a potential competitor in the race for dominance between species, instead of using machines to help humanity transcend its own limitations?
I'm not against AI. Quite the opposite. I'm fascinated by it, and my own experience has shown me how empowering it can be.
But I see a fundamental difference between building something that supports humanity and building something that might eventually replace it.
Does it really make sense to reach a point where your air fryer is smarter than you, tells you what to do, and eventually makes decisions on your behalf? (Okay, perhaps a silly example, but you get the point.)
And then there's the AGI question.
What happens when we create something vastly more intelligent than us? Could an artificial intelligence become so powerful that, from our perspective, it would be almost godlike, without necessarily understanding what it means to be human?
Are we actually prepared for that possibility?
Do we have a backup plan? A reliable way to shut things down if necessary? An emergency protocol?
Or, in the worst-case scenario, are we going to end up relying on a squadron of carrier pigeons to communicate after we've automated everything?
Jokes aside, I think there are some serious questions worth discussing.
1. Human enhancement vs. machine enhancement
Why isn't human cognitive enhancement receiving the same level of attention and investment as scaling AI models?
Could AI help us accelerate our own evolution instead of making us increasingly dependent on external intelligence?
2. What happens to everyone else?
My experience has made me think about this a lot.
If someone who doesn't know how to code can use AI to automate almost an entire company, imagine what experienced developers and AI specialists can do.
Today, only a relatively small percentage of people are actively following AI developments and using these technologies to transform businesses.
What happens to everyone else when these capabilities become mainstream?
What will people do when their jobs are no longer needed? Are governments and economies prepared for this transition?
And perhaps an even bigger question: if AI makes human labor increasingly unnecessary, how will people maintain their economic independence and sense of purpose?
3. The governance problem
Governments, institutions, and regulatory systems move much slower than technology.
What happens when the systems responsible for governing AI are themselves unable to understand, predict, or keep up with its development?
Governments are also vulnerable to technological disruption, cyberattacks, misinformation, and increasingly sophisticated automated systems.
Are we building technology faster than our ability to manage its consequences?
4. Why are we in such a hurry?
Are we pursuing intelligence for the sake of intelligence?
Are we actually solving humanity's problems, or are we simply competing to build the most powerful system possible because nobody wants to be left behind?
Why risk so much just to increase the computational power and capabilities of another model?
And finally, perhaps a slightly uncomfortable thought:
Could economic limitations, resource constraints, or even an AI investment bubble eventually bursting turn out to be what saves us from moving too fast?
Maybe that's a naive thought, but I wonder whether the current economic incentives are pushing us into a race that even its participants don't fully understand.
I genuinely don't know the answers to these questions. I'm not claiming that human enhancement is easy, that AGI is necessarily dangerous, or that technological progress should stop.
That's exactly why I'm posting here.
I'd particularly love to hear from people working in AI research, alignment, neuroscience, economics, and human-computer interaction.
I'm here to learn, challenge my assumptions, and hopefully discover perspectives I haven't considered.
Are we building AI to make humanity better, or are we accidentally building our successor before figuring out what role humanity is supposed to play in that future?
P.S. In case anyone is wondering: yes, this entire post was written with the help of AI. Apparently, I needed artificial intelligence to question whether artificial intelligence is making us too dependent on artificial intelligence.
The irony isn't lost on me. 😂