Can AI Unlock Infinite Human Potential and Extend Human Lifespan?

Artificial Intelligence, aka AI, has been one of the most popular and intensively researched and developed fields of the last several decades. Looking back at the history of AI, it is quite astonishing to see how much the perceptions of it have changed since the mid of the twentieth century. In fact, when AI was recognized as a subject of study in 1956, few people had any idea of what this was. The reaction to AI at that time was one of caution and much of it was skeptical, with many people regarding the notion of machines attaining human-level intelligence as some kind of pipedream or impossibility. Some thought it would take hundreds of years to form. But the researchers at the Dartmouth conference in 1956 seemed a lot more optimistic, for instance Minsky was expecting AI to reach human level intelligence in a semester. Some were saying it would take only a few decades but still within their life span.

The ability that is distinctive to humanity to create tools that supplement intelligence has placed AI at the cutting edge of technology. The human ability of making tools to make themselves smarter has persisted from the first hominid who used the early tools to the modern tools such as GPT-4. Smartphones which are linked to the cloud make us more intelligent by extending the ability of our brains to learn more each year. This trajectory leads to the singularity where these tools will be more and more merged with human brains making us even smarter.

This capacity is rooted in two key aspects of human anatomy: the brain and the thumb. Other animals like elephants and whales have brains that are almost as big as that of humans but none of these animals has the ability to make tools as humans do because they lack both the big brains and a functional thumb. Monkeys have hands with thumbs but they cannot use these hands and thumb in the same manner as humans do to develop and improve on tools. This is the ability to make tools that in turn create other tools and this is what human beings have been doing and what AI is doing today.

One of the most important factors that define the AI development is the increase in computational capabilities. Until recently, this growth remained invisible for decades. Since the beginning of the computational era in 1939 when the computational power was only able to do a few calculations per second, there has been a 75-quadrillion fold increase in the computing power with modern processors doing billions or trillions of calculations per second. It has been possible due to this exponential growth to grow at a rate that was unimaginable in the early days of AI. For instance, large language models that were nearly useless three years ago are now among the most advanced AI systems out there - that's how much progress has been made in a few years.

In 1999, there were some predictions as to when artificial general intelligence (AGI) would be achieved. There was a projection that AGI could be realized by 2029 assuming that the growth of computing power will continue to rise exponentially. This was initially dismissed and people thought that AGI would not be attained for another 100 years at best. Nevertheless, the consensus has changed dramatically. Now, everyone seems to think that AGI is much nearer with estimates pegging the possibility at anywhere between a few months up to just one year.

It is in the medical field that AI’s possibilities are probably most apparent, and it is in this area that the technology is rapidly evolving. For example, AI helped Moderna to create the vaccine against COVID-19. Using AI, researchers were able to test billions of potential mRNA sequences in just two days, which would have otherwise have taken months. The resulting vaccine, which has been among the most successful, is an example of how AI can cut the time for scientific advancement by up to 50 percent. Such applications are now being used in cancer research, and the potential treatments are being developed.

As of 2022, human researchers were able to identify 190,000 proteins. By 2023, AlphaFold 2, an AI system, was able to predict the folding of 200 million proteins, thus solving the protein folding issue for all the species on the planet. Such a breakthrough demonstrates how AI is revolutionizing areas such as biology and medicine, enabling quicker and more precise advancements. Using digital simulations, the work of clinical trials can be done much faster, safer, and cheaper with the help of AI. It is predicted that at the end of this decade, AI as a technology will assist in attaining a certain status called “longevity escape velocity.”

Longevity escape velocity is defined as the rate at which human lifespan is increased by technological progress in science and medicine, longevity escape velocity represents the speed at which life extension is occurring such that every year the amount of life added is as much as the amount of life consumed in the same year. As of today, medicine adds about four months to life expectancy for each year of life.” With such advancement continuing to emerge, it is estimated that by the early 2030s, for every year that is achieved, one year will be regained and thus reverse the aging process. It could revolutionize the way societies and governments address health, ageing, and disease, and thus become a new age in human life span.

Some concerns have been raised in the sense that the development of AI technology is becoming faster and there is a possibility of resource constraint especially power. However, it is also expected to change the handling or management of resources in the future in some ways. For example, it is possible to gather only one part in every 10,000 of the sunlight on the Earth and this amount of energy will be enough for the whole world. Besides this, the fast development of the use of renewable energy sources gives an impression that the question of the depletion of resources will not be so acute in the future.

In the future, AI and nanotechnology will once again help in increasing the human intelligence by establishing a link between the human brain and the cloud. Human mind is likely to be connected to vast computational networks using nanobot interfaces by the 2030s and intelligence is likely to be boosted a million fold by 2045. This event referred to as the singularity will enhance the ability of humans in jokes, intelligence, creativity and eliminate many biological factors. By seeing objects in more than three dimensions and speaking all languages the human mind will progress in areas which are still beyond our imagination at the present age.

With time, AI is set to enhance almost all aspects of human life including personal relationships, social interactions, health, and even culture. The future decades will see AI not only as the augmentation of human brain but as the total transformation of what it means to be human. The evolution of AI will show the new opportunities for development, interaction, and innovation in the world that is gradually turning into a global networked intelligent space.