The Wisdom of Embracing AI

Intelligence can be artificial, but wisdom never is.

This eternal truth merits a moment of reflection. As the world begins to comprehend the boundless potential of artificial intelligence, experts predict that AI’s influence on how we live will be more profound than all the remarkable technologies we’ve already adopted. AI, the fearmongers say, will diminish and even disintermediate the role of human beings in the conduct of daily life.

Nonsense.

I take the opposite and optimistic view. Whereas technology can do so much to make our lives more convenient (and, it must be said, more complex), it cannot manufacture wisdom, which is the province of humans alone. Wisdom is a much higher virtue than intelligence because wisdom is what puts our knowledge to good use. 

Human Connection

Humans have needs that no technology can satisfy. AI-powered robots will not nurture us or attend to our deep emotional needs in any real way. Sure, they will vacuum our rooms more efficiently and beat us at chess. Much more importantly, AI will identify illnesses well before they threaten our lives – but then what?  

None of us will want that diagnosis delivered by an AI robot. We will want the uniquely human experience of a caring medical professional assuring us that the illness is curable and gently guiding us through treatment. We want the healing touch, assurance, and emotion that only another human can provide.

Technology also cannot compete with another uniquely human attribute – imagination. Even AI itself agrees.

Irreplaceable Imagination

“The human brain is far more complex than any artificial intelligence developed to date,” according to none other than ChatGPT, when asked whether AI or a human brain is more complex. “The brain has an estimated 100 billion neurons, each of which can have up to 10,000 connections with other neurons, creating a vast network of communication that underlies our thoughts, feelings, and actions. Additionally, the human brain is capable of many complex processes, such as language acquisition, pattern recognition, decision making, creativity, and emotional processing, that are still challenging for AI to replicate.” Google’s Bard agrees, by the way, and in much the same language. So much for AI’s (current) imagination.

The computational power of AI will no doubt continue to accelerate, and not all of AI’s influence will be beneficial. Every new tool has the capacity to help us and harm us. Cars are the classic example – they’ve made interstate travel convenient, yet many lives are lost on our highways each year. No one suggests getting rid of cars – or smartphones or the internet. Every technology persists until something more useful replaces it.

Cynics will argue that AI, with its vast powers, isn’t just another tool, and that relying on human wisdom to manage the incorporation of AI into modern life is a fool’s errand.  

Top of Mind Concerns

One particular concern is that AI will eliminate jobs just as combustion engines replaced horse-and-buggy manufacturers, digital cameras replaced consumer film, search engines replaced printed encyclopedias, and so on.

Guess what else new technologies do? They create entirely new industries that employ vast numbers of people. Of course, there is no denying the immediate employment dislocation that occurs when technologies emerge, and this requires employers and society to be much more mindful and compassionate when implementing change. But the numbers tell an encouraging story. In 1950, the U.S. economy employed 59 million people, or 56.1 percent of the country’s population, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. As of 2020, the U.S. employed 148 million, or 56.8 percent of the population. At the end of that seven-decade explosion of technological change, employment was up, not down.

This is why we shouldn’t play to the cynics. Instead, let’s recognize and respect AI for all its power, set rules and boundaries for its programming and implementation that protect human needs and interests, and accept that it can do far more good than bad if we trust that the higher virtue of human wisdom will prevail, as it has the past 70 years.