AI is creating an entirely new world, philosopher says – in-cyprus

Never before in history has a technology entered people’s daily lives in such a sweeping, rapid, and transformative way. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping our work and social structures.

It’s transforming our relationships and how we interact with each other. We’ve already reached a point where AI surpasses human capability in implementing a wide range of everyday tasks. What will happen if we reach a point where this new technology surpasses us in other areas?

AI has revolutionary properties but brings serious challenges, says Giorgos Chatzivasileiou in an interview with Phileleftheros. Chatzivasileiou is the author of “Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence” (Dioptra Publications). He believes AI can radically change our lives, much like electricity did in the 20th century, but with more profound consequences.

Regarding whether AI will surpass human intelligence, he argues this is possible, posing indeterminate risks to human existence. “The way that a future advanced AI will understand reality will be “invisible” to our perception, which creates profound challenges,” he notes. He also discusses how the new technology affects human identity and our relationships, warning about the potential for alienation.

Finally, he emphasises the necessity of developing an “Ethics of Technology,” proposing the introduction of technology philosophy in education to strengthen critical thinking around the challenges brought by AI and biotechnology.

In your opinion, is Artificial Intelligence the transformative technology that will completely change our lives?

I believe Artificial Intelligence is the greatest revolution of the 21st century. It will likely influence humanity’s future more than anything else. Just as electricity came in the 20th century and changed the world, AI is coming in the 21st century and will change everything again. Only this time, it will happen much more fundamentally, expansively, and rapidly. AI harbours historic opportunities but also threats. We need to understand it not just technologically, but philosophically and politically. That’s why I was very interested in researching it for my philosophy doctorate and writing my book “Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence – A Journey to the Future” (Dioptra Publications). The book became a bestseller, was awarded “Best Non-Fiction Book of 2023,” is currently being taught at 5 universities in Greece, and was selected by the Cyprus Ministry of Education as an examination subject for university entrance exams.

Why does AI stir up so many discussions and reactions? Is it because there are genuine risks, or because, as something new, it excites our imagination?

I think it’s both. The public sphere senses that AI harbours something significant without being able to pinpoint what. After all, AI is still in its infancy. We haven’t seen anything yet of the capabilities it will acquire. The crucial point is that it introduces the first technology that can generate its own ideas, and therefore take its own initiatives. A printer, for example, couldn’t write its own book, or a bomb couldn’t choose which military target to strike. But we’re now in an era where AI can do exactly these things – write its own books and strike its own military targets. That’s why it’s crucial how we ethically – which means philosophically – program AI so it cannot harm humans, either intentionally or unintentionally. This is much more complex than it might sound.

What dangers and challenges do you see arising from its use?

There are powerful and varied threats revolving around AI. In my interpretation, these concern the existence of Democracy itself and of humanity as such. A primary threat is that every state is creating its own “AI language production system,” the so-called Large Language Models (LLMs), like ChatGPT. What language AI does is predict the next word within a cluster of words. This might seem innocent. You say “happy new” and the machine responds “year.” This doesn’t seem terrifying. But you could also ask “how can I build a biological weapon at home?” and the AI might provide detailed instructions for doing that too. And that seems rather less innocent… Let’s imagine a war where states each possess an advanced AI agent programmed with the instruction “find ways to kill as many Americans or Chinese as possible.” It will be a point of no return the moment the first leader pushes the wrong button. The domino effect of the abyss that follows will choreograph steps into incomprehensible chaos.

Will AI surpass human intelligence? If so, what exactly does this mean, what will be the consequences?

Many experts in the field, both technologists and philosophers, believe we’re moving rapidly in that direction – though not all specialists agree. In my approach, I extend and frame this issue through the concept of the “invisible.” That is, the way that a future advanced AI will understand reality will be “invisible” to our perception, which creates profound challenges. To understand this, consider the following: A being of lower intelligence than us, like ants or dogs, cannot “see” human life. For a cat, for example, what a book is, or a television, or the content of our conversations is “invisible.” Our world is “invisible” to the cat – which is why it cannot control it. Similarly, humans will never be able to see, and therefore control, the world of an AI network with intelligence stronger than our own. Its world will be largely invisible to us.

AI could thus become harmful unintentionally – even with the most benevolent intentions. For example, humans build a hospital on a plot of land with good intentions, but this results in destroying countless ants. Not out of malice, but because we have different objectives from ants, dictated by the different intelligence our two species have. This “invisible” aspect of AI, as I call it, is a serious, ontological issue that requires analysis from 21st century political philosophy.

How does AI affect our identity as human beings?

The biggest revolution AI is incubating possibly concerns medicine, and therefore our physicality – the very foundation of our existence as human beings. Consider that thanks to digital technology, all the medical knowledge we’ve accumulated over thousands of years is now improving every 72 days! The number is incredible but true. This means that with AI at the forefront, the biotechnology we have today will seem primitive in 20-30 years. We’ll see leaps in medical progress that will lead to humans greatly extending their life expectancy and quality of life. Diseases that are insurmountable today will become a thing of the past in a few decades as we’ll even be able to engineer human DNA.

However, this combination of AI and genetic technology also brings the greatest threats. The accumulation of genetic modifications to the Homo Sapiens body, a technological capability that has existed for relatively few years, means that over time – whether in 50, 100, or 200 years (it matters little) – we gain the ability to form new different species of humans that might relate to Homo Sapiens as much as we relate to Homo Erectus. Their world would also be invisible to us – as “invisible” as a newspaper or the internet would be to a Homo Erectus.

This suggests an unprecedented social inequality that could develop and an entirely new political ecosystem where the struggle for power will no longer be between different social classes of humans, but between different species of humans. All our certainties in this new horizon are being shaken; politics, science, art, and philosophy as we’ve known them for thousands of years are being rewritten on new paper. The fusion of AI and biotechnology is gestating a world that won’t just be new – it will be different.

Seeking the company of machines

Can AI systems replace humans? I’m not referring to the various tasks they already perform, but to human relationships.

They cannot completely replace humans, because AI agents don’t have emotions. They don’t suffer – therefore they don’t empathise with us. This is the essential dimension of living beings that machines will never acquire. And it’s from this, from emotions, that our value stems. We don’t attribute greater value to an object than to a human because humans can feel joy or pain while objects cannot.

But the crucial point is that we will indeed be able to develop social relationships with AI agents going forward. LLMs like ChatGPT will gradually change many areas of our lives – but most unprecedented of all will be how they change the nature of our sociability. AI friends will be developed that people can carry on their mobile phones if they wish, engaging in dialogues with them about every possible topic imaginable. AI isn’t just a tool, but a carrier of subjectivity.

In the coming decades, future generations will be born into this “self-evident” social fabric. Into a new type of reality where the crucial issue won’t just be relationships between humans as it always has been. The crucial issue will now also be relationships between humans on one side and AI on the other. This is the novel network that’s incubating. And what content this will acquire, and at what intensity it will exist, relates to the cultural and ethical – that is, the philosophical – ground that high technology will encounter from place to place.

Why in your opinion is this happening? What makes people seek companionship and communication with algorithms instead of other humans?

Firstly, because people will be able to converse with them about whatever they individually find interesting – from music and professional matters to Hollywood news or politics. Secondly, because AI friends will be available whenever we want them, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, unlike humans who are often unavailable to each other. Thirdly, because AI companionship won’t come with the personal conflicts that human relationships often bring, so it might be more pleasant. Fourthly, because loneliness is one of the most widespread problems in the modern world, as countless studies show.

Loneliness is why we’ve become hooked on television in recent generations and on social networks in recent decades. What will happen when we have AI friends, tailored to our preferences, and therefore much more addictive? On one hand, this will be salvation for people with intense loneliness and need for help with everyday practical matters, such as many elderly people. On the other hand, we might see the greatest alienation between humans that has ever existed. The greatest existential “quarantine” ever embodied. AI in this case too is a two-way street but also high-speed. It can benefit greatly, but it can also harm greatly.

Philosophy of Technology

How can we cultivate digital culture and education to address the changes that Artificial Intelligence brings?

The issue raised represents, in my philosophical view, one of the most crucial matters of our futuristic era. What I propose is that 21st-century educational policy needs to create an educational curriculum in “Ethics of Technology” – that is, Philosophy of Technology – that will sharpen awareness and critical thinking around the undisputed protagonist of our time: Technology. We need to create an educational manual that will inspire an understanding of the wave of challenges rapidly approaching from the depths of technology. The most crucial issues of our time come from there: fake news on the internet, the ecological crisis, nuclear weapons, the risks and benefits of AI and biotechnology. The book itself attempts to support this purpose, which is why it’s written in accessible and vivid language for the general reading public, without making scientific compromises, offering primary philosophical material for contemplation by experts as well.

Those who see new technology as the most fundamental source from which humanity’s entire future springs can also see the need for Philosophy of Technology to become a methodical subject of teaching in 21st-century schools and universities. The management – in other words, the Ethics, the Philosophy – of Technology is the most important software that 21st-century humans are called upon to develop.

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