Beyond morality, capabilities or knowledge, the essence of both artificial and human intelligence is electricity. Human neurons communicate thanks to a series of electrical impulses, and the circuits that bring AI to life are powered by electricity as well. The fact that  both types of intelligence share the same power source raises important questions about how similar they truly are. However, the issue that is most commonly on people’s minds is whether one can, or even should, replace the other. We‘ve all heard of the possibility that machines might be able to take over jobs that have been traditionally done by human beings, but we seldom think about how is it that we have reached this point of technological evolution and if this is truly a point of no return.

 

Although diverse kinds of technologies have existed for hundreds or even thousands of years, the advances that were fueled by the Industrial Revolution were unlike anything the world had ever seen before. Suddenly, manual labor became obsolete, and was replaced by machines that rested between the gray walls of immense factories. This forever changed the way people worked, for their tasks became very different from what they used to be. Some see this as a very positive change because it built the path for years of great progress. Machines became more elaborate, smaller, easier to handle and more practical. Then, the advances made were quick as they were remarkable, and we found ourselves using complex devices such as computers in our everyday lives. 

 

    Now, we are able to use one of the most complex technological advances ever made, by simply typing “ChatGPT” on our laptop. This easier way of doing things has also extended to diverse areas of life, and certain businesses, factories, and firms use AI as a fundamental tool to carry out several tasks. However, now it does not simply have the function of aiding a person to do something, but rather of taking said person‘s job. Many companies have fired an important part of their staff because a machine can work more efficiently than them. This phenomenon is awfully similar to what people approximately 200 years ago lived because of the Industrial Revolution: non-human work replaced the one carried out by humans. The difference is that 200 years ago people took this as an opportunity to challenge themselves with other jobs, and stopped worrying about monotonous tasks, however, because we no longer use a coal-fueled system of engines, but rather something that is able to mimic the vast majority of aspects of the human brain, there are few things we can busy ourselves with that AI can’t do. 

 

This leads us to question how beneficial can we consider these advances. If jobs are taken from people, without giving them an alternative where they can still contribute to society and evolve in their professional life, we are risking cutting off any source of income for them. This might lead to an increase of people that live very close to or even below the poverty line*. Yet, even when this is an observable phenomenon, we are letting it occur right before our eyes and no one seems to be coming up with a solution for it. If we are willing to allow these advances to continue we must think beforehand whether we, as a society or as a species, are ready to deal with them. This is not to imply that AI is all bad, as mentioned before it is a very useful tool, it is merely to reflect on how responsible we are for letting something we created begin to control us. 

 

To conclude, AI has indeed worked its way into our everyday life. It is the product of advances that were born many years ago, but it is only today that we are starting to grasp how much they could actually change the world. So, perhaps the dangers of AI do not come from its mere existence, but rather from the way we have handled it. When we blame AI for its shortcomings and dangers, we must pause to think if it isn’t our fault for letting things that we do not understand completely spiral out of our control, and if it isn’t our responsibility for putting progress before the well being of humanity. 

 

*poverty line: the estimated minimum level of income needed to secure the necessities of life.