Raising tigers: a history of technological evolvement

In 1818, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley wrote her awe-inspiring “Frankenstein: or a Modern Prometheus” that has captured popular imagination since its publication. A combination of Gothic horror story and science fiction, the book tells the story of Victor Frankenstein who creates a companion and monster that eventually turns upon and kills its creator.

The philosophical acuity of this masterpiece has never been more relevant with the advent of ChatGPT, the new age of generative artificial intelligence, and the potential risks of AI for the human race.

With the advancement of science and technology, people have been pushing the envelope regarding what they can do and subsequently what they should do within the confines of the collective good of human beings as a species.

Incremental progress has already resulted in breakthrough technologies in many fields that challenge human wisdom, moral constraints and even sanity.

Andrey Sakharov, the former Soviet Union inventor of hydrogen bomb, became so concerned about the destructive power of his creation that he devoted much of his later time warning the human race of the grave perils arising from nuclear arms race in the world.

Currently the world’s nuclear powers have about 12,720 nuclear warheads in their arsenals as of June 1, 2022, per Nagasaki University’s Research Center for Nuclear Weapons Abolition. These nuclear weapons have the capacity to wipe out the human race many times over.

In 1996, developmental biologist Ian Wilmut brought forth Dolly, the first clone of an adult mammal, to this world. Today the sophistication of cloning and the advancement in stem cell research have made it easy to clone human beings, from the technological perspective.

Only moral principles and ethical beliefs are standing in the way of human cloning. Playing-God is already a technological reality.

Machines and robots have made it easier to produce goods in the manufacturing process. Manual jobs replaced by mechanical automation witnessed the creation of new positions in services and other new sectors.

Global employment opportunities have been mostly sufficient to keep up with population growth. That is, until the immense challenges ahead posed by AI.

Verbal language is the most crucial differentiator that makes homo sapiens the dominant species on our planet. Humans do not have competitive physical advantages to dominate. Other animals are able to use primitive tools as well and can pass on basic survival skills to their offspring.

The sophistication of language makes it possible to condense more and more information and knowledge into verbal and later written communication. Succeeding generations do not have to reinvent the wheel and can progress by standing on the shoulders of the collective wisdom of preceding giants.

Language has made humans stand out from all other species on earth. And computers and other machines are now on the verge of acquiring some sort of rudimentary language skills.

In March, Elon Musk signed an open letter calling for a moratorium on advanced AI development until “we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable.” Of course, nobody was going to pause and in fact everyone has been pumping their engines at full throttle. Musk made his statement as a gesture to remind people to be more mindful of the consequences of AI research.

ChatGPT and other generative AI tools are so powerful that they can easily replace millions of jobs in the future, particularly white-collar office jobs. Bots can create paintings and music. They can even learn to write TV and movie scripts and host podcasts.

I won’t be surprised if a chatbot writes an opinion piece better than I do, but maybe not with my self-claimed swagger and cynicism. With just a bit of tweaking, it can write in any style and tone as programmed.

Geoffrey Hinton, widely considered to be the godfather of AI, has been openly raising his concerns over adverse consequences posed by AI. ChatGPT, for instance, has been notoriously known for fabricating a lot of stuff under the pretense of facts.

Hallucination and bias are obvious and prevalent in some AI-generated content. The proliferation of disinformation will make it hard for people to seek out facts and truth. The spread of fake facts, fake pictures and fake videos at a viral speed in the digital age may lead to dire outcomes.

Aside from job loss in large numbers, Hinton also warns people of the military application of AI. The U.S. Defense Department, as he points out, would like to make robot soldiers. These robot soldiers not only are a scary factor in the battlefield, but also can alter the perspective of a war. Military operations may take place with no or few human lives lost, significantly lowering the bar of entry for waging wars.

Developing technologies down the road for humankind is like raising tigers in captivity. While appreciating the companionship, the comfort and the spiritual reward of taming tigers/technologies, we can never be sure that we have full control over them.

There is, perhaps, a certain level of inevitability of having them biting back. Exercising caution and staying alert shall be on the agenda of all, whether or not you are involved in furthering the advancement of technology.