It’s irrelevant whether AI is intelligent
The increasingly cohesiveness of technology means we need to consider the system as a whole
People like to ask: is artificial intelligence (AI) really intelligent? Or, can it ever be? But when it comes to practical considerations, this question is irrelevant. Why?
Because, for practical purposes, we can’t only think of an AI system as a discrete entity. Instead, we must see AI as an amalgamation of the computer component of AI and the human beings that use it. It is this amalgamation that is effectively already intelligent, and therefore has real agency.
Indeed, what does it matter whether the human being behind the computer is not inside the computer, unlike the random access memory? It’s true that human beings, being relatively autonomous, can leave the computer and even smash it to bits (if only...). But that distinction between autonomy and being completely glued to the system is fading every day. We rely on computers more and more, not only for our physical needs, but increasingly now for our mental needs.
In other words, with the increasingly power and complexity of computer systems, we become less separated from the system and more like components of it. And the ones that give into this system completely (and there are plenty of them) become the least autonomous of all.
Some say that if the computer itself had true intelligence without us, then it might try and annihilate us. But, the amalgamation of human beings with technology can do that just fine, and is doing that right now. The only difference is that the intelligence directing the process is not centralized to a single brain like in traditional organisms. And it’s already in the best interest of the richest and most wealthy to construct increasingly autonomous systems to do away with the need for the rest of us, so that the combination of their aimless desires with technology is just as dangerous as some autonomous computer system.
There is little difference between a legion of computer programmers nurturing AI, and a self-aware machine with control of the system. The technophiles and programmers are effectively addicts and completely plugged in the system. They are glued right into the motherboard, with the rest of the computer adding its dangerous processes that approximate real thinking. Due to the group-think, prisoner’s dilemma, and collective behaviour of large groups, no one person can really stop it either. Not that the technophiles would want to either, of course. They benefit too much in the short-term to care.
So, any nightmare that you can imagine about an intelligent computer with too much power has already come true. There already is an intelligent system out there that is effectively like a child with a nuclear weapon: it is the evolving computer system with AI at its apex and the technophiles providing the true intelligence. Thus, whether an AI system can be intelligent or not is irrelevant. If it could gain some real intelligence or awareness like Skynet from the Terminator movie, that would just be academically interesting to philosophers and programmers.
Unfortunately, most people see AI only as a discrete entity. But we just tend to think that way because seeing organisms as discrete entities is just a heuristic blind spot, useful in simpler times. We must wean ourselves off this paradigm because the technological system is becoming increasingly cohesive. The lines between technology and human being are blurring due to our freedom being restricted. We are becoming part of the system, just like any other computer component.
There are still parts of the world that are rebellious against this machine, but those parts are losing their power just as technology gains more power. The only way out is to smash large parts of the system, starting with the most advanced parts such as AI. If we don’t completely restrict and destroy AI and other advanced parts of the system, it will completely subjugate us very soon, and destroy most of wild nature right along with it.