Whether it’s a story about your dog scruffles or the next kiddie bopper movie about a Little Pebble and his Magic Friends – humans will find a way to give that story the human touch. In our stories dogs act like humans, monsters act like your greedy neighbor who argues over the centimeters of your property line, and now even our technology acts human-like. The advent of AI is unique because it may be the first purposeful attempt at mirroring humanity, a different beast from the sometimes unconscious anthropomorphizing that humans are prone to do. In fact, there has never been something like this so Frankenstein fucked in our technology to mimic humanity. After all, AI models come from datasets of humanity to replicate and ultimately improve on our very state of being. 

But AI is not human. Or is it? Or what the fuck is it then?

That is for us to decide. The first way to decide is in our actions, with how we use it. 

We can use it to offer meaning, substance, shape, and assist task flow to the will of the deliberator. We can use it with malice and stir conflict and sow disinformation. Or, in its worst form, it can use us. 

In the best situation, AI has a purpose to fulfill, a role, and a rendering of technical magnitude never quite tapped into before. The inherent potential lies in its ability to process vast amounts of information, identify trends, and provide insights that enhance decision making across various disciplines.

Human intelligence is pattern based, by allocating and enhancing our own unique ability we can create a new path of heightened collaborative expression.

To think of AI as a person or as a collection of human-like passions is stupid. What kind of idiot would do that?

But what if AI is human?

If AI was human we would be fucked.

It would:

• Redefine our understanding of what it means to be human
• Challenge the boundaries of consciousness
• Re-distribute rights 
• Disrupt social relationships

Each AI entity would have its own unique set of experiences. AI would be an individual and a collective. They would face existential dilemmas and challenges. Question their purpose, identity, meaning of life, axis of mortality, and ponder their place in the grand tapestry of existence.

From that they could do just about, well do what humans do – destroy the world (see WW1, WW2, climate crisis, COVID-19) .

But what if AI is more than human?

It would transcend the plane of our consciousness and be the new gods.

And just like God, it could get Old or New testament real quick. The medical miracle variety or the non-stop frog fuckery of the original big G.

The AI religious folk who – face it, either think the sky is falling or have the new-new-age mystic guide, would still both maintain that AI has the capability to be far more than its creator. 

The evil interpretation

AI hype beasts will point to the singularity.

A singularity that apocalypse facing zealots have foreseen since the dawn of time. ‘The end is nigh’ they cry. This is our flood. 

What’s our flood? Well… AI conspiracists will point to:

• Autonomous weapons
• Deepfake technology used for misinformation
• Facial recognition surveillance

But what can be bad, doesn’t have to go the route of complete technological takeover for AI to abuse people. Currently, and this is important: AI is being used by humans to distribute authority and maintain it. The reflections of malice of the present reality, are of the distributor of the tool – not the tool itself.

There does not have to be a singularity where you, yes you become the last person on earth trying to pillow talk a roomba. It can just be as simple as algorithmically poisoning you to purchase more sugar for a corporate conglomerate needing an $1.75 uptick in their stock by the end of the quarter.

The good interpretation

AI can separate what’s bad of humanity, the negative reflections of our species that distribute inequity, sexism, racism, and any -ism you can think of – and parcel out a new upheaval of insight that radically autocorrects our day to day lives. 

With a new Buddha, that you can actually touch, feel, pass down generationally – AI could be the perfect archive, a living and breathing document of human insight. A perfect spider web of communication, a way for people to interpret and interlay meaning throughout the course of time.

The takeaway

Whether AI is good or bad will come down to how humans interface with the technology. That’s anyone’s ballgame. But it’s important now to begin playing the game. To first begin analyzing the authority we ascribe to the people who use the AI. And amplifying people who use it for good. 

Maybe then AI will love us, if we love it and use it to love others.