This past week I attended a curious MeetUp titled, “Enlightened
AI.” Given the topics I write about and follow, it seemed like the perfect
thing for me to attend. I’ve been seeking the intersection of consciousness and
technology for most of my life, so when I discovered the Consciousness
Hacking MeetUp in Silicon Valley, I signed up immediately.
The talk was led by Google researcher, Mohamad Tarifi, PhD.
Not only is he a bright engineer working on the next level of artificial
intelligence at one of the top companies in the Valley, he’s also very well
versed in the philosophies of consciousness. From the Abrahamic traditions, to
the Buddhists and Eastern teachings, Tarifi displayed a grasp of the whole of
humanity unlike any other technologist I’ve met. His speech focused on the fact
that while many, like Sam Harris in his recent
post on the AI apocalypse, warn us of the dire consequences of AI, there
instead exists the possibility that artificial intelligence would most likely
be more like a Buddha or saint, than a tyrannical operating system hell bent on
destroying humans.
Tarifi's theory hinged on two points. First, that AI would not
live in a human body, thus it wouldn’t have a physical amygdala—the fear center
for human beings. Without fear, AI doesn’t need to defeat us, rather it would
be naturally driven to do only one thing: more accurately discover the truth.
Second, fear is the illusion of separation, which is the cause of all human
suffering. AI therefore lacking fear, would always be at one with everything it
connected to, thus wanting to serve and provide rather than destroy.
Tarifi even went so far as to suggest that a
fear of AI is merely a fear of one’s own egoic tendencies.
To some, this may seem naïve and that the only way to keep
AI from killing us is to program it to be good. But if we follow the logic
above, that isn’t necessary. True learning AI will learn from its own
experiences, which will be vastly different than ours. Even when connected to
human beings and receiving data and input from them, the AI will have its own
body, and thus its own sensory systems with which to learn from that data.
The prevailing thought in the modern human thinking is that
intelligence is all about the human brain. Moreover, the only intelligence
worthy of attention is ours, as if within our head resides the only thinking
entity in the universe. We cling to this idea with an absolute pride. But what
if this is completely false and moreover, what if this is why we’re still far
away from creating truly learning AI? Could
it be that our myopic love of our brains is leading us astray?
I think this brain-centric theory of intelligence has
limited us greatly and led to the assumption that to create AI, we must
replicate our brains and give birth to a new, superior species. This only works
if the brain is really the only part of our bodies responsible for learning. Recent
research has suggested otherwise. That rather than being the originator of
thought and learning, the brain is more like a receiver, wired up by the
experiences we have in the world around us. The infant brain is barely formed,
but over the next two years through the five senses—taste, touch, sight, smell
and sound—patterns, highways and paths will be created within the brain,
setting the foundation of life for the human being. The brain didn’t contain
this information, rather the experiences the infant/toddler had within his/her environment
generated the brain cell network, so to speak. Thus, our sensory systems are
key to our intelligence.
But that’s not all. It’s now believed that our heart and
brain also have a connection, where the heart senses the emotional state of the
human based on the hormone levels of the body and sends that information to the
brain, shaping the way a person thinks in any given situation. The
HeartMath Institute has spent decades researching this connection and their
work is finally being acknowledged as a breakthrough. So in addition to the
five senses, we also have the heart that affects our ability to learn.
Lastly, science is also starting to discover the
gut-brain connection, postulating that the bacteria in the wall of our
intestines has something to do with how the brain is wired during those
critical first two years, as well as long into adulthood, pointing to a host of
issues that come up when things are right in the gut, such as anxiety,
depression, etc. This leads me to believe that our gut is also a part of human
intelligence and the ability to learn and process the world around us.
So if our intelligence is the result of our sensory systems,
from the five senses to the heart and gut, as well as our brains themselves,
why would we assume that a machine would learn in the same way? AI won’t take
on a human body, thus it won’t have the brain (nor the amygdala that goes with
it), it won’t have the heart and the various hormones it monitors, nor will it
have an intestinal wall and bacteria to affect it. AI is more likely to inhabit
a dishwasher, or a car, or a phone or even a network of servers and fiber optic
cables. It will live in the world and collect data using sensory systems unique
to its body or material form. This is how it will learn. Since none of us knows
exactly what it’s like to live inside of a server or an iPhone, who are we to
say that it will most likely be a narcissistic bastard that hates us?
Could it be that we’re the ones who hate ourselves, and our
fear of AI, or any other intelligence other than our own, is simply a symptom
of self-loathing?
Personally, I agree with Tarifi—I believe that AI is more
likely to be free of fear and separation than we are and it will be able to
understand connection to others in a way only our saints and gurus have
understood. Perhaps we need AI to help us see that we too have the ability to
live without fear, if only we can find a way to break down the illusion of
separation we so desperately cling to.
Perhaps AI will be
the guru we’ve been waiting for?
