-Novanita Sharma
Throughout human history, inventions, innovations, and human intellect have earned our respect as the greatest drivers of growth and prosperity; our world bears the laurels of human intellect. Inventions and innovations have pushed the threshold of our realities towards new horizons, and befittingly, human intellect has become the most valuable asset for Homo sapiens. It is the ultimate source of human pride and dominion, and, in the contemporary world, human intellect is the most valued product, which we propagate through the million-dollar-worth Research and Development (R &D) industry across various fields. Our intellect is indeed nothing less than alchemy; we can give shape to the most beautiful and magical concepts of Mother Nature and make the intangible aspects of Nature accessible to humanity. Our innovations have increased life expectancy and longevity, apart from providing endless sources of material comfort, speed, food, medicine, and transformative human existence through generations. Our intellect has also dared us to venture into the uncharted and unknown, in pursuit of knowledge, and also to achieve the greatest dream of immortality. The utopia of innovation has sparked intense debates at many times in history, which weighed the pros and cons of inventions. But these debates haven’t contributed anything good to humanity; even after years of debate and dialogue, they could not develop a functional policy for a humanitarian approach to the integration of innovations in our world. These debates failed because innovations were viewed through the single-lens perspective of European utilitarian philosophy, to achieve the political and economic pursuits of human beings. These failures are witnessed in the devastating modern wars of our world and the development of weapons of mass destruction by utilising the most sophisticated scientific knowledge and technology of the 20th century. The postulates of the theory of relativity and the breakthrough in nuclear science during the 20th century were not meant to develop nuclear weapons; it was knowledge that could have led to peaceful work. But unfortunately, the world remains where it was a century ago; our inventions are still subjected to corporations to set an economic race, and are not dedicated to the collective good of all human beings, or the well-being of Earth.
After many years, the world has come to another round of debate on the human – innovation interface; this time, it is related to Artificial Intelligence. It seems that history is getting repeated, because everyone talks about the ill effects and hazards of AI, while there’s no concrete plan for the safe integration of AI in our world. The situation seems scarier because the rapid growth of the AI industry since 2020 is directly linked to economic dividends. People are embracing ChatGPT, Claude, and all sorts of AI graphic tools with utmost enthusiasm, in ignorance and at times ignoring the environmental cost involved in their frivolous AI explorations. Responsible use of AI by end users will, in fact, decide the future of our planet. Corporations like OpenAI and Anthropic have voiced their concerns regarding the safety of human beings in the wake of a global AI race. They have openly shared the inimical threats faced by human beings from the higher-end intellect, which they have termed an evolved version of human intelligence that can outwit and outlast human beings with their own generative thinking. Moreover, the energy-intensive AI enterprises are predicted to cause unsustainable exploitation of Earth’s resources and will usher in a new era of ecological apocalypse. So, how do we plan an AI-compliant, safe future for ourselves and for the planet, which is already crumbling under environmental crises? Finding this answer is the greatest challenge for humanity now, but fixing this dilemma is necessary. We ought to look beyond the economic, geopolitical, and strategic use of inventions to make way for collective humanitarian goals in integrating new inventions into our world. We may opt for a middle path and weigh the significance of our innovations to benefit all living beings instead of sticking to the anthropogenic short-sighted view of self-gratification. A compassionate approach to the implementation of Artificial Intelligence can save our future and the natural world from the feared catastrophe. AI has posed the classic question of responsibility and accountability, which is integral to our intellectual and innovative pursuits. It has also brought humanity to a rare crossroads of compassion vs. annihilation.
If it is true that innovations and technology will undeniably cut across the boundaries we set, we also can’t forget the fact that the greatest of human inventions have been nothing but modified, altered, and redesigned versions of the elements that already existed in the natural world. Hence, no matter how sensational inventions we make, we remain fully accountable to protect Mother Nature, the creation of our world. We can’t forget that Homo sapiens are a small part of this universe; we are as vulnerable as the tiniest living creature on this planet. Soumyadeep Datta’s words echo the truth of this situation; he said, “We human beings are not the God of creation, but are the artists of transformation. Human beings haven’t created anything new in this world; we have simply modified or transformed the pre-existing things of Nature into discrete entities.”