Artificial intelligence has come and took the world by storm over the course of the last few years.
First, it was the infamous ChatGPT that captivated the worlds attention - an online chatbot that allows users to direct a conversation through a source of language, as well as automate and optimize specific tasks.
For example, if I wanted to ask ChatGPT to write this blog post for me, it would do so in the matter of about 10 seconds, and I could refine how the machine writes the post by giving it prompts to direct the language of how it is written.
One thing I want to make clear is that I have not and will not use AI to write any of these daily blog posts, or the book that I am currently writing.
Everything you read here on a daily basis are my thoughts and experiences, not a robot's.
Disclaimer: I am an avid book reader and some of the topics that I write about are inspired by things that I have read, but in my own interpretations.
Being able to take a thought, whether it comes from someone else or not, dissect it, and see what part of it makes sense and what doesn't is the art of thinking in my opinion.
This is something you do not get from AI, unfortunately.
You simply give a robot a task and it spits it out for you in the matter of seconds, making your life way easier without having to do any real work.
Like anything, there are pros and cons to the use of AI, and while we are in the beginning stages of what AI is capable of doing, the future of AI is largely unknown.
We can sit here and make predictions of what we think it is going to be like and how it will be able to optimize everyday life for humans etc.
While it may be my biased opinion, I think the most important thing to think about is how AI will effect the human psyche, and the effects of humans having interactions with other humans.
Sure, AI will have tremendous benefits to how people are able to outsource, especially when it comes to running a business online.
Companies would no longer have to go out and hire people like graphic designers and copywriters when everything can be done in seconds using AI.
It is important to take note that many businesses are already leveraging these features with the AI technology we have today.
The AI technology we have available today also has the ability generate highly realistic pictures and videos, also known as "deep fakes" of people in various scenarios.
For example, AI could be given the prompt of a highly realistic picture of Donald Trump on a beach in Mexico, wearing an American flag speedo, and they could probably get him to say "Make America Great Again" using AI voiceover.
As someone who used to put on a wig and impersonate Trump myself, you can clearly see that someone like me has no chance of being able to compete with AI in this regard.
I can't simply put a wig on and go to the beach wearing an American flag speedo saying "Make America Great Again" and it be anywhere near as funny as some highly realistic video of the actual Donald Trump doing it.
While I can't compete with something like this, I think the takeaway is the creativity aspect behind all of it.
That little snippet of be describing Trump in a speedo was just a random creative thought that I had in that moment, and this is something AI lacks the ability to do, at least for now.
If the future of AI does develop the ability to think for itself, only then will I think humans will be in way over our heads.
The ability to create and process thought is what makes humans different from every other species on the planet.
Being as that we are social animals, our abilities to share our thoughts with others is exactly what allows us to learn and progress through life.
We have seen through the rise of the internet and platforms like social media, that humans have been getting further and further away from being able to generate their own thoughts and beliefs about the world.
In other words, the easy accessibility of the internet and widespread amount of information has limited the modern day humans ability to actually have to think about working to find the answer to something.
Modern day humans very much still live in a primal state of consciousness, making decisions based off of the things they perceive right in front of them in the moment.
The future of AI could have dramatic effects on the humans ability to lack the art of thinking for themselves, because all one has to do is use a robot to think for them.
We have seen an extreme culture shift in human interactions just with social media alone, especially when it comes to dating.
The gamification of platforms such as dating apps and other applications that were designed to get users to become addicted to seeking short term gratification, already has dramatic negative effects on how people are able to deal with their feelings.
The constant seek of immediate gratification is exactly why modern day humans lack intelligence, and the future of AI could play a major role in the lack thereof.
Short term gratification does not actually satisfy the human reward system the way that people may think.
The constant spikes and falls of dopamine one gets from seeking short term gratification causes depression and lack of emotional control more than anything.
Giving in to one's primal short term urges doesn't allow humans to think with clarity, be creative, or be productive.
The human reward system is only activated through long term planning and accomplishment of something that you want out of life.
We are very much still primal animals, constantly living in a state of fulfilling short term gratification as opposed to developing a long term plan towards something larger.
The convenience of modern technology has made it so that people have to think less, and "live in the moment" so to speak.
The future of AI definitely worries me in this regard.
Because yes, it might make things like running a business more efficient, but at the cost of what?
Peoples mental sanity?
People already feel like they can't go out into the world and make genuine relationships with others, so are we supposed to resort making friends with robots on the internet?
For every positive, there is an equal and opposite potential negative, as this is just a fundamental law of the universe and life in general.
What I believe to be the most important thing out of this is to understand that no, AI is not going anywhere and it is only going to continue to get more advanced over time, but the thing to remember is that we are all humans first, and we were given an incredible ability to generate thought.
People create beautiful things out of just their feelings, whether it be art, music, pieces of writing etc.
The ability to feel things and create thought is what makes us unique and the further we get away from that, the less human we become.
I believe that some of us will be able to use AI as a tool, while others are going to depend on it for survival at some point because that is just human nature.
Not everyone is going to be on the same page because everyone perceives reality differently.
As long as we can understand that we are humans first and we embrace this fact, we have a much better chance of finding fulfillment in our lives.