AI Taking Over the World

April 30th, 2024

Now, in today's episode, we will be talking about Artificial Intelligence and some of its uses in understanding, and furthering, human development. 

The definition of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that I will be using is AI as a branch of computer science and engineering that focuses on creating systems capable of performing tasks that typically require human intelligence, such as language understanding, decision-making, visual perception, and speech recognition. It encompasses five subsets of AI, each having its capabilities and potential applications.

Machine Learning (ML) is a subset of AI that involves training computer systems to learn from data without explicit programming. The algorithms used in machine learning can make predictions or decisions based on data, such as image classification, natural language processing, and anomaly detection.

Deep Learning and Neural Networks (NN) are machine learning algorithms that mimic the structure and function of the human brain. Neural networks consist of interconnected nodes, called artificial neurons, that process and transmit information. They can perform various tasks, such as image and speech recognition, decision-making, and natural language processing.

Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a field of AI that aims to develop systems that understand, interpret, and generate human language. It involves using computational techniques to analyze, understand, and generate natural language data, such as text or speech.

Natural Language Understanding (NLU) is a subfield of NLP that focuses on a computer system's ability to comprehend the meaning of human language input, such as text or speech. This includes sentiment analysis, named entity recognition, and intent recognition.

Natural Language Generation (NLG) is another subfield of NLP that deals with a computer system's ability to create human-like text or speech. This includes text summarization, text completion, and dialogue generation. 

The interaction between mankind and artificial intelligence is an interesting topic and a field of anthropology on its own. While it may be interesting to study this and consider potential limits we should place on the development of this field, I believe the main concern is that we, as humans, fear what we cannot understand. 

In the larger scheme of things AI is in a very primitive stage and we have not had much interaction with it, resulting in our deep-seated fears of it becoming sentient and taking over our world. But in reality, the technology is nowhere near intelligent enough to do so on its own as its main source of learning is from humans. 

And as AI’s source of learning comes from humans we can learn from it. There is already technology to help students learn things 1on1 such as Khan-migo and ChatGPT, but they are not sophisticated enough to interact in a classroom setting that will be helpful to several students in a natural and efficient manner. 

Part of this comes with the lack of opportunity and usage of AI in our daily lives which makes it unable to adapt to human pre-conditions in a way that is beneficial and harmless. 

From the 5 subsets I mentioned previously, we know that currently AI can learn from data without explicit programming, mimic the structure and function of the human brain, perform various tasks, such as image and speech recognition, decision-making, and natural language processing, analyze, understand, and generate natural language data, such as text or speech, comprehend the meaning of human language input, and perform tasks such as text summarization, text completion, and dialogue generation.

Simply through a warrant of principle, we can see The potential for AI to learn from humans is already there in current technology, and as it grows through frequent interaction, AI can be used to aid humans in our education. 

And not through questions and answers as many would assume, but AI could easily mimic the learning method used by one of the brightest philosophers in Antiquity. The Socratic method, or socratic discussion was a method of figuring out truth for Socrates and other philosophers where they ask and answer questions in a discussion, taking on multiple perspectives and working towards an answer that deems itself satisfactory after hours of scrutiny. I have had to partake in this, although not in the great detail that it should have been, and personally find it very enjoyable the deeper a conversation can go. 

And as we strive to understand AI's uses in furthering human development, we must understand that it does not have to be completely automated, or new. Instead returning to the classics is one of the best ways to further human flourishing, but we must adapt to the modern world and use its technology to our advantage, not to aid our demise. 

Webtoriums Health Buddy program aims to do just this, targeting individuals in the 5th and 6th grades, we teach students about health from a social, cultural, and biologically encompassing perspective through a Socratic method where we gently guide the students to arrive at their conclusions. 

And as AI develops we have a number of our ambassadors working to study how to use AI to our advantage in these learning modules for future use and widespread distribution. 

Now ask you all to look at the world around you critically, and not to fear what you cannot understand, but to embrace it and study it, looking for ways to repurpose it to aid humanity. 

And once we do that, open our minds to the new, while holding steadfast to the traditions of the old, we will be able to enter a new era of humanity.