Critically Thinking About Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity

Critically Thinking About Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity

It has become increasingly apparent that AI technologies have advanced quite rapidly in the last several years. In fact, it has happened so rapidly, my colleagues and I have been forced to prioritize our research to focus primarily upon the risks and governance of AI as we move into an uncertain future. Many of us believed that what we are experiencing with AI today was about 30 years away and that we had plenty of time to get to work on plans for regulating, legislating, controlling, containing, or even stopping the potential negative effects of such emerging technologies. Well, that all changed with some of the latest available forms of AI which include, but are not limited to GPT-4, Bing AI, Claude, Bard, et al.

In this lecture, I’m going to talk about two things. First, we will consider the basics of Artificial Intelligence so that everyone is roughly on the same page in reference to key terms, concepts, and issues. And secondly, we will take a look at some of the promising benefits and potential harms that such new technologies will bring to humanity.

When we use critical thinking to consider the potential benefits and harms of AI, we are much more empowered to discuss how we want these new forms of technologies to affect our lives as we move into the uncertain future.