Maybe Hal 9000 was right: “This machine is too important to me to let you tamper with it.” Or perhaps 2001: A Space Odyssey was really just a film, even though the history of Man demonstrates that in the face of great revolutions we often end up taking the wrong path. In short: what is artificial intelligence really? What bright future do we have ahead of us? What dangers will we face? Probably, at the moment, not even a robot can give the answer, and so it is enough to start more analogically, opening any dictionary, to begin to understand: «Intelligence is the ability to attribute a convenient practical or conceptual meaning to the various moments of experience and contingency.” Artificial intelligence, therefore, is currently an oxymoron.
Machines (yet) don't think. Maybe they will do it soon (and then we will talk about general artificial intelligence). Maybe they already do it and we don't know it. But anyway, whatever AI is, it's everywhere now. Not only ChatGpt, which gives you the answers in a few seconds, Gemini, which makes all Android smartphones think and soon perhaps even iPhones, Voice Engine, which will be able to perfectly reproduce the voice of humans, in short everything that creates, produces, moves at our place. It is not our smartphone that surprises us more and more, mechanically learning our habits and then passing off its behavior as free will. Artificial intelligence is a puzzle, a problem to be solved, but it is also the cure for all ills, as well as the devil of all wars, or the job that will no longer exist and, despite this, will give us time to live Better. Artificial intelligence is Man as he has always been in the face of the Great Revolutions of History, in the midst of the dilemma of what to do with his highly evolved brain to avoid the same errors that have persecuted us for centuries. For this reason, artificial intelligence is philosophy.
After all, one of the main ethical dilemmas has always concerned the transparency and interpretability of algorithms. Many AI systems are opaque, meaning the user does not fully understand how the system makes decisions. And this raises questions about accountability: Who is responsible if an algorithm produces harmful or discriminatory results? Yet the answer is quite simple: it is us, we just need to want to be. There is practically no digital thought without human thought, and the simplest path to take would be that of a composite neural network, where everyone works for their part in order to create a perfect world. Because, in the Great Human Novel, scientists cannot worry about the hands that receive progress, but it is often those hands that influence the final result.
Artificial intelligence is therefore an elixir of long life but also a deadly weapon, the good tree that bears good fruit but also the bad one that bears bad fruit, and as Jesus said in the Gospel according to Matthew «every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire: by their fruit you will know them.” We have a choice, we can recognize Evil, and that is why then the right answer is that artificial intelligence is not and will never be God.
We must stop having absolute faith in technique, especially when it will be autonomous in learning and growing. The limit exists. The boundaries are Isaac Asimov's 3 Laws and Ray Kurzweil's Singularity, so one day we will transform into a new cybernetic being. The theme is to study its essence and walk to the center. And therefore: artificial intelligence is neither impartial nor fair, it could amplify the prejudices present in the data with which it is trained, perpetuate injustice, discrimination, deprive us of privacy and personal security, create economic inequalities, open an even greater gap in diversity of the world. AI, let's face it, is a potential abuse of power. However, before us there are numerous opportunities for social and economic progress, the multiplication of the certainty of medical diagnoses, the optimization of supply chains, the certainty of winning the battle against climate change. AI, therefore, is a potential solution. What is your path, Man?
The ethics of artificial intelligence is a complex and crucial topic and for this reason requires a global and collaborative response: are we ready to do it? The future offers enormous opportunities for human progress, but it is essential to face the challenges to ensure that everything that can help us become better is developed and used responsibly. It's a complicated equation to solve, because we often forget that our head has everything we need to do it. Because everything in business becomes just a question of money. And it's not science fiction, even if some people think that science fiction was born to accustom us to our destiny. This is why Hal 9000 confessed to the man and said: “I'm afraid.”
He was dying but it was just a movie, and the reality can be very different.