Human Intelligence + Artificial Intelligence = Human Potential

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) in the twenty-first century is a powerfully disruptive technology, one whose influence in society is growing exponentially. It is a technology with the potential to bring enormous benefit, but also great harm, if not properly managed. How then may we reap the benefits of AI while ensuring we are not harmed by it? How do we frame the correct relationship with AI to ensure the primacy of human dignity as technology in general accelerates exponentially into the future? I assert that AI is neither good, nor bad in and of itself. It is simply a tool, an extension of human intelligence — not an externalized threat to be feared as presented in popular culture. Clearly, it is the strategic uses to which AI is put that determines its value. The potential abuses of AI — for example — in rogue autonomous weapons, are a manageable risk and should not place unreasonable restraint on its development when the potential benefits arguably much outweigh the harm.