In this blog post, we explore whether the unique value of humans remains valid amid concerns that jobs and dignity will be threatened in the age of AI.
“Beep, beep, beep. There is an 80% chance that your job will be replaced by artificial intelligence (AI) within the next 20 years.” Enter your job title on the website Will Robots Take My Job? and AI will tell you the probability of your job being replaced by AI. After AlphaGo defeated Lee Sedol in the Google DeepMind Challenge Match held from March 9 to 15, 2016, many people were gripped by anxiety about the future. “Will AI take my job?” “Will AI eventually surpass humans in all fields?” These concerns stem from anxiety that technological advances will undermine human dignity. However, there is no need to worry. Even as technology advances, humans will continue to be recognized for their dignity, and a world where more people feel happy will come. I will explain why below.
First, all technological advances are for the benefit of humans. Many people worry that if AI takes their jobs, they will become redundant and no longer worthy of respect as human beings. However, technologies such as AI, the Internet of Things (IoT), and big data are not actually being developed to take away your jobs. These technologies are designed to provide users with the functions they need, anytime, anywhere. Of course, some jobs may be lost, but AI is being developed for the benefit of humans. Since the purpose of research is to benefit humans, the value of human life will not be lost even if these technologies become part of our lives. This is because many of these technologies will be used for your benefit.
However, many people, such as Yuval Harari, raise questions about this. Let’s consider the process by which human dignity came to be recognized. According to Harari, the background to the acceptance of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen during the French Revolution was the introduction of universal conscription. This was done to give the people political rights in order to gain military and economic advantages. Similarly, women’s suffrage was guaranteed because women played an important role in the industrial war. In this way, all humans gained equal rights because the circumstances of the time required a large labor force for economic and political reasons. However, in the future, AI will eliminate the need for a large workforce. When mass unemployment occurs, the unemployed will be pushed out by AI and become surplus humans who cannot find jobs. If such people become the majority, won’t human values collapse?
No. Of course, it is true that the people and women were granted political rights due to the needs of the times. However, this is a narrow and biased view of history. Let’s look at how human life has changed since primitive times, not just since modern times. According to futurist Jeremy Rifkin, the world can be divided into three worldviews based on the order in which they changed: the ancient Greek worldview, the medieval Christian worldview, and the modern mechanistic worldview. People in primitive societies enjoyed a prosperous life without much labor. In hunting and gathering societies, people worked only 12 to 20 hours a week and spent the rest of their time playing, enjoying sports, art, and music. However, modern people, who are caught up in a mechanistic worldview, work 40 hours a week and take pride in having two to three weeks of vacation a year. In the beginning, humans were not born to work. It was their adaptation to the social environment that led them to start working. Therefore, just because AI will take away jobs does not mean that you will become redundant. Society is moving toward a life where people work less and live more humanely. Humans will adapt to this new society. Of course, it is clear that this new life will be more valuable than ever before.
Second, organic algorithms have properties that cannot be explained by inorganic algorithms, so human values will remain important. The life of organic algorithms cannot be explained solely by economic logic. Doctors give up their own interests to treat sick children in remote areas for free, and citizens willingly donate money to charities for people they don’t even know. Various non-governmental organizations fight against global warming and natural disasters with almost no pay. If our lives were based solely on perfect economic logic, these things would not happen and would be considered extremely foolish. However, humans gain value beyond economic activity by caring for others, empathizing with them, and helping them. These activities cannot be performed by inorganic algorithms.
But what if these emotions are simply electrical signals in the brain? Couldn’t inorganic algorithms also cause these processes through electrical signals? Yuval Noah Harari summarizes the current scientific view in Homo Deus as follows.
1. Organisms are algorithms. All animals, including Homo sapiens, are a collection of organic algorithms that have been naturally selected over millions of years of evolution.
2. The calculations of algorithms are not affected by the material from which the calculator is made. Whether the abacus is made of wood, iron, or plastic, two plus two equals four.
3. Therefore, there is no reason to believe that organic algorithms can do things that inorganic algorithms cannot do or do better than them.
If emotions are so important, then wouldn’t it be possible to make inorganic algorithms feel emotions, which are merely electrical signals, and solve all our problems?
Unfortunately, this is not the case. Let’s assume that inorganic algorithms such as AI can control electrical signals and understand emotions.
However, that is as far as they go. They think based on perfect economic logic, so emotions cannot be the cause of their next actions. For them, emotions are merely a byproduct of some result, and they will not act based on them. This characteristic will ensure that humans do not lose their unique value.
We are living in an era of rapid change. However, the one thing that will never change is human value. The fact that humans are dignified and precious will not change in the future, and it will be the reason for our existence in an inorganic algorithm. However, we must not be satisfied with this alone. Humans are still dignified, but that alone does not make human society prosperous. The rest is up to us. Isn’t now the time for all of us, without exception, to prepare for rapid change and look to the future with keen eyes?
