A computer chip, labelled 'AI', against a black background. Photo: By Igor Omilaev on Unsplash.
The age of disruption: Adrian Glamorgan on artificial intelligence
‘There will be breakthroughs, as well as things that are broken.’
More than a decade ago the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists began warning humanity that new technologies could threaten civilisation, posing threats as great as those of nuclear weapons and climate change. Yet Artificial Intelligence (AI) has entered our lives in a hurry, promising a revolution in work and the arts, with very little public policy oversight, and a mix of wariness, wonder and naivete. It could be both better, worse and different from anything we now foresee. Ben Waymark’s recent article (17 July) begins one part of the process by asking us to be more conversant and nuanced about what we mean by ‘AI’. The new technologies have many configurations and functions. Will new technologies demean and lose jobs, impoverish the majority, and weaken humanity? With so many changes, in so many directions, and in so many industries, with such unclear employment and ecological consequences, and with the concentration of power intensifying, we will need our Quaker wits about us. And there is a spiritual question hankering to be identified, one that asks us about being human, sentient, compassionate, and conscious.
