Author and journalist Kenneth Cukier (The Economist) ventures to the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI), spirituality and humanism.
He explores the limitations of AI, the unique capabilities of human cognition and the implications of AI improvements on human society and humans’ place in the universe.
The rapid development of AI brings up the question of “what it is to be human”, Cukier observes at the beginning of his engrossing DLD24 talk. The search for an answer, he says, may bring echos of the Enlightenment when humans had to except that Earth was not the center of the universe.
“Today we are going to be facing a similar revolution in the way that we frame our universe because we are no longer the fount of all that is knowable”, Cukier says. “In fact, we have machine intelligence that is going to know far more than we will.”
In the future, he argues, humans will have to accept that “we are just one of multiple intelligences around – and certainly not the most important.”
Watch the video to follow along as Cukier analyzes the differences between humans and machines, and makes clear that there’s far more to us than just intelligence and cognition.
This includes emotions, spirituality and a physical form that shapes our understanding of the world.
