AI and superintelligence

(From previous issue)
However, Nagaland’s unique cultural and agricultural assets, if properly leveraged, could also lead to significant growth. The economic future of both states will ultimately depend on governance, investment strategies, and the ability to adapt to changing economic conditions.” One can also get results in a more report friendly format with a prompt like “Give the GDP for Assam and Nagaland in table form for the last four decades”. It is worth mentioning that ChatGPT-5 has an IQ of 155, Einstein had an IQ of 160 and the average IQ ranges between 85 and 115.
At present, art, music, poetry and other creative activities seems to be the last bastion to remain unscratched by AI, but again for how long. Today’s LLMs already have the ability to write “poetry” although of low standards, but compared with the fact that most of the poets are/were teen aged or older, Chat GPT is not even a five-year old.
The situation looks pretty grim, right? Not that grim actually. As of today, AI is hailed as a saviour in many fields of present day tech. Prosthetic attachments are replacing limbs of amputees quite successfully. Here the artificial limb has its own AI inbuilt which gets trained to the thoughts of the user by the user himself. Eventually the artificial prosthetic responds to the users thoughts so naturally that the users feel of it as “a part of their natural body”. Drug discovery time has been shortened by the use of AI from five years to one year. The same is happening in the search for new and better electrolytes as replacement for Lithium in rechargeable batteries. The time required in research and development has taken a huge cut. In environmental research, the use of AI is saving the planet by getting results to us in time and so that actions can be taken preemptively. In the immediate future, AI will assist almost every field of cutting edge technology and research resulting in a better life for people.
AI seems to be performing intelligently enough to enthral and maybe instil fear, but the ultimate goal of creating an artificial consciousness may be far far away. This is due to the fact that even human consciousness is not fully understood as of date. But when and if such a goal is achieved, we will have Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). Many believe that such a dream may be unachievable, but again, many others assume that AGI will be achieved within our lifetime or our next generation’s time. Think of humans dreaming to fly like the birds since the mythological times of Icarus and Victorian era Jules Verne. It appeared as a long tall dream, but it has been achieved.
MIT Physicist Max Tegmark was one of the first to critically discuss the possibilities of achieving AGI and the scenario post AGI achievement. While he opined that AGI is inevitable, we humans should carefully plan out and curve the path to AGI. The AGI which will supposedly be better than humans in all possible respects may forge ahead and create better versions of itself and we will have what is termed as Superintelligence. Some of the possible scenarios post superintelligent AGI would be that we may have a Benevolent Dictatorial AGI or an Enslaved God Level AGI or even AGI gradually and willfully replacing humans as the carrier of intelligence and consciousness. In the way the “lower” life forms cannot fathom our activities, the superintelligent AGI would be incomprehensible for us. We would be like chimpanzees for them, or we will see them, that is, the AGI, the way chimpanzees see us. Being able to keep up with them will be forever lost. Some of us may think of upgrading ourselves artificially with more processing power and more reliable memory and evolve to cyborgs to go mano-e-mano with superintelligent AI. Maybe that is the next phase of human evolution.
Today, most of us can hardly understand what’s ahead of us in the long term. But to get the best possible bargain, serious studies need to be done – not only in sciences, robotics and programming; but also in the fields of philosophy, psychology and the fine arts. Basically we must understand what it means to be a human. With more knowledge and wisdom we may be able to steer ourselves better as an evolving species. Running away or diverting ourselves from these challenges are hardly the solution. We must be ready to challenge our existing convictions and beliefs with an open mind.
The immediate survival strategy for our children and the generations to follow is that, we should carefully scrutinize the “AI needs” of the society and gear ourselves to lend a helping hand there. Becoming a useless generation with no relevant or applicable skills will be fatal. Think of the video rentals, PCOs and photocopying outlets that had flooded our towns and cities during the late eighties and early nineties. It was seen as a viable income source those days. The invention of cable TV, cellular communications and cheap ink-tank printers has put an end to all these livelihoods. These days, streaming services are pushing cable TV out of existence too. Gone are the days of national TV news anchors being celebrities or the high demand glossy sports magazines being eagerly waited for their arrival at newsstands. If you come across a photo studio today you are filled with some nostalgia of the bygone days like trips to the photo studios with friends. Today taking photos with our phones is very natural. Keeping photos in digital form is convenient, enduring and economical than storing them as printed copies. One may argue that photo studios will continue to survive but it is a matter of time. In the same way many of us can convince ourselves that humans will reign supreme but again, it may be just a matter of time. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus had said, “Change is the only constant”. Some of us may pledge to stubbornly resist AI and the associated technological revolutions and slump back to age-old beliefs. Instead we should consider the naturalness with which we take out our calculators to do mild to difficult arithmetic and how we trust the results of a calculator with our lives. Sliding into technological dependance is quite easy and subtle too.
In the present situation and scenario, where AI is making its presence felt in every aspect of our lives, we can see that some jobs will last longer. For example the diagnosis of a PET scan, or a blood report can be completely AI operated. Even the AI sourced prescriptions will be more effective, eliminating the need of “human medical professionals” in totality. But I think the assistant who navigates you to the diagnostic machines and examinations will be replaced much later than doctors. In the same way, the handyman with his tools would be a professional that will last longer than the brilliant car designer.
Finally, there is this sector of professionals trained to use AI software to solve problems and get jobs done. Such jobs will start to appear now and persist for a long time. Future careers should be planned along these lines.
The entire world has realised that we have moved from territory rooted power to economics based power. In the mediaeval times and earlier, more land would mean more agricultural produce and this would mean more taxes and wealthier kingdoms. Indeed, those pages of history are filled with conquests and annexations. But with the industrial revolution, there was a power shift. The nations fuelling the modern world like the oil producing nations and technologically fluent nations like China, Japan, USA and Germany to name a few, became developed. They became powerful too. But in the more recent time, the phase has come when power has shifted from industry to information. Having more knowledge and information is the true power today. With them, one can manipulate and control any outcome, from shopping preferences, car to coat; to presidential elections and the overthrow of governments.
I have mentioned that many private corporations are developing LLMs, Quantum Computers and other AI related tech, but what about governments and nations? What about the superpowers like the USA, Russia and the wealthy nations from the middle east. It is highly unlikely that they dropped out of the AI race. In due time, it would be such nations and corporations who would be running the show all over the world. The rest of the world may transition to some sort of Global Gulag. So in the years to come, we can expect some form of AI centric power struggle too. We can all remember that it was the scientist that brought an end to WWII. And in recent times we have all heard about the pager explosions in Lebanon or the centrifuges at Iran’s nuclear program. Knowledge (and data/information) is the true power now.
Some may argue that we expect an AI to have all the important qualities of humans, especially the five senses via which we gather information. The five senses may have been essential during the hunter gatherer times, to identify prey and predator, the poisonous mushrooms from the nutrient laden ones; but it is obvious that these five senses gather information and supply to our brain as information where all analysis takes place. The stimulation of artificial neurons in the same sense as natural ones can be easily achieved. For example, the electronic nose (e-nose) is a device that can identify odours and is very efficient and fast. It is widely used in smelling out hazards chemicals, contrabands, explosives and diseases to name a few. And again, there is the e-tongue which is being used in the wine industry among other uses. It may be a matter of time when such a device will be replacing tea-tasters too. Further, if we carefully think, the need of senses is secondary, supply of information is primary and this can be achieved via a simple keyboard. After that, the intelligence hinges on the ability of the network of neurons to churn out all information carried by the data and making inferences from them.
So, we are left with the impression that many jobs will disappear at the hands of AI, but this also opens the opportunity of a new category of jobs where people will be required for manning and maintaining AI. There will also be jobs for developing AI for other new tasks so that the lives of the human beings become easier and less distracted. The young generations should carefully scrutinise their careers, watch out for possible AI presence and adjust their skills to fill up the gaps when AI is lagging and operate symbiotically.
A few leading scientists working in the field of AI have declared timelines during which AGI will be achieved and our machines will become sentient. As of today, superintelligence and AGI are just dreams yet to materialise. However, it is in that category of a dream that can become a reality. Who knows, we humans may eventually discover that the “right thing to do” is to discard the inefficient carbon based body, evolve into digital versions of ourselves, upload ourselves to cyberspace and become immortal, and eventually merge with the AGI.
Author’s note: The article is a compilation of a few ideas sourced from various online and other available materials. Although no explicit references are mentioned, everything mentioned in the article can be easily checked using any search engine. The aim of this write up is to nudge the user to start his or her journey into the fascinating AI laden future with confidence.
Dr. A Borah
Former Associate Professor and Head (Retired), Physics Department, Fazl Ali
College, Mokokchung