Can Emotion and Creativity Protect Us from AI?

Artificial intelligence is a heated subject. Some fear that it will lead to people massively losing their jobs. Others, including the International Labor Organization, argue in their recent report that the burgeoning technology can in fact augment new jobs.

Whatever your belief is, it’d not be an overstatement that anxiety prevails among many when it comes to AI.

But what if philosophy and emotion can help tackle it?

 

Let’s deep-dive into the subject.

Next year the German philosopher Immanuel Kant turns 300 years old. Figuratively, that is.

 

A representative of German classic philosophy, this renowned figure offers a wide range of insights into human nature and the functioning of the human mind. And even has some thoughts that are applicable to AI – even though he lived at the end of the 18th century in Königsberg, Prussia (modern Kaliningrad, Russia).

In his interpretation, people tend to overestimate machines and fail to discern fundamental differences between them and machines. However, there are many of them, and to a great extent they pertain to the concept of experience and emotional attachments, which can’t be turned into a set of specific instructions. 

Our childhood memories are used as an example of what that means. Were you to relive them, that would no longer be a memory or an experience. It’d be a life episode all afresh. A bit like Groundhog's Day only with no memory of you reliving the day again and again.

In other words, humans are able to have experiences and complex emotions. Meanwhile, robots don’t. All they’re left with is that set of specific instructions, living in this world of sequences. 

Kant isn’t the only figure to put forward such an argument. In 1976,  Joseph Wiezenbaum, a professor of informatics at MIT, also distinguished between computer power and human reasoning. Accordingly, he believed that computers will never be able to develop human reason as it is not algorithmic. 

The question of whether AI will ever be able to have the mentioned experiences or feel emotions is open-ended. 

In order to understand how to fully replicate a human, we need to grasp what makes an emotion. This means answering such questions as why do we feel the way we do? How does our emotional scene change? And, most importantly, why? 

While there is a biological explanation as to which component is responsible for which type of emotion, what exactly causes them – at the non-physical level – is still not fully explored.

Still, it is almost certain that the development of AI will continue and more novel inventions will be introduced to boost the robot's capability to perform certain tasks and “feel” and perhaps even have “memories.”

It is true that AI is already doing a great deal of work and replacing people  in certain professions. Hence the recent strikes in Hollywood, spearheaded by actress Fran Drescher

The question is how far can it go in this endeavor.

 

Although this is a speculation, it appears that AI can foremost replace the types of jobs where creativity is not a huge must. The bad news is that this is not a guarantee. The good, however, is that in today’s world creativity is necessary in most industries, meaning that AI may actually help you out, not jeopardize your financial well-being.

 

If you're keen on reducing the chances of AI threatening your career as much as possible, then it is important that you work on boosting your creativity skills and emotional intelligence as well as being more thoughtful in general.

 

What can help you attain that goal?

 

The easy answer is to read. Reading is one of the most important activities when it comes to developing your creativity and emotional scene. Even the so-called boring descriptions of nature encountered in some classic literature are not too useless. Mainly because they provide you with a rich vocabulary that you use for writing powerful and emotive texts after.

 

Observing and jotting down your ideas is another great way of developing a new set of creative skills. Start by looking around, checking what people are doing, what they're wearing, etc. These minor things may seem bizarre at first, but as you continue, you will notice that your brain will produce new mental pictures. You can use them for different kinds of purposes – like one of the most well-known writers of the 20th century William Somerset Maugham who said that his main source of inspiration was to observe people and then turn them into characters.

Naturally, there are many other options that are equally as good for developing creative skills, and it’s important that you find the one that works for you. Maybe it’ll turn out to be philosophy? Maybe you’ll write a response to Kant’s “Critique of Pure Reason”? 

You never know!

So, just keep exploring and perhaps we will manage to save ourselves from the unwanted consequences of AI.

Previously, Gagarin News reported that AI reshapes the education landscape, thanks to Animoca.