Artificial Intelligence: The Karmic Nature of Existential Risk

Before Prometheus stole fire, the symbol of technology, he consulted with Athena, the goddess of wisdom. Hephaestus, the god of fire, tried to force his attentions on Athena & ended up as the father of Erichthonius, a monster. The monster was born because a principle of ethics was violated: “technology should be used in ways consistent with the reverence for life.”

Historically, apologists cite “let man have dominion over the fish of the sea, fowl of the air & every creeping thing,” (Genesis 1:26) as justification for exploitation of other creatures. The result has been ocean acidification, ozone depletion & extinction.

AI today is known as narrow AI in that it is able to perform a narrow task. However, the long-term goal of many researchers is to create general AI – AGI. Narrow AI may outperform humans at specific tasks like facial recognition or solving equations, but AGI would outperform humans at nearly every cognitive task.

AGI has a long way to go, but concerns about AI’s impact on society motivates research in areas from law, economics to technical topics like security & control.

If/when AGI exceeds human intelligence, will it have learned from the mistakes of the apologists & Hephaestus that dominion means guardianship not exploitation?