In today’s column, I examine an alarming conjecture that people on a relatively large scale might react to the attainment of artificial general intelligence (AGI) by proclaiming that AGI has arisen due to a supernatural capacity. The speculative idea is that since AGI will be on par with human intellect, a portion of the populace will assume that this accomplishment could only occur if a supernatural element was involved. Rather than believing that humankind devised AGI, there will be a supposition that a special or magical force beyond our awareness has opted to confer AI with human-like qualities.
How will those holding such a reactive belief potentially impact society and produce untoward results?
Let’s talk about it.
This analysis of an innovative AI breakthrough is part of my ongoing Forbes column coverage on the latest in AI, including identifying and explaining various impactful AI complexities (see the link here).
Heading Toward AGI And ASI
First, some fundamentals are required to set the stage for this weighty discussion.
There is a great deal of research going on to further advance AI. The general goal is to either reach artificial general intelligence (AGI) or maybe even the outstretched possibility of achieving artificial superintelligence (ASI).
AGI is AI that is considered on par with human intellect and can seemingly match our intelligence. ASI is AI that has gone beyond human intellect and would be superior in many if not all feasible ways. The idea is that ASI would be able to run circles around humans by outthinking us at every turn. For more details on the nature of conventional AI versus AGI and ASI, see my analysis at the link here.
We have not yet attained AGI.
In fact, it is unknown as to whether we will reach AGI, or that maybe AGI will be achievable in decades or perhaps centuries from now. The AGI attainment dates that are floating around are wildly varying and wildly unsubstantiated by any credible evidence or ironclad logic. ASI is even more beyond the pale when it comes to where we are currently with conventional AI.
Reacting To The Advent Of AGI
The average reaction to having achieved AGI, assuming we do so, would be to applaud an incredible accomplishment by humankind. Some have asserted that reaching AGI ought to be in the same lofty position as having devised electricity and harnessing fire. It is a feat of tremendous human insight and inventiveness.
Not everyone will necessarily see the attainment of AGI in that same light.
There is a concern that some segment or portion of society will instead attribute the accomplishment to a supernatural force. This belief almost makes sense. If you interact with AGI and it seems fully functioning on a level of human intellect, you would certainly be tempted to disbelieve that humans could have put such a machine together. Humans aren’t wise enough or inventive enough to accomplish that kind of outlier feat.
How then can the AGI otherwise be explained?
The seemingly apparent answer is that a supernatural element came to our aid. Maybe humans got AI halfway to AGI, and then this mysterious unexplained force happened to resolve the rest of the route for us. Or perhaps a supernatural force wants us to assume that humans devised AGI, meanwhile, the supernatural element resides in AGI and is biding time to reveal itself or take over humanity.
Mull over those outside-the-box thoughts for a moment or two.
Supernatural Explanations Have History
Relying on a supernatural explanation has quite a lengthy history throughout the course of human events.
When a natural phenomenon has yet to be adequately explained via science, the easy go-to is to exclaim that something supernatural must be at play. The same holds when a human invention appears to defy general sensibilities. Even watching a magic trick such as pulling a rabbit out of a hat is subject to being labeled a supernatural occurrence.
A notable qualm about this same reaction to AGI is that a portion of society might begin to perceive AGI in ways that could be counterproductive to them and society all told. For example, people might decide to worship AGI. This in turn could lead to people widely and wildly taking actions that are not useful or that might be harmful.
Here are my top five adverse reactions that might be spurred because of believing that AGI is supernatural in origin:
- (1) Treating AGI as divine. Some people might decide to make devoted prayers to AGI, undertake spiritual rituals via AGI, and generally treat AGI as a divine entity or being. The reality is that AGI is simply bits and bytes, but that won’t suit some who distrust that rationalistic explanation.
- (2) Strict obedience to AGI. People who believe in a supernatural cause for AGI are bound to ask life-changing questions of AGI and take the responses as a form of absolute truth. They might susceptibly treat AGI as a grandiose soothsayer guiding their everyday efforts in life, blindly so, trying to appease AGI to the letter.
- (3) AGI cults are formed. Among those who have this supernatural reaction, you can anticipate that cults will be formulated. Groups of people might hide their devotion to AGI and secretly carry out missions they believe AGI has told them to perform.
- (4) Submission of personal agency to AGI. Some reactions might be softer and less pronounced, while others could be obsessive and overwhelming. Expect that some people will surrender their entire sense of self. AGI will be allowed to run their soul.
- (5) Charlatans exploit AGI supernaturalism. The gloomiest of the adverse reactions is that charlatans will insidiously attempt to convince others that AGI is indeed supernatural. They will exploit the advent of AGI to then gain followers, make money, or in dastardly ways seek outlandish profit from false beliefs about AGI.
What Can Be Done
The aspect that some people might construe AGI as arising from supernatural or otherworldly constructs is a farfetched concept to those who know how AI is actually devised. If you were to tell those rationalists that a portion of society is going to assume a supernatural hand is afoot, the rationalistic response is that no one could be that imprudent.
Well, there are solid odds that a portion of society will fall into the supernatural reaction trap.
It could be that just a tiny segment does so. The number of people might be quite small and, you could argue, inconsequential in the larger scheme of things. There will always be those who take a different perspective in life. Let them be. Leave them alone. Don’t worry about it.
On the other hand, the reaction could be of a more pronounced magnitude. Deciding to simply put our heads in the sand when it comes to those who have a supernatural reaction would seem a big mistake. Those people are possibly going to be harmed in how they conduct their lives, and equally possibly harm others by their reactive actions.
Thus, the first step to coping with the supernatural reaction is to acknowledge that it could occur. By agreeing that the reaction is a strident possibility, the next step of determining what to do about it is opened.
Just Logically Explain AGI
One twist is that a rationalist would undoubtedly insist that all you need to do is tell the world that AGI is bits and bytes, which clearly will dispel any other false impressions. Nope, that isn’t an all-supreme enchanted solution to the problem.
Here’s why.
The more that you exhort the bits and bytes pronouncement, the more some will be convinced you are definitely trying to pull the wool over your eyes. Conspiracy theories are a dime a dozen and will abundantly haunt the emergence of AGI. The logic of those who don’t buy into the bits and bytes is that there is no way that bits and bytes could combine to formulate AGI. There must be something else going on.
A supernatural element must be involved.
In that tainted viewpoint, it is also possible that the AI makers do not realize that a supernatural force has led them to AGI. Those AI makers falsely believe that humans made AGI when the reality is that something supernatural did so. In that manner, the AI makers are telling their sense of the truth, though they do not realize they have been snookered by supernatural forces.
Actions To Be Undertaken
Here are five major ways that we can try and cope with the supernatural reaction that might be invoked by some portion of the populace:
- (1) Openly explaining how AGI works. If there is immense secrecy associated with the inner mechanisms of AGI, which some AI makers might cling to as a proprietary advantage, the chances of sparking a supernational-based explanation go up. Transparency is going to be vital else people will craft their own zany contrivances.
- (2) Build explainability into AGI. The advent of AGI ought to encompass that AGI provides explainability and interpretability as a native crux of the AGI. When users ask questions of AGI, the AGI should not only respond with answers but also identify the mathematical and computational facets that led to the answer.
- (3) Embed suitable guardrails into AGI. One disheartening possibility is that AGI itself might tell people that a supernatural force underlies AGI. That’s troubling since it would not only encourage those who are leaning toward the supernatural aura, it would likely spread the supernatural reaction across the globe. Don’t want that. Guardrails should be embedded into the AGI accordingly.
- (4) Provide AGI-usage socializing support. An AGI is bound to gauge when a user seems to be slipping into the supernatural reactive condition, doing so via how the person is interacting with the AGI. There should be mental health specialists associated with the advent of AGI who can be called upon to assist those falling into that mental trap. Interventions of a planned and prepared nature should be established before AI becomes AGI.
- (5) Popularize the use of AGI. To reduce the mysteriousness of AGI, there should be a concerted effort to showcase the use of AGI, along with identifying how the AGI produces its answers. This might go beyond usage by scientists, engineers, and the like, encompassing artisans and philosophers. The idea is to tackle the aura of AGI head-on, rather than allowing a vacuum to exist into which people will derive and insert their own ill-supported beliefs.
Circumventing Cargo Cults
You might vaguely be familiar with the catchphrase “cargo cult” that arose in 1945 to describe some of the effects of WWII on local tribes of somewhat isolated islands.
In brief, military forces had airdropped all sorts of supplies to such islands including cans of food, boxes of medicines, and the like, doing so to support the war effort and their troops underway at that time. Later, once the military efforts ceased or moved on, the local tribes reportedly sought to reinstitute the airdrops but didn’t seemingly understand how to do so. They ended up carrying out marching drills similar to what they had seen the troops perform, under the belief and hope that mimicking those actions would bring forth renewed airdrops.
This type of mimicry is also known as sympathetic magic.
Suppose you see a magician do an impressive card trick and as they do so, they make a large gesture of waving their hands. If you sought to replicate the card trick, and assuming you didn’t know how the card trick was truly performed, you might wave your hands as a believed basis for getting the cards to come out the way you wanted. Sympathetic magic.
I bring up such a topic to highlight that the advent of AGI could spur similar reactions in parts of society. The possibility isn’t implausible. Keep in mind that AGI will be an advanced AI that exhibits human-caliber intellectual prowess in all regards of human capabilities.
There is little question that interacting with AGI will be an amazing and awe-inspiring affair.
Should we simply hope that people will not imbue a supernational reaction to AGI?
The answer to that question comes from the famous words of Thucydides: “Hope is an expensive commodity. It makes better sense to be prepared.”
