The debate about technology is increasingly mired in a stark dichotomy: should artificial intelligence be curbed or accelerated? There are arguments and counterarguments, but no synthesis. Rather than choosing sides, we should consider a different mantra that puts the focus where it should be: on humanity.
To that end, I suggest six maxims. The first is a famous quote by the Carthaginian general Hannibal: “I either find a way or make a way.” AI is still in its very early stages, and we've only just scratched the surface of its potential. AI can help us find previously unseen paths, and also help us make new paths with the power of human ingenuity. Tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, and Pi are trained by humans, on human material. Far from replacing us, they augment us.
Imagine finding a previously undiscovered thread of insight that runs through Gödel, Escher, Bach, Caravaggio, Rousseau, or Vivaldi, or finding the thread that ties together the ingredients you happen to have in your kitchen. The vast collection of human creations and past contributions hangs before us like an unfolding tapestry, and we have the tools now to do more than any generation before us.
The second quote is “We are symbols, and in symbols we live.” This is Ralph Waldo Emerson's description of how we use language to understand, explain, and shape the world. We humans have always relied on tools: symbols. Symbols allow us to create things that did not exist before or occur naturally. Consider a griffin with the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion. This is a human creation that reflects the reality we want to see in the world. Humans created griffins for human reasons. AI is no exception.
Indeed, many imaginative creations, from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein's monster to the killer cyborgs in James Cameron's Terminator, are intended to warn. We naturally feel fear the first time we encounter the “other” or the “new.” But the Griffin reminds us that we can transform fear into a sense of grandiose possibility. After all, humans are both creators and products of our symbols, culture, environments, and decisions. Working with AI, we can create even more Griffins.
The third maxim is to build cathedrals. Cathedrals sublime our efforts and transform the mere mass of humanity into a fraternity. Actual cathedrals are some of humanity's most awe-inspiring creations, and it is only fitting that missions like the Apollo moon landings are called “cathedral projects.” How wonderful it would be if cathedrals were part of our daily lives, like the cathedrals in European cities.
Such projects require many hands, working together across regions, disciplines and sometimes generations. The author and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote: “A cathedral is built of stones, it is made of stones. But a cathedral ennobles each stone, which becomes its own stone.” Scientific discoveries and technological innovations are the stones in the cathedral of human progress.
The stories of the telescope, the radio, the car, the elevator, the airplane, and now AI follow a similar pattern. While AI is known to many through recent commercial applications like ChatGPT, it took generations of innovators and inventions to get to this point. We need grand projects born of both collaboration and healthy competition to give us direction. How we design and build our cathedrals tells us who we are and who we want to be.
The fourth maxim is that you must take small risks to have any hope of overcoming big ones. Rather than trying to eliminate risk entirely (which is impossible), you should welcome the challenges that may result in failure, because they create opportunities for iteration, reflection, discussion, and continuous improvement.
Think of economist Hyman Minsky’s brilliant insight into financial crises: he realized that “stability” can create its own instability: putting too many safeguards into the financial system makes it more vulnerable, and appearing safe means that no one is prepared when the system collapses.
The same lesson applies to AI regulation: we need to not only encourage innovation, but also recognize that experimentation, or risk mitigation, is itself a risk mitigation mechanism. Ultimately, regulation will improve as these technologies are widely adopted and more people try them and incorporate them into their lives. Again, this is a collaborative effort that involves government, the private sector, the press, academia, and the public—all of us.
The fifth maxim is that technology makes us human. If we accept the idea that AI is the antithesis of the thesis of humanity, we are predicting a future of half-human, half-machine cyborgs. But that is not actually the case. The combination of thesis and antithesis leads to a new thesis, not a crude mashup. The two evolve together, and the resulting synthesis, in this case, is better humans.
Additionally, AI may help us become more human. Think about how responsive, present, and patient a conversational AI model or chatbot could be. These capabilities could have a profound impact on us. Not everyone has access to human kindness and support reliably. But if such resources were readily available, many people's capacity for kindness and empathy would increase. And empathy can beget empathy. I think this aspect of AI's potential has yet to be fully appreciated.
The sixth and final maxim is that we have an obligation to make the future better than the present. Imagine everyone having a personalized digital doctor or tutor in their pocket. What would the cost of getting it done slower be compared to getting it done sooner? When it comes to technology, speed is a virtue, given its unparalleled power to improve lives.
We should all be asking ourselves what promising integration looks like. What if AI-driven research uncovered new medical treatments and ushered in a new era of human prosperity, where we harnessed the power of nuclear fusion to avert the worst effects of climate change? It's natural to peer into the dark unknown and consider all the problems. But it's necessary, and more inherently human, to consider what might work.
This commentary is adapted from a speech given at the University of Perugia in May 2024. Reid Hoffman is co-founder of LinkedIn. © Project Syndicate 2024www.project-syndicate.org
