PETERS: AI has potential to help humanity move forward – as long as it doesn’t replace what makes us human

The possibility AI will be able to solve the problems that have plagued generations is breathtaking.

Could it lead to cures for cancer and other horrific, chronic diseases? Maybe.

Could it find a way to grow food and purify water in lands of scarcity? Perhaps it could.

What is more worrisome is the instinct to use AI to replace that most human quality – individual artistic expression.

This week, electronic musician Diplo – short for Diplodocus, his favourite dinosaur – came out in full support of using AI to replace humans in music.

He said, “I can get the best voice from AI. I don’t need anybody to sing the song anymore.”

Perhaps I am the actual dinosaur, but if AI is doing the artistic creation instead of humans, there is no point to the music at all.

By contrast, the artist Marc Chagall said, “Art must be an expression of love or it is nothing.”

Ironically, I used AI to find that quote.

But AI factories do not experience love.

Their high-performance processing units, their high-speed networking cables, their super-cooled storage servers do not have eternal souls longing to express their innermost feelings.

If Diplo believes there is no fighting AI on its incursion into artistic expression, then there is no use fighting for humanity, period.

Just roll over and let the AI factories usurp your agency, your autonomy, your voice as an individual person.

It’s a lazy, cowardly way to live.

AI can and should be used to help humans – not replace that which makes us human.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.

by James Peters

PETERS: AI has potential to help humanity move forward – as long as it doesn’t replace what makes us human

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