Last month, the author got an opportunity to attend (virtually) “Tanner Lecture 2023” on “AI and Human Values” conducted by Seth Lazar, Professor of Philosophy at the Australian National University, at Stanford University. The lecture was primarily focused on AI-Human connection and AI ethiCS (“ethiCS: the ethics in Computer Science”). “We are increasingly connected to one another by algorithmic intermediaries—sociotechnical systems such as centralized privately—and publicly-controlled digital platforms and competing decentralized architectures”, underlined the lecture. Amid the advancements in technology, human thoughts, perceptions, behaviors and lifestyles have also been unpredictably changing. Starting from the Steam Engine in the ‘First Industrial Revolution’ to Nano Technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Quantum Technologies and Biotech in the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ and beyond, the technological revolution seems to combine both ‘life’ and ‘non-life’ materials including physical, digital and biological sphere. AI technology is likely to be an important means of navigating the entire world, while it has already made a global impact on society, economy, politics, national security and international relations (IR). More than 5 billion people are said to be wedged within a range of broadband infrastructure—that provide access to internet connection—and live online globally, while the global spending on ICT was nearly $5.82 trillion in 2022 (WEF). AI is expected to add about $16 trillion to the global economy by 2030 (IGCC, UC). The technological revolution today has not only changed perceptions of the human race, it has also made it possible to control every action around the world with just one “click” charted by one thought. Technology has made our lives so easy that cellphones are handling many of our activities, including monetary transactions. The phenomenal development of AI has made us so successful in technological innovations that (perhaps) nothing we think is impossible, today.

Lately, ChatGPT (Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer), a next generation AI technology, has created a huge storm in the tech world. ChatGPT, reportedly a large language model trained on language from the internet data sets, is designed by OpenAI, a tech firm based in the US. It is said to be one of the best AI technologies algorithmically, as it solves academic queries, including writing essays, research papers, preparing speeches and solving exam questions with explanations. It can produce music (songs) and write poetry. It has been equipped with terrific general knowledge, rationality and reasoning that helps to give synthesized responses to every enquiry. ChatGPT can even do coding for different languages including Python. Yet it cannot make judgments or decisions and work on real-time as it does not possess any consciousness or ability to feel emotions. ChatGPT, however, is spurring both hope and despair as well as excitement and fear in society and the tech sphere. Some institutions in the US have reportedly banned ChatGPT considering its negative impact such as ‘accuracy’ and ‘completeness’ of information in learning. The generative AI technology, however, is said to “shape the future of technology” as it has distinct features such as ‘interactivity’, ‘autonomy’ and ‘adaptability’.

But will we be able to shape the future of human mind (rationality and critical thinking), humanity, job security, economic equality and societal biases, and conserve the future of traditional schooling systems? This is a crucial question. AI technology is destined to replace humans in multiple sectors, including tech, hospitality, industry and service, which is likely to render hundreds of thousands of people jobless. Per WEF predictions, more than 85 million jobs will be displaced by AI technology and automation by 2025. Big tech and social media companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft, Twitter, Meta and Amazon among others, reportedly laid off more than 200,000 employees just in 2022. The reasons for mass tech layoffs are said to be pandemic, economic slowdown, inflation and war. Indeed, the long-term objective of the big tech companies is to depend on AI instead of humans. Technology has made people’s lives simple, comfortable, successful, apart from saving lives and helping them to cope with disasters. For instance, AI robots and drones were deployed to locate survivors beneath the rubble in Turkey and Syria that experienced a massive earthquake recently. Conversely, technology has also added to stress. With the increased use and abuse of social media and technology, “social isolation” is growing rapidly, damaging emotional and mental health of most social media users. Social media were expected to rationally connect society and strengthen democracy, but they have been used as a “tech propaganda machine” to spread disinformation and destabilize democracy. Various studies have shown that the big tech companies and social media, in complicity with the powerful ruling elite in different countries, have tried to undermine democratic values in the guise of ethnic and religious nationalism. Also, the state authorities have scrutinized civilians underneath the “surveillance system”, which is dictating every personal space and distressing “sovereign human dignity”. The surveillance technology is said to be detecting even the ethnicity of individuals along with racial biases. Non-state actors including cyber criminals and cyber terrorists are posing a serious threat to cybersecurity architecture around the world. The Nepali tech and cyber sphere was outraged a few weeks back due to cyber hacking and snagging of digital infrastructures at different government offices. The central server of the government and servers of different sensitive sectors such as the Department of Immigration and National Information Technology Center went down. The main purpose of hackers, perhaps, was data breaching. Nepal has witnessed multiple cybersecurity threats in banks, telecoms, power-grids, airports and foreign missions due to weak digital infrastructure. Nepal needs to rationally focus on intelligence mechanisms—cyber and digital intelligence—so as to protect data, information and sensitive digital infrastructures from foreign cyber actors or political predators. It is essential to address human values such as freedom, equality, societal dignity, emotional health, personal sovereign dignity, and national security as a matter of policy under a broad regulatory oversight. All nations are required to raise a united voice through multilateral channels (diplomatic channels) to bring all ethical, technical and policy concerns within the ambit of international law and data policy to regulate AI technology, big tech and social media globally. The technology, though, will definitely help advance human lives by conserving human values if AI, digital technology and social media are used in an honest, safe, fair, ethical and responsible manner by all the users. (The second part of this article will appear next week) The author has studied MSc in Computer Science, MSc in Statistics, MA in International Relations & Diplomacy, and MPhil in Management. He is now pursuing research on Tech Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Thought