Historically, humans have always striven to extend their capabilities using various tools. The horse, one of the earliest and most profound of these tools, revolutionized transportation, agriculture, warfare, commerce and communication. Its domestication, dating back to around 5000 B.C., marked a monumental shift in human progress.
Horses, with their speed and strength, became not only our companions but extensions of ourselves, allowing people and civilizations to connect, trade ideas, and expand horizons.
In fact, horses worked at more varied jobs during the industrial era than at any other time. They pulled carriages, buses, and carts on streets and barges on canals. While steam engines pumped, horses kept the wheels of commerce turning. The age of the machine was also the heyday of the horse.
(Source: AMNH)
Today, as we stand on the threshold of another era-defining industrial revolution, it’s not a living being but a synthetic one that promises to facilitate this transformation: Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Intelligent AI-powered agents are going to be both the machines, and the workhorses, of the Sixth Industrial Revolution. But like horses, they will need guidance from human riders.
Just as the horse and rider formed an alliance that transcended their individual capabilities, humans and AI have the potential to merge into a formidable composite, propelling society into uncharted territories. Yet, this partnership is fraught with new complexities.
If history serves as a teacher, it’s evident that all tools, no matter how beneficial, require regulation and guidance. The unchecked power of a horse could lead to chaos, and similarly, an unsupervised AI is a tool with potential for misuse.
AI’s power, its ability to adapt, learn, and process without cease, is both its strength and vulnerability. It can act as a multiplier of human intent – for better or worse. When left unchecked, AI doesn’t merely malfunction; it can amplify our worst tendencies, such as biases or misinformation.
Thus, a system of checks and balances becomes imperative:
1. Ethical Design and Programming: Just as a rider trains a horse, humans need to embed ethical frameworks within AI from inception. This not only involves using unbiased data but ensuring that AI’s decision-making mechanisms prioritize fairness and eschew harm.
2. Continuous Monitoring and Feedback: A rider always remains alert to the horse’s behavior, making corrections as necessary. Similarly, regular audits and feedback loops for AI will ensure alignment with human values.
3. Transparency and Explanation: A harmonious horse-rider relationship is built on trust and understanding. In the realm of AI, systems must be transparent, explaining their decisions in terms understandable to their human counterparts.
4. Education and Public Awareness: An informed rider can harness a horse’s full potential. In the AI era, equipping the public with knowledge ensures that they can engage with, benefit from, and critique AI systems.
The Human Element
The relationship between humans and AIs is analogous to the relationship between humans and horses that fueled what became the first Industrial Revolution, and will have similar transformative impact today.
And it’s not a competition. Human minds are different from AIs, and still far more powerful. Human minds are not just information processors, they are sentient beings – they are aware of the actual content of the world, not just digital representations of it. We are the consciousness in the system.
In light of this distinction, in the coming era, humans will be the primary actors who bring intent, and define goals, priorities, and policies. Humans will initiate and make the important decisions in the world. Alongside us, AIs will act as our helpers, assistants, co-pilots, co-workers, and partners.
Towards a Healthy Symbiosis
Because human and AI minds are so highly complementary, AI won’t likely ever replace humanity, but we do have a choice in what our relationship with AI turns out to be.
Will it be parasite and host, master and servant, a partnership, a new combined species? I think and predict that it will be like a horse and rider – AI will augment and amplify humans to be exponentially more capable, and in turn we will care for, train, breed, ride and navigate our AIs to build a new world that transcends our separate abilities.
But to achieve this vision of a healthy symbiosis between humans and AI, we must think of our approach like a process of building and managing a relationship, and a process of co-evolution, with another species – a species that assists and amplifies our capabilities.
Through a healthy human-AI symbiosis we can guarantee that our intelligent AI partners remain aligned with our priorities and values.
The Future Just Happened
The future of AI, much like the onset of industrialization, presents vast opportunities interspersed with challenges. And that future just happened – the AI Industrial Revolution we’ve been predicting for so many decades, has started.
Our lives and work are about to radically change. Just as horses and later factories once transformed landscapes and economies, prompting new regulations and protocols, today’s rapidly blooming AI landscape demands immediate engagement and an evolved thought paradigm.
A Blueprint for Riding Together
The “horse and rider” analogy is not just a picturesque representation but a blueprint for navigating the future that is ripe with historical precedent and lessons we can apply today.
It underscores the idea that while AI offers unimaginable capabilities, the human spirit, with its sentience, dreams, aspirations, and values, remains as the irreplaceable rider in this new equation.
As we embrace the age of AI and the evolution of tools that think for themselves, it’s crucial to remember that the greatest milestones will be achieved not by AI alone but through the synergy of AI and humanity: We are better together.
It’s a journey – in fact a conversation – where humans are not mere spectators but active participants, steering AI towards a legacy of progress and shared values. The essence lies in riding together to ensure we arrive at a future that’s both innovative and aligned with human values.