“As we look to the future, we might assume that the biggest existential threats to humanity lie in climate change and nuclear wars. As massive as those problems are, they are problems of the ‘outer world,’ ones that we can apply ourselves to. The confusion and crisis over individuals’ AI-aided (or addled) identity/identities could cause individuals turmoil in [as many as or more than] 8 billion inner worlds, and this could lead to the total destruction of humans from within.
“This is the real existential threat of the 21st Century. But, if humans can find ways to collaborate, co-pilot and co-mingle with AI in a partnership, it could be that AI can extend and augment our personality and inner selves, and we could find ourselves achieving much more than we thought possible.
“If AI that acts as an agent on our behalf while retaining our agency and can talk like us, work like us, promote our goals and negotiate on our behalf, it could augment every human to fulfill their potential. All will depend on the power of those in whose hands AI resides – will the governance of these powerful technologies lie in the hands of an elite group of tech titans or in the hands of individual people? It is the governance of AI that is in question.
Can we even be the ‘author’ of our own personal identity in the digital world? Likely not, as the role of AI or personal agents will be to study and monitor us and represent us (re-present us) in virtual rather than physical media. Much of our own identity will be presented and re-presented by AI (whether that be our tone of voice, our personality, our eccentricities, AI will have learnt to mimic every part of our identity performance to others). … If we become disconnected from our own identity creation because a machine is doing much of it on our behalf, we will start to have identity crises.
“There are many implications around autonomy, not least for those working in the creative industries and arts. It could be said that the whole notion of ‘authorship’ is dead. Much like when Walter Benjamin grieved the loss of awe in art at the advent of mechanical photography, we are now grieving the loss of awe in identity with the advent of digital technology. For there will no longer be any ‘original’ creative output that is created solely by humans. AI will, from now on, always have a part to play (or perhaps will always be assumed to be playing a part), mainly in mixing and remixing and in general re-arranging what already has been created by others.
“We might call it copying. If this is the case, we might say that this is the ‘death of the artist’ (to borrow a turn of phrase from Roland Barthes), for in the digital world, it seems, there are no originals, only copies, and therefore no originator. Ergo, no authentic ‘author’ as such.
“Can we even be the ‘author’ of our own personal identity in the digital world? Likely not, as the role of AI or personal agents will be to study and monitor us and represent us (re-present us) in virtual rather than physical media. To this degree much of our own identity will be presented and re-presented by AI (whether that be our tone of voice, our personality, our eccentricities, AI will have learnt to mimic every part of our identity performance to others).
“This has its advantages, but it also has its disadvantages. If we become disconnected from our own identity creation because a machine is doing much of it on our behalf, we will start to have identity crises. Plural identities residing in external AI agents could well lead to severe mental challenges, especially for those in the West who are culturally wedded to the notion of ‘authenticity.’
As we look to the future, we might assume that the biggest existential threats to humanity lie in climate change and nuclear wars. As massive as those problems are, they are problems of the ‘outer world,’ ones that we can apply ourselves to. The confusion and crisis over individuals’ AI-aided (or addled) identity/identities could cause individuals turmoil in 8 billion inner worlds, and this could lead to the total destruction of humans from within. This is the real existential threat of the 21st Century
“But, if humans can find ways to collaborate, co-pilot and co-mingle with AI in a partnership, it could be that AI can extend and augment our personality and inner selves, and we could find ourselves achieving much more than we thought possible. If AI acts as an agent on our behalf while retaining our agency and can talk like us, work like us, promote our goals and negotiate on our behalf, it could augment every human to fulfill their potential.
“All will depend on the power of those in whose hands AI resides – will the governance of these powerful technologies lie in the hands of an elite group of tech titans or in the hands of individual people? It is the governance of AI that is in question. Education will play a major role in our future. As AI becomes integrated into education over the next five to seven years, we will see whether it may be destined to be used for indoctrination or for positive exploration.”
This essay was written in November 2023 in reply to the following research question from Elon University’s Imagining the Digital Future Center: Considering the likely changes created by the proliferation of AI in individuals’ daily lives and in society’s social, economic and political systems, how will life have changed by 2040? This and more than 150 additional essay responses are included in the report “The Impact of Artificial Intelligence by 2040”