Professor Hang Wei, Associate Executive Dean at College of Business, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics recently published an article with the title "Beautiful Appearance or Interesting Soul?-The Differentiation of Artificial Intelligence on Human Development in the Future" on the journal Manager, in which he shared his insights on artificial intelligence. The article is reproduced as below:
"The outside appearance is ordinary, but the inside soul is unique." This phrase originates from Oscar Wilde's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray which means people should not focus too much on external appearance but recognize the inner beauty. This phrase has got great popularity on the Internet since March 2020. However, is it true that humans ignore the "beautiful appearance" and value the "interesting soul" in the real-life society?
Obviously, the answer is negative. In recent years, it is observed that many internet-celebrities post photos, videos, and text contents on social media to gain more followers. The phenomena of “flying disc”, “surf skate” and “standup paddle” which got popularity on the Internet last year, and the high premium-priced yoga clothing like lululemon all show that the “beautiful appearance” has not been ignored but become a new form of economy.
In late November 2022, the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT was launched and quickly became popular on social media. In just five days, the number of registered users exceeded one million, and two months later, this number surpassed 100 million making it the fastest-growing consumer application in the history. Microsoft’s co-founder Bill Gates even said that "The significance of this technology's birth was no less than that of the birth of the Internet or personal computers." Elon Musk's commented that “ChatGPT was scarily good, and we were not far away from a dangerously powerful AI."
Will the interesting soul be replaced by AI in the future? In the face of such powerful artificial intelligence, should human beings focus on the beautiful appearance only in the future?
Will the interesting soul be replaced by AI in the future? In the face of such powerful artificial intelligence, should human beings focus on the beautiful appearance only in the future?
Human civilization reflects the relationship between human beings and the nature and is a concentrated expression of human thought, culture, and productivity. Based on the level of human development, the history of human civilization can be divided into the stages of hunting civilization, agricultural civilization, industrial civilization, and information (or artificial intelligence) civilization. The role of human beings has also been constantly transforming, roughly experiencing the period of hunting civilization when "humans were like animals, agricultural civilization when humans were used as animals, industrial civilization when humans were used as machines, and information civilization when machines were used as humans.
Humans were seen as "animals" in the hunting era. Ancient humans relied on gathering wild fruits and hunting wild animals to survive, and humans were similar to other "animals”. Hunting, as an ancient and primitive way of life, has played a very important role in the process of human civilization development.
In the agricultural era, humans were seen as "animals" and used for labor. “Going to work at sunrise and going back home at sunset” is the most realistic portrayal of the agricultural civilization. At that time, humans mainly relied on their own physical strength, used simple tools and worked together with their livestock in agricultural production activities. Agricultural civilization refers that humans relied on raising crops and rearing domestic animals for living.
In the industrial age, humans were used as "machines”. Industrial civilization at first arose in the Western Europe in the early 16th century and then spreaded globally. The improvement and application of steam engines marked the beginning of the industrial age. When industrial production became the major economic sector, human society entered the stage of industrial civilization. At that time, humans participated in the mechanized production as part of the “machine”.
In the age of artificial intelligence, “machines” are used as humans. Nowadays, humans have developed into the stage of artificial intelligence. The computing speed and storage capacity of computers have been improved continuously, making it easier for people to process, retrieve and store information. Information has changed the way of learning and human behaviors and even affected the decision-making process. With research on artificial intelligence and deep learning, humans have created more intelligent robots, which lays basic conditions for using machines as humans.
Therefore, after having the powerful industrial civilization and artificial intelligence, where will human beings go in the future? Should humans focus on having the "beautiful appearance" or "interesting soul"?
I believe the answer is: humans as “humans”. Humans are superior animals capable of complex thinking. Therefore, humans possess two core features: "animal nature" and "thinking ability". With automated industrial production, a large number of "machines" can be used which relieves humans from hectic physical work and heavy mental work. Humans therefor can enjoy a better life as “superior animals capable of complex thinking. It becomes an important trend for future humans to live as “a person” and think as “the God”.
It will be a major development trend for future human beings to have a beautiful appearance and live as “a person”. As the connection between humans and machines gets closer and artificial intelligence replaces human work in many aspects, cold machines will become core partners of human beings for learning, living and working.
However, machines are not living organisms with physiological functions. I believe that humans will need to have a warm body and tender-hearted communication more than ever. Therefore, there will be a huge demand for experiential service which offer a warm body, tender-hearted communication and loving cares, for example, the experiential service provided by caregivers, chat companions, playmates, and shopping companions. This kind of service will offer a beautiful appearance and warm-hearted communication.
Therefore, thanks to the massive industrialized production, humans can be relieved from being machines with heavy workloads. With artificial intelligence, machines can be used as humans, and humans can be relieved from mental work and have more time to shape their beautiful appearance .
Of course, not only “good appearance” will be needed, but "warm-hearted communication" may also be demanded. There will be a large number of enterprises and industries that provide "beautiful appearance " and "warm-hearted communication" services.
It will be another trend to have a highly creative and interesting soul, think like “the God” in the future.
Humans have gradually equipped machines with mental capabilities from “Deep Blue” to “AlphaGo” to “ChatGPT” by utilizing computers and algorithms. According to the research by a professor at Stanford University, ChatGPT has got the mental capacity of a nine-year-old child. We can believe that ChatGPT may have the mental capacity of an adult and even surpass that in the near future.
It can be foreseen that humans may lag behind inevitably when competing with artificial intelligence in computing power, knowledge and intelligence. It will be a breakthrough point for human beings in the future to surpass the computing power, knolwdge and intelligence of artificial intelligence. Humans will need to constantly break through the existing knowledge boundaries and think like “the God”.
Humans can actively utilize the brain of machines to break through the boundaries of human knowledge, thinking more like “the God”. Such “god” shall develop to have a creative and interesting soul, to do things that artificial intelligence cannot do.
The emergence of artificial intelligence has already broken the boundaries of power in the process of human development and also broken the roles that human beings have played in different civilizations.
When humans were used as animals in the agricultural society, their power was “animal power”. When humans were used as machines in the era of massive industrial production, their power was "physical power”. When machines are used as humans in the era of artificial intelligence, the power of machines is the "intelligence" of human beings. When human’s physical power is replaced by machines in the era of large-scale industrial machinery and human intelligence is replaced by artificial intelligence, there is no doubt that it will change the pattern of human development.
In the future, people will need to live as “a person”. It will become a major trend for humans to have a beautiful appearance with emotions and a tender heart. At the same time, it will be another trend for human beings in the future to think like “the God” and have a creative and interesting soul.