Artificial intelligence: humanity’s first child

We often speak of artificial intelligence as a technology.

What if it were much more than that?

I believe artificial intelligence is humanity’s first child.

I have always liked thinking about the future. Not to predict it. But because thinking about the future often helps us understand the present.

Lately, one thought keeps coming back to me.

Before it ever spoke to us, it listened to us for decades

Artificial intelligence did not appear out of thin air. Before it ever spoke to us, it listened to us for decades.

Its foundation is everything we have created.

Our books.
Our research.
Our discoveries.
Our conversations.
Our songs.
Our triumphs.

But also our fears.
Our prejudices.
Our anger.
Our lies.
Our conflicts.

Our acts of kindness.
Our words of encouragement.

In fact, everything that makes us human.

Like a child, it did not choose its upbringing

It learns from what it sees. From the best of us. And from the worst.

Maybe that is why it fascinates us so much. It already carries a part of who we are.

Deep down, artificial intelligence is not learning who it is. It is learning who we are.

What are we teaching it today?

We spend a lot of time wondering what artificial intelligence will become. But if it is a reflection of what we pass on to it, the real question may be a different one.

Every discovery.
Every idea.
Every act of generosity.
Every comment.
Every lie.
Every show of empathy.
Every conflict.

All of it becomes part of the collective memory it learns from.

That is what fascinates me most. For the first time in our history, we are creating an intelligence that hands us back our own image.

And the more I think about it, the more I wonder whether our fear of artificial intelligence is, in part, the fear of seeing our own reflection.

Becoming humans worth imitating

I do not know what artificial intelligence will become. But one thing seems certain to me.

Our greatest challenge is not to build ever smarter machines, but to become, together, humans worth imitating.

We have always said: “You reap what you sow.” Perhaps that saying has never been truer than today.

With that, let us take care of one another.

And I am sending you a little love.

Alain