A Toronto academic sees artificial intelligence as transcending. Is he right?
We turn now to the fantastic world of artificial intelligence, where everything is possible beyond our human imaginations, including an investment market that last week sent the shares of multinational AI chipmaker Nvidia Corp. into the US$800 stratosphere. Other AI corporations followed, leaving investors grappling with the big question: Is this a realistic predictive of the coming tech revolution, or another tech investment bubble?
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The bubble debate reflects the underlying global discussion over the merits and usefulness of AI and its potential power to transform the world of business, climate, architecture, arts and culture, insurance — everything from urban planning to equality to the pizza-making industry are said to be on the brink of beneficial and massively profitable transformation.
It looks like a bubble in the making, warned David Rosenberg — last May — when Nvidia traded at US$300. This week, the California-based corporation held on to most of last week’s value. But others say that even at US$800 and a US$2-trillion market cap, Nvidia is still a buy, as are Canadian AI firms.
Wherever the AI investment market turns in coming months and years, there appears to be great certainty among AI proponents that an unprecedented tech revolution is underway. Big-name consultants are set to cash in as are major corporations across the business landscape such as IBM Corp. — to name one of hundreds.
In the academic world, however, few can exceed the AI enthusiasms of Toronto’s Alexander Manu, whose soon-to-be published book — Transcending Imagination: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Creativity — takes readers on a soaring philosophical and intellectual flight through a future “transformed by technology,” powered by AI.
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A few notes from Manu’s book capture his aggressively optimist academic style. Transcending Imagination is not an explanation of how computers, technology and algorithms are deployed. Manu’s approach leaves the technology aside.
• “Artificial intelligence is more than a simple tool in our toolbox; it symbolizes our unyielding pursuit of transcendence, serving as a reflective canvas for our most profound creative yearnings. Our engagement with AI propels us past the boundaries of mechanical intelligence, guiding us toward the essence of our creative consciousness. This dynamic narrative is not about technology usurping humanity but a tribute to our inherent adaptability, evolutionary capability, and the limitless expanse of our imagination.”
• “Generative AI, this exceptionally prominent and rapidly evolving subset of artificial intelligence, is experiencing an adoption trajectory that significantly eclipses precedent-setting technologies such as the internet and the World Wide Web. The ubiquity with which Generative AI is being embraced is almost keeping pace with the technology’s intrinsic capacity to engender novel content.”
• “In a world where AI is poised to supplant a substantial portion of our physical labour and potentially dominate the wheels of our economy, ideas, and innovations, it is vital to view this transition not as a threat but an opportunity.”
In Manu’s optimistic vision of the future, dramatically illustrated with AI-generated images, the world is already in transcendent mode.
Corporate adoption of AI to shape business decisions and operations seems to be well underway. But as Manu sees things, AI could also be deployed by governments and corporations as part of the transition to the global sustainable development agenda. Among the possibilities, AI could be used as a tool to explore corporate social responsibility decisions.
The UN is already moving to align AI as a new way to organize pursuit of its Agenda 2030 sustainable development goals (SDGs). The UN’s “AI for Good” plan said AI “can help speed and scale interventions for this purpose.” At the World Economic Forum in Davos last month, AI was hailed numerous times as a way to reshape the global economy. “AI is a very significant opportunity — if used in a responsible way,” said one speaker. A Brookings Institution report this week concluded that while the UN should not seek to govern AI it should make sure it is “developing AI to support the UN Sustainable Development Goals.”
Manu also mentions the UN sustainable development goals and sees a potential role for AI to foster “narratives that celebrate our collective humanity.” The objective should be to “guarantee inclusivity, ethical congruence, and respect for societal diversity.” This narrative, says Manu, “dismantles the traditional barriers that isolate the self from others, catalyzing a transition from an ‘I’ to a ‘We’ paradigm.”
Such collective policy perspectives take us away from Manu’s dynamic vision into regimes where social and political activists adopt AI as a means to expand their political and economic controls over humans and the planet.
But that’s the negative take on AI, whether it bubbles on the market or not.
The positive side of the AI investment boom was summarized by the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal. Nvidia’s nearly US$2-trillion valuation “is essentially a giant bet on U.S. private innovation,” said the Journal. “China has spent tens of billions of dollars trying to create a national chip-making champion to no avail.” The message to Congress and President Joe Biden is clear, said the editorial: “Industrial policy doesn’t make countries or businesses great.”
Note to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet: Nor does it make Canada great.
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