We hear and read about this everywhere these days.

You hear people say, “The future is now.”

“We have to give way to technology.”

“We’ll be better off and live a better life (maybe not even work) if we let AI do it.”

Yes, the technology is here and we are living at the dawn of the AI ​​age, and it is a topic that we have seen and heard a lot more of this year.

I wonder what the opportunities will be for the average person. You know, the person who isn’t the founder of Facebook, Google, or Amazon, who have set up barriers to entry so high that it’s going to be rare for companies to break into that stratospheric league.

What will happen to humans?

Do you wonder what will happen to the average person? AI is taking over customer service, writing, design, sales, law, and medicine. As a businessman and social entrepreneur, the reality is that if you look at things from a purely basic point of view, using AI could make a lot of sense. They never get sick. They work 7/27/365. They never stop and, in fact, can produce more than any human being can, in a lifetime. From a pure dollars and cents perspective, AI can make a lot of sense.

But then you have to wonder about the broader implications of AI, and I feel like society hasn’t even begun to understand the implications. If you pay a little attention to the news, you will know that a few months ago Facebook engineers shut down and disconnected the AI ​​that decided on its own to go ahead and develop a new language. It was more efficient for them to do the job, but the humans didn’t understand. It seems like the language was basic, but what if the AI ​​hadn’t shut down? Would they have developed a highly sophisticated way of communicating and operating on that completely excised human?

I agree that technology can be beneficial to society. I think most people would agree that we would rather send a bot into a dangerous situation, say a war, rather than ask our men and women to risk their lives. I think there is something to be said for the rapidly expanding role of robotics in medicine. For example, the fact that we have begun to 3D print human organs is a significant advance, and we have to hope that many lives will be saved.

The Deeper Problems Related to AI

My concern as I delve into the topic of AI is what are the implications for the human race, and yes, that includes even how we in the philanthropic sector connect with each other and with the world we serve. As I noted in the previous article I wrote, the AI ​​Partnership, which is a collaborative effort between mega-companies like Facebook, Apple, Google, and leading nonprofits like UNICEF and Human Rights, are trying to lead the conversation about the implications of AI for all of our lives.

If you tune in even a little bit to the AI ​​conversation, you know we have a lot of issues to deal with, including some of the following:

• Security: We don’t want to be in a situation where AI is created and not obligated to protect human life.
• Transparency: We had the recent situation with Facebook where they shut down the AI, but who rules (the government or the companies) when someone says “Houston, we have a problem”?
• Work and Economy: Whose responsibility is it to train people as AI develops, and what will their job roles be in light of a much more powerful AI partner? Will people have jobs?
• Society: For communities around the world, which certainly includes nonprofit and philanthropic work, what will be the impact of AI on philanthropy, education, charitable work, science, public/private partnerships, etc.?

Reality seems to be apparently unfolding in that there are few, if any, areas that the AI ​​will not touch.

Competitive advantage of humanity

When I read about AI-related topics, I think of one thing: humanity. i think we all we need to get into the conversation now about the implications of AI. I am someone who likes and values ​​people precisely because we are imperfect. There is a lot of prose and poetry in the human condition. AI cannot love, show courage, hope, dream, fear, etc.

In my opinion, those qualities are what make humans so much better than AI. Our values ​​are our competitive advantage against AI. There is something intrinsic within people (some call it soul or spirit, others connect the scientific dots of all the elements that make up our brain, heart and body) that makes us unique and yes, even exceptional.

We have a serious conversation that needs to take place about AI, but it involves all humans, and we need to pay attention before we have a situation that we didn’t expect in the age of technology.

The path of humanity in greeting AI

In many ways, I hope that AI begins to break down the things that divide us and that we discover that as humans we are all the same. Are. Take away money, race, religion, gender, and everything else; We all bleed red.

we all hurt

We all wait.

we all dream

The way I see it, the time is now for humanity. They may be our finest moments at the dawn of a new era, provided we all get out of our own way and engage in a global dialogue about humanity in the age of AI.