Someone asked me what is the scariest thing in the age of artificial intelligence. Many people worry that AI will take jobs. Some people fear that one day machines will be smarter than humans. Some people also imagine the prospect of machines replacing us in almost every field.
But to me, the most frightening thing is not that AI is trying to become human, but that humans are unconsciously practicing living like AI. We reply to messages faster than ever, but conversations are shorter. We respond almost immediately, but spend less time thinking about whether what we say is really necessary or not? We read a lot, browse a lot, know a lot, but seem to understand less and less.
Everything is optimized for speed.
Meals must be quick, news must be fast. Video is only a few dozen seconds. A long article becomes a luxury. A moment of silence is even rarer. In the past, people sat for hours to write a letter. Sometimes just because of a sentence that was not satisfactory, they tore it and wrote it again. But today, sometimes just a few seconds to send a text message. But just those few seconds are enough for a relationship to crack because words that have not yet passed through the heart have quickly escaped from the fingertips.
AI can answer very quickly.
But if humans only know how to react quickly without thinking, then speed will gradually replace depth.
Humans are different from machines in that they know how to hesitate before a decision, know how to be silent before a pain, know how to change their minds when they realize they are wrong, know how to forgive even if it is not logical. And algorithms do not regret, data does not know how to vibrate before a sunset or a tear of a mother.
It is these seemingly "ineffective" things that are the most beautiful part of people.
We are living in an era where everything can be measured: number of views, number of likes, number of followers, number of steps, number of heartbeats, number of working hours. There is only one thing that is very difficult to measure, which is the depth of a soul. We possess the largest amount of information in history, but not necessarily the most understanding.
AI helps humans do many things that they couldn't before. The worrying thing is not in the chip, but in ourselves, if one day we consider speed more important than kindness, reflexes more important than contemplation, answers more important than question. Humans are not more than machines because they know more, but more because they know how to love, doubt themselves, know how to stop before hurting others, and know how to be silent in the face of things that cannot be described by data.
Perhaps, in the era of artificial intelligence, what we need to learn is not how to compete with AI. But to keep what AI, no matter how smart, cannot learn: A heart that knows how to vibrate, a soul that knows compassion and a ability to think independently before speaking.
