It’s Just an Apparition: Unmasking AI Hype

A panel of distinguished scholars explores AI’s limitations in achieving true sentience, creativity, and reasoning. Panelists critique predictions of AI surpassing human intelligence, such as Ray Kurzweil’s singularity theory, emphasizing that current AI models rely on statistical patterns rather than genuine understanding. The discussion highlights concerns about AI displacing human jobs while affirming the irreplaceability of human creativity and purpose. The panel also addresses ethical risks and the need for responsible AI development.

Walter Myers opens up with a befitting clip from Star Trek, introduces three books of importance to the conversation (The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil, Deep Utopia by Nick Bostrom, and AI 2041: 10 Visions of Our Future by Kai-Fu Lee and Chen Qiufan), and concludes by saying, “When humans are involved, reality rarely lives up to the hype.”

Myers then introduces and leads the panelists — Robert J. Marks, William Dembski, and George Gilder — through a series of questions exploring artificial intelligence, the human mind, and the thoughts and ideas of Ray Kurzweil, Nick Bostrom, and Kai-Fu Lee and Chen Qiufan.

The panelists begin by distinguishing where AI succeeds and fails. Marks casts doubt on Kurzweil’s predictions of the future: “I don’t think the singularity as he defined it will ever be achieved.” Dembski points out that while large language models are “the most impressive thing” he’s seen from AI, it can’t reason and it’s poor at math and creativity. Gilder explains that AI will never be able to reason, plan, create, or think as humans do because AI is a probability system. Real information is defined by surprise. Marks follows up by explaining that, “Creativity will happen in computers when the computer does something beyond the intent or the explanation of the programmer.…That hasn’t happened yet.”

The conversation then turns to the topic of work. Will AI replace or displace workers and leave us without purpose or meaning? Will humans thrive in a world where their only job is leisure? Gilder contends that there will be more work, not less, with AI entering the scene. “People get hired because of what they can do, and AI will amplify the skills of workers and create more work,” he explains. Dembski points out that, “Social relationships and work — those are the two key factors of human happiness,” so he contends that a life of leisure without challenge is antithetical to the human need for meaningful work.

Finally, the panelists turn to the views of Bostrom and Kurzweil that in the future, humans and AI will merge, granting expanded thinking abilities and longer life (if not immortality). Will we — like the philosophical Ship of Theseus — remain fundamentally the same as all our “parts” are changed? Marks makes it clear that he doesn’t believe we will ever merge with AI, explaining that we carry qualities such as spirituality, creativity, love, and compassion that are not algorithmic. Gilder notes that, “Death is an essential part of life.…and it lends resonance and significance to our activities.” For Dembski, the Ship of Theseus analogy “doesn’t seem to hold at the neuronal level.”

Throughout the entire discussion, the panelists continue to return to the immaterial, irreplaceable qualities of the human person. “You can’t just substitute some zeros and ones for the incredible complexity of the human brain,” says Dembski.

Walter Myers is a Senior Fellow and board member of Discovery Institute.

Robert J. Marks is Director of Discovery Institute’s Walter Bradley Center for Natural & Artificial Intelligence.

William Dembski is a mathematician and philosopher.

George Gilder, co-founder of Discovery Institute, is a Senior Fellow of the Center on Wealth & Poverty.

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