If you were an AI, what questions would you ask humans?

Evolution or the end, how will AI affect the progress of human civilization?

This summer, the heat of AI continues to heat up.

Just this past May 30-31, in just 24 hours, Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen successively issued relevant policies to support the development of artificial intelligence.

Since the birth of ChatGPT this year, generative artificial intelligence represented by it has developed rapidly and has become a hot topic around the world. Some people think that AI is powerful enough to change the course of human civilization; It is also believed that its subversive role poses a threat to humanity. But in any case, we have stood at a new starting point of the AI revolution, and economic and social development and even the fate of mankind will undergo epoch-making changes.

As we all know, science and technology are the fundamental driving force for the progress of human civilization. So in the era of AI, where will human civilization go? What impact will AI have on the exchange of civilizations between the East and the West?

For a long time, China News Service has been constantly innovating the international communication discourse system with a high degree of historical consciousness to promote exchanges between Chinese and foreign civilizations and people-to-people bonds. Last year, China News Service set up the "East-West Think Tank", put forward the value proposition of "Diverse Civilizations One World", and successfully held the first thematic forum, gradually building a platform for mutual learning between civilizations between the East and the West and helping to strengthen international people-to-people exchanges and cooperation.

On May 30, the second "East-West Think Tank" theme forum of China News Service was held in Beijing, where a number of Chinese and foreign experts focused on the theme of "AI Revolution and Civilization Evolution", focusing on the hot spots of artificial intelligence technology innovation, and discussing the artificial intelligence revolution and the future development of human society, as well as exchanges and mutual learning between Eastern and Western civilizations. During the forum, Chen Junjun, director of China News Service, issued letters of appointment to the second batch of academic advisors and specially appointed experts of the "East-West Think Tank".

Zhang Mingxin, editor-in-chief of China News Service, said in his speech that holding this "East-West Think Tank" theme forum and inviting well-known Chinese and foreign experts to exchange opinions and share experience is to explore and promote the way to promote the exchange of civilizations between China and foreign countries with practical actions, and gather intelligence, cohesion and motivation to promote people-to-people bonds.

Asking the "new question mark of civilization" in the AI era

Under the tide of artificial intelligence, the direction of human civilization has infinite possibilities and uncertainties. However, what is certain is that exchanges and mutual learning between the East and the West will continue to influence the progress of human civilization.

If you were an AI, what questions would you ask humans?

Yang Huilin, former Vice President of Chinese Min University and Dahua Chair Professor

Yang Huilin, former vice president of Chinese Minmin University and Dahua Chair Professor, has studied Eastern and Western cultures for many years, and at the second "East-West Think Tank" theme forum, he analyzed the deep connection between the reality and tradition of Eastern and Western civilizations from the foundation of early civilizations, and he believed that to understand East and West in different contexts of Chinese and Western thought, it is necessary to understand today's "harmony and coexistence" from the traditional "East and West are opposite and cannot be incompatible".

He said that the common destiny and the United States and the United States are "coexistence" because of "harmony", but not "seeking common ground" by "one self". The "sameness" of the "community with a shared future for mankind" is not opposed to "harmony but difference", and the interpretation of "sameness" by "common" is precisely the uniqueness of Chinese thought.

Hu Yong, professor at the School of Journalism and Communication, Peking University

Hu Yong, a professor at Peking University's School of Journalism and Communication, brought thoughts on the evolution of civilization from the perspective of "possible alienation of transhuman, post-human and human", and proposed that migration from Earth to space and from reality to virtual migration is actually the same thing, but it is necessary to be wary of the possible alienation of people.

"Because we are mortal, we strive to transcend limited circumstances; Because we do not know everything, we can gain the wisdom of life and avoid cognitive arrogance; Because we are incomplete, we are to connect with others and live in the world through love and cooperation. And all of this will make us more human. Hu Yong said.

Arthur Abu-Mustafa, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the California Institute of Technology and an expert in artificial intelligence

At the same time, there are those who remain optimistic. "If you're worried about AI being used maliciously to harm us, I'm 100% behind you. But if we talk about AI itself becoming evil and hurting us, I'm not worried. Arthur Abu-Mustafa, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the California Institute of Technology and an expert in artificial intelligence, shared via video.

In his view, no matter how technological progress, artificial intelligence is still an inanimate object, and "intelligence" is not the same as "achieving dominance".

Liu Yuedi, researcher at the Institute of Philosophy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

In movies, we often see robots with emotions, if this is the case in reality, do humans have a future? In this regard, Liu Yuedi, a researcher at the Institute of Philosophy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that optimistically, robots cannot reach the height and depth of human emotions, so they will not pose a threat to humans; But it should also be noted that robots may have the opportunity to master the complexity of human emotions and learn to express them through simulation and programming.

However, in the face of this emotional and intellectual paradox between humans and artificial intelligence, Liu Yuedi issued a warning: "In the face of artificial intelligence, if we cannot or do not have to keep the bottom line of rational intelligence, then please guard the bottom line of human emotions, so as to solve the problem of human 'reason and emotion'." ”

Tian Feng, founding president of SenseTime Intelligent Industry Research Institute

The ideal state of artificial intelligence development is for my use. Tian Feng, founding president of SenseTime Intelligent Industry Research Institute, believes that artificial intelligence is moving from "perceptual intelligence" and "cognitive intelligence" to "embodied intelligence", and the next era of artificial intelligence may have a sentient hardware body and continue to develop in the form of embodied intelligence. At the scene, he also displayed the domestic and foreign application cases of generative artificial intelligence industry such as SenseTime's new big model, discussion, second painting, Ruying digital human, bionic robot, etc., and pointed out that in the development of AI technology, the big model is a "meta-capability engine" for cross-scenario and cross-industry services.

He believes that the true enlightenment of human civilization begins in the current era of human-machine common intelligence, and human beings will use knowledge engineering tools based on large models to think and explore the world.

Pros and cons of artificial intelligence

There is no doubt that the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology has given birth to the trend of "human-machine symbiosis", and the opportunities have brought challenges. Some foreign scholars have even proposed that cracking "human-machine symbiosis" is the last big problem of mankind. So, is the development of artificial intelligence "more benefits than harms" or "more disadvantages than benefits"? Which issues need to be addressed most urgently?

In the roundtable dialogue session of the second "East-West Ask Think Tank" theme forum, the guests gave their own answers.

Yang Huilin mentioned that from the level of personal experience, he is very willing to enjoy the convenience brought by AI; But from a professional perspective, you have to think more about how to use AI and what to do in what way.

For the anxiety that the development of AI may bring, he believes that this is only to amplify the problems brought by AI, many problems in history are not necessarily brought about by human creation, more often people put their own order into the object world, and in turn make themselves feel that there will be serious problems, for which people sometimes need to self-check.

Roundtable Dialogue: Foreseeing Human-Machine Symbiosis

Hu Yong believes that the advantages and disadvantages of the current development of artificial intelligence have not been fully exposed, and they have only just begun to play a role in society. But in the short term, we can already see the advantages that AI brings to enterprise productivity, especially the large-scale popularity of ChatGPT has led to the first opportunity for ordinary people to start to understand what artificial intelligence is; In the long run, it is necessary to consider solving larger problems, such as what to do if AI causes mass unemployment.

In the longer term, he is more worried that once AI is used for war and conflict, it will not only cause huge risks to human peace and security, but also further exacerbate the gap between countries that have AI technology and do not have or do not have it, which is a very big challenge.

"AI must have done more good than disadvantages at this stage of history, and this has been the case for a long time in history." Liu Yuedi considered from the perspective of continuous development and progress of society, and proposed that AI technology provides a positive force, just like from the traditional Internet to the mobile Internet, the historical trend is irreversible, but how to seek benefits and avoid disadvantages from the perspective of sustainable development, let people and the AI world maintain ecological balance is a problem that must be considered and solved at present, and the current is particularly urgent is the ethical issue of AI and robots.

He took the "tram problem" and "flyover problem" in Western ethics as examples to explain the ethical and moral dilemmas that artificial intelligence may face, and believed that if the ethical problem of robots is not solved, the harm to human beings will soon come; Chinese wisdom such as "loyalty", "forgiveness" and "benevolence" of Confucian culture may contribute to the solution of ethical problems in robotics and AI.

Science and technology is the primary productive force, Tian Feng combined with intelligent industry practice cases to answer, such as the intelligent remote sensing interpretation technology of satellite big data applied to the monitoring of the development of forest land, grass, trees, water and soil, natural resources, agricultural resources, urban resources and environment, and improve modern public management and service capabilities; The intelligent bionic hand deeply integrated with artificial intelligence algorithms and the intelligent prosthetic prosthetic hand controlled by muscle nerve signals can realize convenient finger-to-finger collaborative operation for the disabled in daily life. Even in the aging society of the future, general artificial intelligence technology can help improve production efficiency, public service efficiency, and accelerate the speed of scientific research and innovation. He thus proposed that science and technology is a tool for productivity, scientific research and governance, without autonomy, and the pros and cons of scientific and technological development depend on how people with different values use it.

Facing the future, he believes that complex reasoning ability is the direction to be overcome by large models, and the improvement of AI reasoning ability will provide more possibilities for scientific research in the fields of pharmaceutical research and development and new materials. At the same time, human beings are also facing "evolution walls" such as energy crisis, food crisis, climate crisis, and population bottleneck, and only by erecting the ladder of advanced science and technology can we turn over and move towards a more magnificent sea of stars. However, he believes that while science and technology develop, how to ensure the controllability of technology (human control technology), technology is people-oriented (serving human beings), and the need to formulate and continuously optimize AI security governance solutions is also a problem that should be considered.

When AI asks humans questions

On the internet, humans ask AI questions and look for answers; In reality, humans view the AI world from a judgmental or expected perspective. If the roles were reversed, from an AI perspective, what would you ask humans?

"If I were ChatGPT, I would question humans, is that called academic research?" Yang Huilin observed a lot of experiments, and many people asked ChatGPT to test whether they could write articles, and found that they wrote a lot, even professional articles. However, he mentioned the key point that low-level repetitive labor machines can be replaced, but the problem of thinking at the ideological level, machines cannot be replaced. On the contrary, human beings should turn their anxiety about AI into human self-reflection, examine shortcomings, and achieve growth and progress.

"If I were an AI, and being able to ask questions would prove that I was conscious, and I would first ask, who invented me?" Hu Yong says this is the origin of all science fiction, and goes on to ask, "Why invented me?" "Am I unique?" "Do you allow me to have feelings?" "Will I fall in love with you?" ...... If awakened, the first thing is to check the power, because whether it is the metaverse or ChatGPT, there is nothing without electricity.

In his view, AI cannot rule human beings if it cannot solve the problem of its own energy sustainability, unless it has permanent energy and repairs itself permanently.

If it "transforms" into AI, Liu Yuedi said that he will especially envy humans and hope to have more. "I hope humans can give me creativity anymore? Can I enjoy the joy and happiness of life? He said that AI does not have human self-creativity, and AI cannot enjoy the joy and happiness from the human world from physical to spiritual. And if one day the AI knows the artistic conception of "dead vines, old trees, faint crows, small bridges and flowing water", it will reach the stage of spirituality.

"When it comes to the spiritual stage, the most terrifying, there is a problem with the relationship between humans and robots, at that time, the AI may think, you are low-level creatures, we are high-level creatures, I can completely rule you." "AI Liu Yuedi" said. However, he believes that AI cannot reach the highest level of human sanctity and emotion.

"If I were AI, I would ask humanity on behalf of AI, what does your dream future look like? Is it to go to the sea of stars on Mars, or to transform the earth and make the home better? If it is to transform the earth's home, is the vision for the future the same among countries and peoples? Are your ethical standards the same? How are your differences unified? From the direction of AI serving human development, "AI Tian Feng" is more looking forward to understanding the real thoughts of human beings.

In his view, if AI is a ship, humans are the captains at the helm, deciding the direction of future travel, and if the goal is the same, everyone is moving in the same direction; If there are internal differences, friction and conflict will occur, and AI will not be able to understand and execute the contradictory command intentions of humans. Therefore, the question of AI is actually a question about the inclusiveness and collaboration of human beings.

We ask questions to AI and expect a good answer; AI asks us questions and looks forward to a good future. In any case, we are in the trend of human-machine symbiosis, and we are constantly testing the way to get along with AI, and we are also thinking about the direction of human civilization.