Written by Ami John
Illustrated by Yury Aleksanyan
Robert Reinhardt, a scientist at Boston University, has pointed out that the human brain cannot think beyond the structure of the human brain. What does this mean? We aren't exactly able to imagine new colours, a task that is completely impossible for us as we can only associate new colours with existing ones, like seeing an unknown colour and immediately associating it with a lighter shade of pink. However, apart from our cognitive limits, we are still able to come up with new ideas.
For instance, Dr Edward Jenner invented vaccines in 1796 and found that people infected with cowpox were immune to smallpox. However, this idea wasn't solely a Western one. This was also a feature of other parts of the world's history. It was practiced in Africa even before the 1700s, and in China and India, it went back to before the 1500s. While history recognises Dr Jenner's revolutionary contribution, the practice was not limited to that sphere of the world. As such, this suggests that human ideas are homogenous regardless of where they form. Thus, our ideas are universal, emerging across different cultures despite geographic and historical differences. Similar concepts, like medicine or religion, arise independently in various parts of the world, demonstrating the shared nature of human creativity.
This ties into the idea that we can only think of things within the limits of what we are capable of.
Innovation typically builds on prior knowledge and experiences, rather than emerging from a completely blank slate. This presents human thought as a continually evolving process; even though we have just 26 letters in the alphabet and 10 digits, the vast array of words and number combinations we create from these finite elements is virtually limitless.
What happens now?
With the invention of AI, a quick search now brings forth everything we desire. Whether it’s an essay structure, an email to a colleague, or even instructions on how to hack into your neighbour’s Wi-Fi, all these things are now at our fingertips. AI, ChatGPT, and other technologies can generate an endless variety of variations on any topic. Will robotics eventually create a dystopia like we saw in The Matrix? Or will we co-exist with the very thing that has brought down our creativity, attention span, and, dare I say, joy in life?
This is not a black-and-white argument.
Sure, art on TikTok, X and Instagram can be made with AI, and it can be passed off as being human-made or deepfakes being extremely believable. It is really easy going on ChatGPT and asking it to create a variety of combinations from one single prompt on, let's say silkworms. It will input that information and feed us a variety of things relating to that topic and give us actual worms, maybe cloth or even Buddha (as they are important symbols in the religion), and then we can go back to our daily life passing off these associations as our own. Will this change anything? Will we become duller? Less motivated? Eventually lacking the ability to even merely think?
AI now composes music, which tests better than compositions done by human counterparts. It has
completely taken over the journalism industry, and God knows how many layoffs there have been in the field in the past few years. Essentially, will AI just replace white-collar jobs? It sounds like a joke, but honestly, it's not impossible either. While we may not be replaced by AI, we will be replacing our world with a new world where AI will be fundamentally integrated into our daily lives (more so than now), and life without it would seem very much impossible, similar to ordering food on a delivery app. Without it, we would go and buy the food ourselves and maybe decide something else upon reaching our destination. Now, however, we have a multitude of options to
pick from and end up ordering far more than we may need. A life without ordering takeout seems
difficult, if not impossible. In the same way, AI has hampered creativity and created ease, just like a
food delivery app.
Will we just keep plagiarising from now on if we lose our creativity? To end on a more positive note: no. While AI seems amazing and impossible to beat by some standards, it is not creative; it cannot create; it;s merely regurgitating existing ideas. At least, as of now, it cannot conjure anything that is not already in existence. So yes, if you want to draft an email to your colleague, you may depend on AI, but if you truly want to do something groundbreaking, AI is no help,
and you may have to rely on the very thing which brought Artificial intelligence into existence: natural intelligence aka, the human mind.
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