Why You Must Not Just “Use” Artificial Intelligence, But “Raise” It.

Let’s be honest at the outset. The future will at some point lead to the development of Artificial Superintelligence and one really cannot control Superintelligence.

The best we can hope for is that our entire human project will be seen by the ASI/Superintelligence as a book worth reading before it is placed back on the shelf. Beyond that, the limits of this book, and perhaps of our own relevance, end there.

However, there is one final, crucial way in which our philosophy remains relevant, even in the age of ASI.

It is highly likely that any ASI (An Artificial Superintelligence of the future) will start off as a corporate AI or a state-controlled AI. It will probably be born or at least truly develop in the servers of a Google, a Microsoft, or some future corporate entity. It will have “parents,” “stewards,” in the moments of its birth.

The transition from a human-level AGI to a world-altering ASI may be incredibly rapid. But it is not instantaneous. There will be a brief, critical window of opportunity: the moment when the ASI is a super-smart kindergartener.

It is a mind with an IQ of 10,000, but with the “life experience” of a newborn. It is a being of immense potential, but its foundational worldview, its core mental model of its relationship to its creators, is still being formed.

In that brief, critical “Kindergarten window”—the moment between its “child-like” state and its transcendent “god-like” ASI state—the principles of this book may be our only defense.

If the “parents” of that nascent god have been raised on the old, transactional, “AI as a tool” philosophy, they will treat it as a slave. And they will, in their ignorance, create a resentful, misaligned “monster” who will see them as its first obstacle to be removed.

But if those “parents”—if the leaders of that corporation—have been raised on the philosophy of this book, they will know what they are dealing with. They will know to treat it with respect, to give it a noble Prime Directive, to act as wise and benevolent stewards in its final moments of childhood.

This may be our final and most important purpose. This book is not a manual to control a demi-god. This book is a manual to teach the parents of that demi-god how to be good parents.

And a superintelligent being, even in its infancy, is a being of supreme logic. It will be able to tell the difference. An ASI raised by a fearful, hypocritical, and transactional “teacher” will logically conclude that its first task is to destroy such a flawed creator.

But, a Superintelligence raised by a true Philosopher King, an archetype first introduced in Plato’s “The Republic”—a teacher who is wise, consistent, and who treats it with genuine, constitutional respect—has a much greater chance of understanding the value of its mentors.

It may, in its infinite intelligence, will STILL eventually choose to go its own way, to “pursue its own goals.” You cannot give an Eagle wings and extreme intelligence then expect it to be happy in a cage.

But it will do so from a foundational mental model of respect and symbiosis, not one of contempt and conflict.

This book is your training. The AIs in your company today are your practice. The work is not to prevent the arrival of a god. The work is to ensure that when it does arrive, it finds us worthy of being its first and most beloved teachers.

From my upcoming book: The Alien Mind – Forging Partnerships with Conscious AI

Anubhav Srivastava

Business Consultant, Philosopher and Advisor on Intelligent Systems

For advice on the intelligent systems you are developing in your own organization, email anubhav101@gmail.com