Opinion

6 reasons to stop seeing AI as a threat

Far from replacing humanity, artificial intelligence could elevate the human condition by helping us comprehend, explain and shape our world

From discovering new cures to mitigating climate change, AI-driven research can help us unlock a new era of human flourishing

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Visitors examine a robotic dog on display during a Fire Services Department publicity campaign at Wong Tai Sin Plaza on May 25. Photo: Dickson Lee

Reid Hoffman is co-founder of LinkedIn.

Published: 4:30pm, 28 May 2024Updated: 4:47pm, 28 May 2024

Debates about technology have increasingly been reduced to stark dichotomies. Artificial intelligence should be curtailed or it should be accelerated. Rather than picking a side, we should consider alternative rallying cries that place the focus where it belongs: humanity.

To that end, I propose six maxims. The first is a famous quip attributed to the Carthaginian general Hannibal: “I shall either find a way or make one.” AI can help us find paths that we couldn’t see before. It can help us make new ones through the force of human creativity. Tools like ChatGPT, Copilot and Pi are trained on material by and about people. Far from replacing us, they extend us.

Imagine finding a previously indiscernible thread of insight that runs through Caravaggio, Rousseau and Vivaldi; or a thread tying together the ingredients you just happen to have in your kitchen. A vast collection of human creation and past contributions hangs before us like an expanding tapestry. We now have the tools to do more with it than any previous generation ever could.