Quick Intro: My name is Strad and I am a new grad working in tech wanting to learn and write more about AI safety and how Tech will effect our future. I'm trying to challenge myself to write a short article a day to get back into writing. Would love any feedback on the article and any advice on writing in this field!
AI keeps me up at night. The fact that humanity is trying to create machines much more intelligent then themselves is constantly lurking in the back of my mind. How much more intelligent do we really want these machines to be? If the aim is for these machines to solve all our world problems and bring humanity into a blissful utopia, then I assume the desired intelligence gap between us and them is quite large.
Given how human intelligence gave us a competitive edge in the animal kingdom, I am quite scared of what will happen to the human race if super intelligent AI is created. Sadly, attempts to ease my worries have often converged onto forgetting about the issue and distracting myself.
Recently however, one of my friends introduced me to an idea that provided some hope. This idea is referred to as “The Merge.” The merge is this idea that humans can merge with AI rather than be taken over by it. Instead of being replaced by AI, AI will become a part of us.
This concept felt quite strange to me at first, but after discussing it more, it started to interest me.
Many leaders in AI such as Elon Musk and Sam Altman have talked extensively about this idea of humans merging with AI systems. They often propose the idea as a possible “solution” to the risk of AI taking over.
While there are many ways in which the merging could happen, there is reason to believe it would be a gradual process. Instead of a sudden switch from humans to super intelligent cyborgs, it seems more likely that humans will gradually incorporate AI into their lives more and more until one day, we are noticeably different from how we are today.
This trend can already be seen with the advances in technology over the past few decades. Today, personal laptops give individual humans access to more information and processing power than ever before. Cell phones allow humans to expand their ability to communicate to people anywhere in the world. Even the recent advancement of LLMs has further expanded our ability to generate ideas and discuss them.
Each of these technologies expand the capabilities of each individual human. It might not seem like these technologies are truly “merged” with us since they are not physically connected to us. However what matters more than the medium of connection is the fact that a human equipped with these technologies is already noticeably different from one without.
Also, the connection will likely become more seamless with the advent of brain computer interfaces from companies such as Neuralink. Brain computer interfaces are devices that could connect our brain directly to the technologies we use everyday. With this invention, humans could control technologies with their mind as well as receive information from these technologies directly into their head. With the ability to receive inputs and send outputs to and from an AI using your brain, the possibility of the merge seems all the more plausible.
I started off this article spilling out my anxieties about the future of AI and how the merge helps give me some comfort. But does the merge even seem like a positive future for humans?
First off, it is unclear what it really even means for us to merge ourselves with AI. Sure, currently we might merge ourselves with other technologies, but these technologies don’t seem to inherently change who we are. They give us more information and allow us to do more things, but it ultimately feels like we are still normal humans who are just utilizing tools.
Will it still feel this way if we are connecting our brains to another intelligence that has its own process of thinking? Would we even be able to comprehend and understand reasoning at such a level in the same way we understand our own? If we could understand this super intelligent reasoning, would we still feel human? Does being connected to this super intelligence give us full control of it?
Subjective experience aside, it is also unclear whether society itself will feel human after the merge takes place. How would people interact with each other if they all had super human levels of intelligence? What happens to society when people can alter their experience and abilities to such a high degree? Will humans still maintain a physical form? If not how does a human society even look?
The merge opens a door to a lot of interesting questions to be researched and discussed. The lack of answers to these questions makes it very unclear whether the merge would truly be something positive for individuals and society.
For me however, since a future with AI is so uncertain, having any idea of a potential pathway to a world where humans still exists after the creation of super intelligence gives me some comfort, albeit a small amount. There are also some reasons to think that the merge could be a positive outcome, especially when compared to more doomsdays scenarios such as AI takeover.
The gradual nature of the merge gives a perception that humans are evolving into beings with more abilities rather than being fully replaced. The difference between this and humans actually being replaced by AI could seem trivial given a long enough time frame. However, creating AI with the intention of merging it with humans might allow for human nature and values to propagate further into the future than if we where to just create a entirely separate super intelligent entity.
Anchoring a superintelligence to our own thought processes and desires seems like it could be a more viable way to ingrain human values and interests into it. By being a part of us, the AI’s objectives and motives would be intrinsically tied to ours in a way that seems stronger than if we were to just program them in. This connection might make it easier for us to guide AI to do things that align with humanity.
In addition, since our subjective experience would be more intrinsically tied to the AI‘s, we might feel less like we are being replaced by super intelligence and more like we are getting to go along for the ride.
A lot of this speculation comes from the intuitive assumptions I have which are by no means 100% accurate. I encourage further research for both myself and others on the topic of the merge with AI to get a better idea of what it would be like and how we could potentially guide it towards a better future for humans. However, learning about this concept and its potential for a positive future has indeed helped me feel a little more hopeful about our seemingly inevitable future with super intelligence.
