Is Artificial Intelligence the End of Humanity or its Salvation?

“We are the ones that teach AI every day. Currently we are showing the worst side of what it is to be human — our tweets, our posts, how we disagree, how we behave.

“It is our duty to show up as good humans so that machines learn the ethics to treat us as humans.”

Those words from Mo Gawdat stopped me. Gawdat, former Chief Business Officer at Google X and author of Solve for Happy, said this in a recent talk titled ‘Why AI Will Redefine What It Means To Be Human.’

He was echoing a question I keep hearing, and struggling with: what does it mean to be human in the age of the machines?

I want to bring a second voice in here — historian Yuval Noah Harari — because between Gawdat the technologist and Harari the historian, we get a fuller picture.

Why this question cannot wait

Because right now, we are teaching the machines our worst behaviour.

Every angry comment, every pile-on, every lie we share for likes becomes training data. AI is not good or bad in itself. As Gawdat puts it, “There is nothing wrong with abundant intelligence. AI magnifies humanity.” If we are burning the planet and fighting each other while being smart enough to know better, it will learn exactly that.

The choice, he says, is ours.

So what are the skills of being human?

I tested myself this week with a few uncomfortable questions:

-How many meaningful conversations did I have where I really listened? (I usually start with good intentions and then quickly fall into the trap where instead of listening, I cannot wait to contribute my penny’s worth to the conversation.)

-How many moments of genuine presence did I experience? (Without a phone in my hand or my thoughts drifting to my to-do list.)

-What did I contribute to the wellbeing of another person, with no benefit to me?

-How did I grow in wisdom, compassion and authenticity?

Harari asks it differently:

-Do you take part in something larger than yourself with genuine intention? -Do you confront, even quietly, the brevity and fragility of life? 

-Do you invest in a real community where people know you not for your productivity, appearance or wealth, but for who you really are?

He suggests it can start small, (and I love the smallness): 

-Regular dinners with family and neighbours. 

-A group built around a genuine interest. 

-Volunteering for a cause that matters to you. 

-Joining in community traditions, or creating a new one.

What we have been taught wrong

Our culture tells us more money equals more happiness. Research tells another story. Beyond what is needed for basic security, extra income has minimal impact on life satisfaction. Yet we sacrifice time, health, relationships and values for more money and status—which always fail to feel sufficient.

What if we measured wellbeing differently?

Live elegantly within your means?

Choose experiences over possessions?

Value free time over additional income?

Align our work with our values so it becomes a source of meaning, not just survival? (This one is what inspired me to construct this blogpost.)

Invest in your community? (This one keeps returning.)

The Twist

For this blogpost I asked an AI the very question we started with: “What does it mean to be human?”

The machine’s surprising answer:

“We become human through others — being held, being named, being loved, being argued with, being forgiven. To be human is to be responsible to that web. We can choose to harm or to care, and we know the difference.”

I read that and thought of the old African saying: Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu— which in my case, came true this week during a conversation with my son where he kindly kept on fact-checking the stories I regaled him with, as a way of keeping his mother on the straight and narrow—a person is a person through other people.

Perhaps AI will not be the end of humanity. The outcome, as Mo said, lies in our hands; in how we choose to live as humans. Perhaps it will be the mirror that forces us to remember what we have always known: love and compassion are not soft skills. In the age of machines, they are going to be our salvation. 

(Draft compiled with the help of YouTube podcasts and edited with the help of AI.)