Should Artificial Intelligence Replace Humans?

Ever since the dawn of time, humankind has been the most dominating species on Earth—
there is no requirement or need for change in this system, especially when the rival ‘species’ is
one that has been created by man itself.
Before asking ourselves whether AI should replace humans, we need to ask ourselves a much
bigger question: Does AI even need to exist. A man has as much a right to fear AI as, say, a right
to breathe. The human brain is hardwired to be afraid of things that pose a potential threat— an
instinct— one that has allowed our ancestors, the cavemen, to survive out in the wild for millennia.
In our case, fearing AI is especially valid: their fast learning rate and the ability to compute
complex data at a tremendous pace makes them a fast learner compared to humans.
AI has already surpassed us at performing trivial tasks: Google’s AlphaZero project has
successfully defeated the human world champions of chess, shogi and Go. Many scientists
including Stephen Hawking signed a petition in 2017 to prevent AI from being used in automated
weapons: ‘(AI could be the) worst event in the history of our civilization’, commented Hawking.
Assuming that humans over the next few decades somehow find a way to manoeuver around
these issues and, for the sake of argument, putting the possibility of world domination by AI off
the table, there will still be an enormous shift in our ecosystem and daily lives: the first thing to
change would be our financial industry, automating trade across the world. Consequently, all
finance-related jobs would be lost; there would be no brokers or bankers. Law, engineering and
teaching will be the next victims to our ‘new’ and ‘improved’ society.
And just like all inventions of the past, AI too, shall fall in the wrong hands. Instead of guns,
we will have ‘smart bullets’: a bullet that follows its target and can even dodge obstacles!
A world where AI runs loose and rampant might lead to the most advanced society we could
ever live in. But at what cost? We would lose our means of income, or worse, our freedom. Our
world will once more be one where the powerful rule over the week, only allowing them to operate
menial tasks.
Therefore, I believe that the possibility of a world where AI replace humans be obliterated and to
find common ground with those who support this idea, appropriate legislations should be passed
before any further progress is made in the field, ones that will only allow AI to solve problems that
humans cannot on their own. Unfortunately, that is the only way for an alpha and a beta to exist:
do not overlap, do not cross paths. Otherwise, it will not end well for one of them.
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