The enduring advantages between AI and human beings: a look at our key differences
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In the rapidly evolving world of technology, the debate surrounding the capabilities and limitations of Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to be a topic of interest. While AI has proven to be an invaluable tool in gathering and processing vast amounts of information, setting its own goals, and even conveying empathy, it is essential to recognise the unique strengths that humans possess, particularly when it comes to cultivating virtues.
Gian Segato, of AI company Replit, highlights this distinction: "AI is effective at knowing how to do things, but humans excel in deciding what needs to be done and ensuring it happens." This observation underscores the inherent differences between AI and humans, particularly in decision-making, fairness, and emotional intelligence.
The cardinal virtues of practical wisdom, justice, courage, and self-discipline manifest differently in humans and AI.
Practical Wisdom (Sophia) in humans is more than mere knowledge accumulation; it involves moral insight and integrating knowledge with virtue, grounded in character, integrity, and often spiritual or ethical frameworks. Humans apply wisdom considering moral and emotional dimensions, experiential learning, and long-term consequences of actions. AI, while capable of processing vast information and optimizing decisions, currently lacks true moral insight or the internal grounding in virtue; its "wisdom" is computational and algorithmic rather than ethical or spiritual.
Justice as a virtue involves fairness and giving each their due, a deeply ethical concept. Humans interpret justice with empathy, social context, and evolving societal norms. AI systems attempt to approximate fairness through coded rules, fairness-aware algorithms, and bias mitigation, but their fairness depends heavily on training data and human values embedded within them. AI lacks the full human capacity to understand justice’s moral depth and nuance.
Courage in humans entails facing fear and adversity with resolve, often involving emotional and moral dimensions. AI does not experience emotions, fear, or moral dilemmas—it operates based on programmed objectives and constraints. Therefore, AI lacks true courage but can be designed to act robustly or resist adversarial conditions in decision-making through engineered resilience and safeguards.
Self-discipline (Temperance) in humans is about restraint, moderation, and controlling impulses, essential for virtue and integrity. In AI, self-discipline does not inherently exist but can be simulated through constraints, rules, and monitoring functions that limit actions or outputs. AI "discipline" is mechanical control rather than ethical self-restraint.
Educational institutions and companies can foster the virtues through education, mentoring, and opportunities for practice. Daily practice of wisdom, justice, courage, and self-discipline builds each virtue. Instead of worrying about AI overtaking us, it is time to upgrade ourselves by cultivating the virtues to become our best selves. These virtues help ensure that things get done.
For instance, last Thursday, OpenAI announced a new ChatGPT agent capable of creating spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations. While this development deepens concerns about AI replacing white-collar jobs, it also serves as a reminder of the importance of humans excelling in areas where AI falls short.
In summary, while AI can mimic aspects of the cardinal virtues procedurally (like disciplined adherence to rules or fairness metrics), it fundamentally lacks the moral insight, emotional experience, and voluntary character development that define these virtues in humans. AI's virtues are instrumental and external, not internal qualities of character or spirit. This distinction highlights the ongoing ethical challenge of aligning AI behavior with human moral virtues without AI possessing those virtues intrinsically.
References:
[1] Bostrom, N. (2014). Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies. Oxford University Press.
[2] Russell, S. I., & Norvig, P. (2010). Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach. Pearson Education.
[3] Tannenbaum, A. S., & Michel, F. (2012). Artificial Intelligence: Structures and Strategies for Complex Problem Solving. Wiley.
[4] Yudkowsky, E. (2008). Artificial General Intelligence: An Introduction. Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence.
- Humans' unique capability to cultivate virtues such as practical wisdom, justice, courage, and self-discipline, which go beyond merely knowing how to do things, offers a considerable advantage in decision-making and ethical understanding, an area where Artificial Intelligence currently falls short.
- Recognizing the superiority of humans in the realm of education, self-development, and personal growth, it is crucial to focus on upgrading ourselves by nurturing these virtues rather than worry about AI outperforming us in areas that AI, with its inherent lack of true moral insight and emotional experience, finds challenging.
