Artificial Intelligence, or AI, the latest scientific buzzword, has captured the imagination of people, young and old alike. It is being viewed as the ultimate frontier in science and technology. Seen as an intriguing and mysterious tool to work upon, AI alters and manipulates mundane matters. It is being regarded as a new contrivance for the consumerist whose obsession with comfort and convenience seems to be crossing all limits set by the classical concept of moderation.
AI begs closer reading and deeper scrutiny. It is not the outcome of efforts based on any humane desire for human upliftment, but is the prime product of human greed and the demoniac instinct of self-aggrandisement. It is the result of human endeavour driven by gross materialism, bereft of the higher values of morality and spirituality that distinguish the human species from the multitudinous lower animal species.
Humans, through so-called modern scientific pursuits, have harnessed the enormous power of electricity to develop fundamental computational and communication devices such as semiconductor chips and integrated circuits, computer hardware, software and the ubiquitous global web known as the internet. To better understand the utility of these novel gifts of modern science and technology, it is necessary to examine them within the larger framework of human existence, the environment and the ecosphere, and the deeper domain of spiritual existence. For without a true comprehension and treatment of metaphysical realities, the benefits of such scientific and technological products would remain incomplete and accompanied by collateral harm.
AI is actually not intelligence. Intelligence, by its very definition, is the ability to understand, learn and think. But who actually understands, learns and thinks? It is not the intellect or the human mind, but the soul. The intellect and mind are both inanimate or material in nature, while the soul is animate or spiritual. Intelligence is a characteristic attribute of the soul, not of the mind or the intellect. Even the thoughts that originate in the human mind are material, not spiritual, in nature. Hence, AI constituents, which comprise software and information-storage hardware, are akin to the human intellect and the human mind, respectively.
The human being needs knowledge for proper mundane existence. What is the source of knowledge? Definitely, it is other humans, present or past. But what was the source of knowledge for the earliest humans? Epistemological logic tells us that it had to come from a higher power that created humans and the visible universe. It also tells us that such a higher power or authority must be omniscient.
AI’s utility and limitations can be best understood with reference to divine scriptures with primeval knowledge, such as the Vedas
Taking the logic further, the Creator of humans knows best what is good for His creation. And to enable humans to progress and evolve, the same Creator imparts all useful knowledge to human beings by revealing the Vedas.
Hence, AI’s utility and limitations can be best understood with reference to divine scriptures with primeval knowledge, such as the Vedas.
Such references tell us that AI increases human working efficiency, but at a great environmental and ecological cost. It also carries a tremendous social cost because it is primarily intended to make humans functionally redundant.
Humans know what goes into making AI and its derivative products, but they know little about the environmental, ecological and social costs of using these products. They know even less about the deleterious effects of these products on the subtler human elements of the mind and intellect, which humans can never synthesise in a laboratory. Hence, these technological products or implements are based on half-knowledge, and half-knowledge is dangerous. Knowledge gaps can be bridged only by reference to the divine scientific literature of the Vedas, which comes from the all-knowing Creator.
AI lacks creativity and originality, which are the prime attributes of the human soul. It lacks the faculty of determination possessed by the human mind. It is devoid of the sense of discrimination possessed by the human intellect. It can only search, explore, scan and collate pieces of information diffused across the internet, and these pieces of information may come from different sources, randomly scattered. Often, these bits of information are neither sequenced nor coherent. More often than not, they are incongruent, unauthenticated, inaccurate, irrelevant and incomplete.
Humans are spiritual entities with a mind, intellect and soul. Any paradigm of progress, including technological tools like AI, has to consider the role of these subtle entities in human fulfilment and evolution. Without such consideration, human progress will remain lopsided, incomplete and illusory.
