Some devices and innovations seem to pop up out of nowhere — like in late 2022, when OpenAI launched ChatGPT free to the public. But in reality, these technological milestones come from decades of research, computation and vigorous debates over how an invention may irrevocably change what it means to be human — for better or worse.
As artificial intelligence infiltrates every aspect of our lives, NPR host Manoush Zomorodi has spoken to some of the experts who have predicted and shaped today's digital landscape. In TED Radio Hour's special series Prophets of Technology, these pioneers share their insights on how we got here and where they think we're headed next.
Here are some of their key takeaways:
1. Our brains and AI will one day merge and act as one
Futurist and inventor Ray Kurzweil has worked on early forms of artificial intelligence for the past six decades. He believes we should stop thinking of human intelligence and computer intelligence as two separate things. "We're actually going to merge," Kurzweil told Zomorodi.
"We're going to be able to think of things and we're not going to be sure whether it came from our biological intelligence or our computational intelligence," said Kurzweil, who has predicted many of the breakthroughs in computation and AI. "It's all going to be the same thing. And that's what's gonna happen in the 2030s."
But could merging with machines diminish the value of the human mind? Kurzweil doesn't think so; in fact, he sees this merging as simply the next step in expanding human potential. "We'll be proud of what we're able to create. At least for me, that's what gives me meaning," Kurzweil said.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sherry Turkle is not a futurist — she's a psychologist who has been a keen observer of technology's impact on the human psyche. In recent years, she has turned her focus to studying AI chatbots. She says bots like ChatGPT could end up undermining the very things that make us human, such as the ways we process emotions.
Turkle spoke with one woman who was using ChatGPT to write all her love letters. The woman claimed that the chatbot was able to write "love letters closer to how she really feels than she could do herself," Turkle recalled.
The real concern, Turkle explained, isn't whether the AI-generated love letter is more eloquent — it's that this woman will miss out on the emotional experience of introspection: the process of turning inward, understanding her own feelings and putting them into words.
"Even those of us who couldn't write very good love letters summoned ourselves in a certain kind of special way when we wrote a love letter. And the love letter was not just about what was on paper. It was about what we had done to ourselves in the process of writing it," Turkle said. "And that is something that's being undermined by the use of technology, even if this woman feels that her final-product letter is more pleasing to her."
2. We're seeing exponential gains in medical advancements
AI is altering how we create new medicines and treat diseases.
One example of this is vaccine development. Kurzweil, the futurist, reflected on how the biotech company Moderna drastically sped up the process for developing a COVID-19 vaccine with the help of AI.
"It used to take years to do that kind of thing," said Kurzweil. "So we'll be able to actually create medications for diseases that will take days rather than years."
AI is also paving the way for advancements in biotech, like with the gene-editing tool CRISPR. Biochemist Jennifer Doudna, the co-discoverer of CRISPR, described a future scenario where someone gets their DNA sequenced and discovers they have susceptibility to Alzheimer's disease.
"It's possible to use a technology like CRISPR to change those genetics so that that person no longer has that susceptibility," Doudna said. "I mean, that would be extraordinary if we get to that point. Will we get there in 30 years? I don't know. But I think it's entirely possible that we will."
3. Guardrails are essential, and experts say we need to act quickly
As AI continues developing at breakneck speed, many experts are calling for regulation and guardrails to preserve digital privacy and civil liberties and to safeguard against unintended consequences.
For example, when it comes to brain monitoring and enhancement (think EEG headbands, smartwatches and earbuds that monitor and modulate brain activity), who gets access to all that mental information?
Lawyer and AI ethicist Nita Farahany emphasized the need for laws protecting cognitive liberty, "a right to self-determination over our brain and mental experiences" — in other words, who owns and will have access to our most private thoughts and emotions.
"There's still these thoughts you have, the way you react and feel that isn't expressed in your eyes and your text messages and your GPS location data," Farahany said.
That's what she feels is at risk without ethical guidelines on emerging neurotechnology.
"When we get to this world of brain transparency," Farahany explained, "if we don't have the right kind of safeguards in place, that which I think is so fundamental to what it means to be human ... may suddenly not be our own."
This episode is Part 3 of TED Radio Hour's three-part series: Prophets of Technology, conversations with the minds crafting our digital world. Listen to Part 1 here. Listen to Part 2 here.
Click to listen to the full conversations with Sherry Turkle (2024), Mustafa Suleyman (2024), Jennifer Doudna (2022) and Nita Farahany (2024).
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This digital story was written by Katie Monteleone and edited by Sanaz Meshkinpour.
This episode of TED Radio Hour was produced by Rachel Faulkner White and Harsha Nahata. It was edited by Sanaz Meshkinpour and Manoush Zomorodi.
Our production staff at NPR also includes James Delahoussaye, Matthew Cloutier and Fiona Geiran.
Our audio engineers were Robert Rodriguez and Simon-Laslo Janssen.
Talk to us on Instagram (@manoushz) and Facebook, or email us at TEDRadioHour@npr.org.
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