It’s widely believed that AI will transform how humans work and play, but a prominent technologist feels that its impact could be even more profound.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates believes that the emergence of AI could require the emergence of new religions and philosophies. “The potential positive path (of AI) is so good that it will force us to rethink how should we use our time. You can almost call it a new religion or a new philosophy of how do we stay connected with each other, and not be addicted to these things that will make video games look like nothing in terms of the attractiveness of spending time on them,” he said in an interview.
“It’s fascinating that issues of disease, and enough food, and of climate — if things go well — those will largely become solved problems. So the next generation does get to say, okay, given that some things that were massively in shortage are now not, how do we take advantage of that?” he continued.
“Do we ban AI being used in certain endeavors so that humans get (a chance to compete)? You don’t want robots playing baseball probably because they’ll be too good. So we’ll keep them off the field. How broadly would you go with that? We are so used to this shortage world that that I hope I get to see how we start to rethink these deep meaning questions,” he added.
Gates seemed to be saying that the AI could usher in a radically different world. This world could, potentially, have no concept of money, shortages, and most diseases could be eliminated. As such, humans could need a different conception of gods and philosophies to lead their lives. It is a compelling point — many conventional religions do treat relationships with god as transactional, with people giving prayers, donations and sacrifices in return for their wishes being fulfilled. In a world where there’s infinite money and no disease, will humans have to come up with a new god to help guide their actions?