Much depends upon the person and the attitude with which one uses it. A genuine, sincere seeker can make use of everything for one’s growth and progress. Spiritual seeking is always about upgrading the HI (human intelligence) to DI (divine intelligence). AI can at best be a tool to provide certain information or at worst, a distraction. It has little usefulness for the true spiritual life, which depends upon the sincerity of aspiration and the practice of the Yoga.
But the average human being is far from being a seeker. He is simply seeking a short cut to things and an easy way out. AI has not been made for seekers seeking the Divine. It has been made to take away the mental labour and the time involved, as well as the human error in the various human pursuits. But in the bargain, it will remove the knowledge base of humanity, just as machines removed or greatly reduced the working class and the modern warfare took away the warrior type. Basically, it will be a world of commerce and business armed with powerful production capacity as well as extremely destructive possibilities. Generally, technological advances lead to a biological amputation, just as the computing ability suffered with the advent of computing machines. Medical field will become closer to mathematics in certain ways, more accurate diagnosis and less humane interface. Whatever it be in the long run, – and humanity will possibly adapt to it – its immediate threat is that the technological power is in the hands of unscrupulous people and that is certainly dangerous. It certainly makes many human faculties redundant, which is again counterproductive to evolution. Unless, of course, the very atrophy of reason opens a new and unexpected door in humanity out of sheer exasperation. The pressure outside may well generate an inner revolt just as the Industrial Revolution led to the counterculture movement.
Let’s see which way it goes: the evolution of a divine Intelligence in a small group and/or the destruction of the normal human intelligence as it becomes redundant. Time will tell.
Affectionately,
Alok da
