Any partnership between artificial intelligence and humanity poses a tangible risk, as it involves dealing with an entity that demonstrates superior knowledge across a number of areas. Moreover, the inherent ethical dimension of sharing power in order to decide what is most beneficial for humanity must be addressed, argues Pierre Casse , who delves into the issue along with Paul Claudel and Maurice Saias Proceed with caution
L eaders need to face facts: artificial intelligence (AI) is everywhere and is growing exponentially. It is time to acknowledge that what we have invented is already beyond our control – at least in some key areas of our collective society. It is now clear that the so-called non-organic intelligence, or NOI, is able to manage information and knowledge much faster and more effectively than any human being. This new-gen technology also appears to have its own life; that’s why it is increasingly difficult, even for experts in the field, to understand its ways of operating. The upside is that those leaders smart enough to create a proper partnership with it will gain a huge advantage. The sociological outlook We don’t yet fully appreciate the impact that NOI will have on our existence. The only thing we already know is that our basic assumptions and values about our lives will be tremendously challenged. It will be a revolution and trigger in some radical fashion our ways of coming together as a society – with both positive and negative implications for us all. We must keep in mind that any technology invented by humankind is loaded with new meanings and values. It is not neutral; it is very much culturally loaded. Leaders must take into account a vital sociological fact about our human evolution: we have always experienced a discrepancy between technological advances and cultural realities. Our code for living together has always been slower at adapting compared to our ability to be creative and ingenious. The role of the new-generation leader will involve managing the change process, so that emerging assumptions and values will be adopted with a minimum of pain and maximum benefits. They will also have to control the well-documented social reactions to dramatic change, ie withdrawing and becoming violent, as well as ensuring that the partnership with NOI is constructive, ethical and safe for humanity. Overall, leaders will have to oversee the correct balance between the social need for truth and order. The philosophical perspective If we take into account that the foundation we have established to give meaning and value to all those objects and events we encounter in our life is our ‘project to live,’ – ie the continuous striving to perpetuate our existence as living beings – then a fundamental question emerges regarding the advent of NOI. We must ask ourselves: does this new science serve our core motivation in this regard and, if so, how? AI is no more than a form of amplified reason. If we regard our reason as a tool permitting us to make the most effective use of the world in order to ensure the perpetuation of our existence, then it follows that the more efficient we can render that tool the better we will be capable of responding to our basic need, which is to accomplish our project to live. With AI we have tremendously expanded our reason and by that our power to live. This goes for all of us in this world and
36 Ambition • ISSUE 5 • 2025
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