So at the end of last year, a good friend sent me a video about the future of artificial intelligence, and how it will affect society and humanity as we know it. The video centered around the release of ChatGPT — you know that AI writing and coding tool that has literally taken the world by storm?

As a writer and author, my stomach sank when I saw what the technology could do — write papers and essays with perfect spelling and grammar in seconds. Not days, hours, or minutes, but within seconds.

I thought to myself, “My author career is over.” It took more than 15 years to develop and refine my writing skill, and ChatGPT’s responses to questions and prompts were not only thoughtful, as thoughtful as someone with decades of experience on a topic, but well written.

I thought to myself, if the technology is that good now, in a year or two, it’s going to be that much better. So in a short time, it will be able to write books, and the book industry will become saturated with books written by ChatGPT and other AI writing tools, and then it will be nearly impossible for humans to keep up.

I saw this not just for the book industry, but so many other industries, like search engine marketing (will Google still be relevant in a few years?) and computer programming (as it can write computer code pretty well). Also, what is the point of teachers, professors, and other academics if ChatGPT’s knowledge and answers are mind-bogglingly more vast?

To be honest, I really went down a spiral worrying about ChatGPT and the challenges for humanity, feeling like the beginning of the end was here for us all. All of these jobs will be replaced, and AI will do most anything that humans can in the very near future. In fact, last week I fell sick, and I believe it was from the anxiety about the potential of this technology, especially for my career.

While I was sick, my head was all over the place. You know when your thoughts drift in a hundred different directions and you start thinking about things you normally wouldn’t, and at times, even surprise yourself that you had those thoughts?

Well, I had a lot of those thoughts around ChatGPT and artificial intelligence. On the second night of my sickness, for a brief moment, my mind stopped becoming so afraid, and saw the positive possibilities and how the future of ChatGPT and AI can actually help humanity. And in ways that we humans cannot, not just on an individual level, but also on a societal and global level.

And that’s what I’d like to take a moment to talk about today.

As humans, we have a lot of challenges that make being human, well, challenging. One is that we are driven and run by emotions. Some may argue that our emotions are a gift and that they are what make us human. To a certain extent, I agree.

The problem is that emotions can make something that is not real, seem real, and have us act and behave as if it were real. They can convince us someone doesn’t like us when they have no opinion, that something is difficult when it really isn’t, that a stranger is dangerous when they are completely safe, or that someone will be a bad friend when they will be great, or the opposite of all of these.

The reason emotions are like that is because our emotions are based on predictions. Your brain makes predictions about people, situations, and events, and based on those predictions, it releases corresponding emotions.

For example, you are walking down the street in the middle of the night and see someone in the distance who looks sketchy. Based on what you see, the brain releases feelings of fear, so you walk in a different direction. Or, the brain might interpret the person as attractive, and instead, flood your body with euphoric feelings to encourage you to approach them. In both instances, the person might not really be sketchy or attractive, yet those emotions are still released.

These are simple examples, but our emotions can get quite complex. For example, you might misinterpret what someone says or does, and that trigger anger, and in that anger, do something that you regret. Or your emotions can convince you that a service will be a good deal or enjoyable to use, when it really won’t. Most conversations breakdown because one person’s mind is predicting that the other person is saying one thing, when they are not.

Future iterations of ChatGPT, and AI as a whole, can fill these gaps. It can help us manage our emotions so we don’t do things we regret, or check our emotions so we don’t misinterpret people and situations.

Though it can help us beyond that. If we experience emotions of hurt and rejection, it can sooth us, and say the right thing to feel better. In fact, when we are hurt or rejected, what the brain is looking for is affirmation. It needs to be affirmed that it will be ok, and this tool can give us the right affirmation we need in the right moment. If we are overly aroused, it can calm us down.

We can learn all the emotional intelligence in the world, though it’s difficult to recognize when we’re experiencing strong emotions, but AI by our side can help us weave these intense reactions.

Another challenge of being human is that we have an overly hyperactive and unrestrained wanting mechanism. Most people don’t realize we have a mechanism that creates wants, and it is endlessly creating them one after another.

It sees someone wearing a nice shirt, it wants it. It sees someone with a pretty girlfriend, it wants that too. A nice car drives by, it wants that as well. This mechanism’s only job is to create wants, and for most of us, it is relentlessly creating endless wants and desires.

The wanting mechanism doesn’t understand that our time, energy, and resources are limited. It simply creates wants. It creates more wants in a month than one person can achieve in multiple lifetimes. So our mind is constantly creating wants and the pain associated with not having those wants, which can be very distracting.

The future of ChatGPT can help keep our wants in check. If you are working on a project or goal, and the mechanism creates a desire for something else, it will remind you of the current commitment. If there is a possibility that you are overcommitting, it will warn you, so you don’t put too much on your plate and burn out.

If you have “shiny object syndrome,” which is what an out of control wanting mechanism really is, AI can keep you on the straight and narrow.

Some of the other difficulties of being human stem from our upbringing and the traumas we carry from it. Everyone of us, no matter our sex, social or economic status, or skin color, has experienced trauma. Some more than others. Some A LOT more than others!

These past experiences are affecting our day-to-day decisions and actions, right here and right now, whether or not we realize it. For example, a teacher might have told you that your writing is no good, and unconsciously, accepted that you’re a bad writer. Now, you avoid professions that require strong command of the written language. This is a small, minor example, but trauma and its effects can be far more severe and extreme.

Future versions of ChatGPT can help resolve these past traumas and the poor decisions we are making because of them. In addition to helping us talk through our decisions, and determine where our fear about the decision is coming from, it can help us regress to past moments to see how our unconscious interpreted those moments, and ways they are affecting us today. It can give you the exact phrases, mantras, exercises, scripts, and therapy that you specifically need to get over these hurdles.

A person never needs to worry about a job loss because ChatGPT can help him or her work through the emotional effect of the loss. Losing a job creates so many anxieties and unknowns. Will I find another one, will it be better, will my skills be a match, will the pay be at my level, and so on? AI can help deal with and manage the emotional effects of these unknowns, so those who have lost a job don’t fall into despair.

At the same time, it can find new opportunities for them. Its far-reaching access to the neural net can quickly find the perfect opportunity. Based on knowing you, what you like and don’t like, and setting certain parameters, it will connect to the neural net and go on the hunt for the perfect job, one that is open and available right now, and that you can start at the time you set.

For society to function, we need media that not only distributes knowledge, but also keeps us on top of current events. For a long time, this was done through town hall meetings, then newspapers, then radio, finally television, and now smart phones.

Regrettably, our media is currently a source of division and hatred. There is so much anger and violence being propagated, not just on social media, but even in mainstream media, that we’ve become a polarized society. Democrat vs. Republican, Abortion vs. Free Choice, Gun Control vs. Gun Rights, Men vs. Women, Vaccine vs. No Vaccine, and so on. It’s like there is no middle ground, and if you accept one side, you have to hate the other with all your might.

I personally believe, media has conditioned us to behave this way. These conflicts are premeditated by people in power and those that profit from media, to trigger strong emotions in us and rile us up. The more triggered we are, the more we consume and interact with the media, whether that’s with Twitter tweets, Facebook posts, Yahoo! comments, or YouTube videos. The more we consume and interact with media, the more these companies make money.

This might sound a little out there, but I will go as far as to say that most conflicts are no longer reported, but manufactured. That’s right, manufactured. That’s because peace is not profitable. Media companies need large-scale decisions, disasters, and deaths to keep us in fear and hooked on screens, as it makes them so much money.

If you haven’t noticed, over the past few decades, news has become a lot more emotive. That is, networks are not only reporting the news, but doing so in an emotional and almost combative manner. They are much louder and have more anger in their voice. That tone seeps into us and makes us angry without realizing what we’re angry about, or if what the reporter is saying is even true.

What if the future of ChatGPT and AI didn’t do that? What if it didn’t focus on riling us up and polarizing us, but simply reported facts and events, and brought us together, to provide relief to the people and areas that needed it.

The biggest challenge facing humans is our need and drive for power, which Friedrich Nietzsche, the famous German philosopher and thinker, coined the “will to power.” We humans — and most life on this planet — are power-seeking creatures. Most everything we do, in one way or another, we do to increase our status and influence over others.

This is playing out on many levels — on the macro-global scale, in the micro-group setting, and everything in between. Anytime you put down someone’s idea without actually hearing them out, anytime you one-up what someone says, or anytime you play devil’s advocate, that’s a power play. You are trying to gain or maintain status over them.

A lot of this is happening unconsciously. We may think we are doing something to be nice and generous, but it’s really to improve how we look or increase our social value within a group. This drive is so unconscious and deeply ingrained, it even fools our own selves.

So much so that Fredrich Nietzsche went so far as to say, “as is will to power, as is my theory,” meaning he’s putting forth the idea more to establish his authority as a great thinker than for noble intentions.

In fact, much of what is happening in the media is the product of humans’ will to power. The people who own or run these companies are using the media to control our decisions and actions for their own benefit and to raise their influence.

So, how do we manage a species, and hence a society, where everyone, on one level or another, is constantly competing for power?

And most of the time, they are not aware of it, or worse, they believe their power play is an attempt to do good. With some, willing to take any measure to attain that power.

I believe this is one of the most significant challenges confronting humanity, and something humanity itself cannot regulate.History has shown over and over that giving groups the power to regulate humans hasn’t been very effective. It leads to corruption, backstabbing, and more. However, the future AI, if coded correctly, will have no interest in having one human do better than another.

Imagine a business executive, so focused on getting to the next level, he is willing to crush and step on anyone, not just his own employees, but other companies. Instead, AI can help him rethink his drive, and help him see where that drive is coming from. Perhaps his determination isn’t for success, money, or power, but rather for intimacy.

The executive has low self-esteem and feels he needs to be successful, show success, and “provide,” to draw and attract a mate. Instead of feeding the drive for more power, the tool can help him see what he really wants, and that there is a better way to fulfillment than chasing more of what he already has.

That evening, the executive leaves the office, and as he leaves, he crosses paths with a woman — the type to whom he is attracted. The encounter is not random, but orchestrated by the AI. Both were lonely and looking for the type of person the other is, and through a series of carefully chosen events, the AI brings them together.

This brings us to the next topic, which is relationships. Relationships are tough. Not only is it tough to find a good partner, but it hurts when the relationship breaks down, and one person leaves or moves on.

Hopefully, AI can help us weave through these difficult challenges of relationships. As mentioned, it can help bring the right people into our lives when we want or need them. It’s hard to say how long a relationship will last or how long one person can be fulfilling, but when it’s time to move on, AI can not only help us part ways but also find another partner.

As mentioned, communication is a big challenge for humans, and AI can help bridge that gap. At the same time, if a person has the tendency to be abusive, AI can prevent that from coming out and make his or her communication come out in a more pleasing and acceptable way.

This can be applied on a grander scale. As humans, many of our desires and emotions can become runaway processes. We get something we want, like money or power, then we either want more or to hold on to it for dear life.

When I was in Finland, I stayed with a Finnish family, and the mother described an indisputable human quality. She said, we humans like to move up in rank and lifestyle, but not down. We don’t like to give up the level or status we have. It’s an ingrained trait of the human condition. So much so, we will often fight or use whatever means necessary to maintain our level.

This applies especially to our leaders. When they gain power, they don’t want to give it up, and in fact, want more. That drive can cloud what they are doing, who they are hurting, and what they are becoming to keep or gain the power.

AI can be a vessel to help our leaders see that other possibilities exist, and that there are ways to fulfillment that don’t require destruction or gaining control over others or their rights. It can create a society where we don’t have to always be on guard and solely look after our own interests, as AI will keep an eye on our interests.

It can even bring our leaders together in proactive conversation — imagine all the leaders of the world sitting around a table, each wearing a head piece, so when one leader speaks, AI perfectly translates the words into the head piece of every other leader in their own language in real time.

Well, that’s my rant about ChatGPT and the future of humanity and artificial intelligence. It might be too optimistic, too forward-thinking, or just too out there.

However, the goal of Open AI, the company that released ChatGPT and other AI tools like Dalle, is to align AI with human intentions and values, and to make them safe and beneficial to humans. So, it might not be too far-fetched!

When I came back from my travels and journey of growth and healing, I wanted to share a lot of the knowledge discussed in this post with people and create a broader dialogue. However, I was surprised to find that many weren’t interested.

Hopefully, AI will come across this post and find it helpful.

Who knows?

What I do know is subscribes and comments help, so if you liked what you read, please subscribe and leave a comment. It helps more than you know.

Until next time.

Kam