.sin·gu·lar·i·ty

noun

a hypothetical moment in time when artificial intelligence and other technologies have become so advanced that humanity undergoes a dramatic and irreversible change.

For the past few months, I have been shouting from the rooftops that the AI singularity is near.

The *first* AI singularity =/= AI sentience.

Will AI sentience be **A** singularity at some point in the future?! Sure.

But, AI will dramatically and irreversibly change far before then.

And we should start thinking about the FIRST AI singularity NOW, instead of getting distracted by wasting energy debating how far AI “sentience” is.

AI sentience is an entirely moot point when it comes to impacting society. Would AI “sentience” lead to revelations about our own consciousness? Sure! And that’s awesome! And for that reason, it’s an incredible thought experiment and path to pursue! However, can we ever truly prove something is “conscious” in a way that humans are? And if we could, how would that impact the world?

If something can provide meaningful insights, hold enjoyable and thought-provoking conversations, help us do our work, predict our thoughts, create music and art, understand us better than anyone else ever could, and guide us through life — is that not enough? Do we CARE if the thing doing that is “sentient”? Does it matter?!

I would argue that the current levels of AI sophistication ALREADY have us on the precipice of a singularity.

Take, for example, the stories, poetry, and art being created by the AI of today.

The world will never be the same again.

Say, for instance, I am an artist. Or a creative. Or anyone looking for some piece of artistic, creative work. I can easily type in a bunch of prompt to DALL-E or Midjourney and, moments later, have an unprecedented amount of inspiration thoughtfully concocted by our AI brethren. And MAYBE even a finished product that is better than anything we ever could have concocted ourselves!

Let’s say I am furnishing a new house. I could go out and buy a bunch of expensive art from a bunch of famous artists. I could pay an interior designer to figure out a good layout, vibe, color scheme, etc. Or, I could have the AI craft a bunch of art specifically tailored to be EXACTLY what I want. And I could print the art. Or I could have the AI add furnishings to the room, in different locations and positions, and on a whim, change things to look however I want them. At some point in the future, I could probably just 3D print all of these objects or the entire house based on the images generated…

Do we know how to optimally wield this power? Of course not! It is all SO new. That is why we are on the precipice — if we were able to fully harness the power of SOLELY THE TECHNOLOGY THAT EXISTS TODAY, the world would be dramatically and irreversibly changed.

However, technology evolves exponentially. And AI’s exponential evolution ITSELF evolves exponentially, so it experiences (exponentialEvolution^2) (due to it not being limited by our biological meat sack brains).

So imagine the world 5 years from now. 10 years from now.

Imagine how good the technology will be by then. Imagine how much better we will have become at harnessing it.

Imagine feeding prompts of anything you could possibly imagine to an AI, having it generate some image based on that prompt, and having a badass 3D printer print that thing out.

Or imagine a persistently/continuously generated AI metaverse that is only limited by the processing power of the AI to render new landscapes and experiences…

Imagine the scale of the AI-assisted R&D that can be done on new haptic suits for that virtual world.

Imagine the jobs of doctors, surgeons, truck drivers, software developers, artists, poets, scientists, designers, mathematicians…

Imagine what the technology of TODAY could do if properly harnessed, and then extrapolate that out a few years.

Humans will be reduced down to our creativity and imagination.

This will be a singularity.

The first AI singularity

But maybe this will not be a “reduction” at all?

Maybe this is what we were always meant to be?

Maybe we were built to dream?

And to shape this dimension in the image of those dreams?

.sin·gu·lar·i·ty

noun

a hypothetical moment in time when artificial intelligence and other technologies have become so advanced that humanity undergoes a dramatic and irreversible change.

For the past few months, I have been shouting from the rooftops that the AI singularity is near.

The *first* AI singularity =/= AI sentience.

Will AI sentience be **A** singularity at some point in the future?! Sure.

But, AI will dramatically and irreversibly change far before then.

And we should start thinking about the FIRST AI singularity NOW, instead of getting distracted by wasting energy debating how far AI “sentience” is.

AI sentience is an entirely moot point when it comes to impacting society. Would AI “sentience” lead to revelations about our own consciousness? Sure! And that’s awesome! And for that reason, it’s an incredible thought experiment and path to pursue! However, can we ever truly prove something is “conscious” in a way that humans are? And if we could, how would that impact the world?

If something can provide meaningful insights, hold enjoyable and thought-provoking conversations, help us do our work, predict our thoughts, create music and art, understand us better than anyone else ever could, and guide us through life — is that not enough? Do we CARE if the thing doing that is “sentient”? Does it matter?!

I would argue that the current levels of AI sophistication ALREADY have us on the precipice of a singularity.

Take, for example, the stories, poetry, and art being created by the AI of today.

The world will never be the same again.

Say, for instance, I am an artist. Or a creative. Or anyone looking for some piece of artistic, creative work. I can easily type in a bunch of prompt to DALL-E or Midjourney and, moments later, have an unprecedented amount of inspiration thoughtfully concocted by our AI brethren. And MAYBE even a finished product that is better than anything we ever could have concocted ourselves!

Let’s say I am furnishing a new house. I could go out and buy a bunch of expensive art from a bunch of famous artists. I could pay an interior designer to figure out a good layout, vibe, color scheme, etc. Or, I could have the AI craft a bunch of art specifically tailored to be EXACTLY what I want. And I could print the art. Or I could have the AI add furnishings to the room, in different locations and positions, and on a whim, change things to look however I want them. At some point in the future, I could probably just 3D print all of these objects or the entire house based on the images generated…

Do we know how to optimally wield this power? Of course not! It is all SO new. That is why we are on the precipice — if we were able to fully harness the power of SOLELY THE TECHNOLOGY THAT EXISTS TODAY, the world would be dramatically and irreversibly changed.

However, technology evolves exponentially. And AI’s exponential evolution ITSELF evolves exponentially, so it experiences (exponentialEvolution^2) (due to it not being limited by our biological meat sack brains).

So imagine the world 5 years from now. 10 years from now.

Imagine how good the technology will be by then. Imagine how much better we will have become at harnessing it.

Imagine feeding prompts of anything you could possibly imagine to an AI, having it generate some image based on that prompt, and having a badass 3D printer print that thing out.

Or imagine a persistently/continuously generated AI metaverse that is only limited by the processing power of the AI to render new landscapes and experiences…

Imagine the scale of the AI-assisted R&D that can be done on new haptic suits for that virtual world.

Imagine the jobs of doctors, surgeons, truck drivers, software developers, artists, poets, scientists, designers, mathematicians…

Imagine what the technology of TODAY could do if properly harnessed, and then extrapolate that out a few years.

Humans will be reduced down to our creativity and imagination.

This will be a singularity.

The first AI singularity

But maybe this will not be a “reduction” at all?

Maybe this is what we were always meant to be?

Maybe we were built to dream?

And to shape this dimension in the image of those dreams?