Why AI Will Save the World - Marc Andreessen

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Why AI. Will Save the World, an essay by Marc Andreessen, in June 6th, 2023

The era of artificial intelligence is here, and boy are people freaking out. Fortunately, I am here to bring the good news. AI will not destroy the world and in fact may save it. First, a short description of what AI is. The application of mathematics and software code to teach computers how to understand, synthesize and generate knowledge in ways similar to how people do it. AI is a computer program like any other. It runs, takes input, processes and generates output. A.I.'s output is useful across a wide range of fields, ranging from coding to medicine to law to the creative arts. It is owned by people and controlled by people, like any other technology. A shorter description of what AI isn't. Killer software and robots that will spring to life and decide to murder the human race or otherwise ruin everything, like you see in the movies. An even shorter description of what AI could be. A way to make everything we care about better. Why AI can make everything we care about better.

The most validated core conclusion of social science across many decades and thousands of studies is that human intelligence makes a very broad range of life outcomes better. Smarter people have better outcomes in almost every domain of activity. Academic achievement, job performance, occupational status, income, creativity, physical health, longevity, learning new skills, managing complex tasks, leadership, entrepreneurial success, conflict resolution, reading comprehension, financial decision making, understanding others' perspectives, creative arts, parenting outcomes, and life satisfaction. Further, human intelligence is the lever that we have used for millennia to create the world we live in today. Science, technology, math, physics, chemistry, medicine, energy, construction, transportation, communication, art, music, culture, philosophy, ethics, morality. Without the application of intelligence on all these domains, we would all still be living in mud huts, scratching out a meager existence of subsistence farming. Instead, we have used our intelligence to raise our standard of living on the order of 10,000x over the last 4,000 years. What AI offers us is the opportunity to profoundly augment human intelligence to make all of these outcomes of intelligence and many others, from the creation of new medicines to ways to solve climate change to technologies to reach the stars, much, much better from here.

AI augmentation of human intelligence has already started. AI is already around us in the form of computer control systems of many kinds, is now rapidly escalating with AI large language models like ChatGPT, and will accelerate very quickly from here if we let it.

In our new era of AI, every child will have an AI tutor that is infinitely patient, infinitely compassionate, infinitely knowledgeable, infinitely helpful. The AI tutor will be by each child's side every step of their development, helping them maximize their potential with the machine version of infinite love. Every person will have an AI assistant coach, mentor, trainer, advisor, therapist that is infinitely patient, infinitely compassionate, infinitely knowledgeable, and infinitely helpful. The AI assistant will be present through all of life's opportunities and challenges, maximizing every person's outcomes. Every scientist will have an AI assistant collaborator, partner that will greatly expand their scope of scientific research and achievement. Every artist, every engineer, every business person, every doctor, every caregiver will have the same in their worlds. Every leader of people, CEO, government official, nonprofit president, athletic coach, teacher, will have the same.

The magnification effects of better decisions by leaders across the people they lead are enormous. So this intelligence augmentation may be the most important of all. Productivity growth throughout the economy will accelerate dramatically, driving economic growth, creation of new industries, creation of new jobs, and wage growth, and resulting in a new era of heightened material prosperity across the planet. Scientific breakthroughs and new technologies and medicines will dramatically expand as AI helps us further decode the laws of nature and harvest them for our benefit. The creative arts will enter a golden age as AI augmented artists, musicians, writers, and filmmakers gain the ability to realize their visions far faster and at greater scale than ever before. I even think AI is going to improve warfare when it has to happen by reducing wartime death rates dramatically. Every war is characterized by terrible decisions made under intense pressure and with sharply limited information by very limited human leaders. Now, military commanders and political leaders will have AI advisors that will help them make much better strategic and tactical decisions, minimizing risk, error, and unnecessary bloodshed.

In short, anything that people do with their natural intelligence today can be done much better with AI, and we will be able to take on new challenges that have been impossible to tackle without AI, from curing all diseases to achieving interstellar travel.