An AI for wisdom

Just read an Economist leader on the fact that the Chinese government is egging its champions to focus on practical applications for AI, as opposed to the maniacal mad dash towards AGI (artificial general intelligence) prioritized by the West's tech titans. The first thing that echoes in my brain is Robert Plant saying "Does anyone remember laughter?"

This is quickly shunted from my frontal lobe by the question of wisdom. There have been a lot of smart people in history, boatloads of geniuses. Many are remembered within their domains of interest, some are elevated above that level to more universal recognition, but to a certain extent that's a function of the reach and dominance of their cultures. Think Shakespeare. A genius for sure (if he even existed and/or created all the works included in the accepted canon of his work), but surely the unversality of his reach was facilitated by the British and American empires and the reach of English as a language. And sure, there were lots of scientific geniuses whose inventions have made all of our lives better.

But there are fewer ethical geniuses. There are those who founded the great religions plus a few more: Gandhi, King, Mandela, maybe St Francis. It is odd to think that all the names that spring to mind come from the 20th century, perhaps it's a function of our short memory or of the fact that modern media (print, film and their associated distribution networks) allow for generalized ethical leaders in a way that wasn't feasible before. Or perhaps that democracy itself encourages their appearance and/or discourages regimes from snuffing them out.

In any case, more than any kind of AI, we need ethical leaders. More than knowledge now, we need wisdom. 

An hour or so later, it occurs to me that perhaps what we need is not so much ethical geniuses, since, thinking back to Kierkegaarde's statement in his prolegomonon or whatever to Fear and Trembling, there is no progress in ethics. We all begin back at the same place. What we need instead is for people to go consistently to their respective churches, temples, 12-step meetings, community gardens and organizations, etc., and reflect deeply and properly on what they are doing each day. And then do the right thing.

It would be nice to see the total amount of charitable giving in the US rise above the 2% mark to which it has long been pinned, tax rates notwithstanding.