On October 8, 2024, when the Nobel Prize Committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics and Chemistry, the scientific community was in uproar. The winners were not pure physicists or chemists but people who contributed to the development of AI (Artificial Intelligence).
The criteria for selecting the Nobel Prize in the field of science are ‘the degree of dedication to humanity’ and ‘originality’ of research. This decision by the Nobel Prize Committee is interpreted as a high evaluation of the influence that AI will have not only in the field of science but also in everyday life. Since the first industrial revolution led by the steam engine in the 18th century, mankind has entered the era of the fourth industrial revolution represented by AI.
So, what is AI, and how far has it developed? AI is a technology or system that imitates or replaces human intelligence. In the 1950s, initial research was conducted on whether machines could learn and develop like humans. In the 1980s, AI, which only analyzed information input by humans, gained the ability to find rules and learn independently based on the Internet and digital technology in the 1990s. This is machine learning, which analyzes data and automatically finds rules.
We are now in the era of deep learning, which processes information based on artificial neural networks that mimic the human brain, and generative AI, which automatically creates content according to user requests. Generative AI produces results equal to or surpassing human capabilities in report writing, drawing, composing, and general tasks.
However, the AI era does not guarantee a rosy future. Princeton University professor John Hopfield, a Nobel Prize winner in physics and known as the father of AI, said, “Recent technological advancements are very unstable. A world where everything is controlled by AI algorithms may come.” Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind and Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, also pointed out, “AI has tremendous potential to do good things, but it can also be used for harm.”
There is a strong outlook that AI will replace humans in various fields, such as office work and accounting, in the future. Homo sapiens, which refers to humans, means wise humans. In Sapiens, Yuval Harari explains that the cognitive revolution of Homo sapiens eliminated Neanderthals. Likewise, there is concern that the AI revolution, which involves artificial circuits that surpass the functions of 100 billion human brain neurons, will eliminate humans as another Neanderthal.
As the relationships between individuals, groups, and countries become more complex in modern industrial society, each entity uses its maximum intelligence for self-preservation and profit and loss calculations. In such a situation, the highly efficient intelligence of AI can be helpful, but AI is non-intelligent. This is because it cannot make value judgments. Value judgments are thoroughly human, and what is needed at this time is wisdom. Wisdom is more than intelligence, acquired through trial and error, worry, and effort.
Solomon, the wise king in the Old Testament, longed for wisdom and asked God for wisdom. We, too, must long for wisdom like Solomon. Because the direction of life is determined by wisdom, not intelligence. In the AI era, we need to seriously reflect on where we stand and where we are going. “The beginning of wisdom is a sincere desire to be taught.” (Wisdom 6:17)
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