It has been two years since GPT appeared. We are amazed by the incredible capabilities of artificial intelligence, yet we feel uneasy about its endless evolution. “Will AI take our jobs?” “Can it really replace humans?” These questions brought to mind a scene from a camp long ago.
It was a summer camp in the United States. Teenagers from South Korea entered the swimming pool. Since most of them were skilled swimmers, the instructor guided them to the deepest part of the pool. However, as soon as they jumped in, they began to struggle. “My feet can’t touch the bottom.” They had learned swimming techniques, but they had no experience in deep water. The instructor called over the 6-7-year-old American children who had been playing in the shallow end. He placed a pole in the water and had each child jump in one by one. The children hesitated for a moment, but all jumped in, grabbed the pole, and emerged safely. The Korean children watching this seemed shocked.
This was not simply a matter of swimming technique. Even with sufficient knowledge and skill, one can struggle in an unfamiliar environment, and this scene resembles our current situation in the AI era.
Knowledge is the acquisition of information, and skill is the ability to perform something using that knowledge. Artificial intelligence has already demonstrated remarkable performance capabilities that surpass those of humans. However, wisdom is different. Wisdom is a living mental ability to act wisely from direct experience and internalization. Knowledge and skill are useful in similar situations, but they reach their limits in unfamiliar environments. On the other hand, wisdom shines in precisely those unfamiliar environments. It is the power to respond wisely to danger based on experience and reflection.
Psychologist Robert Sternberg defines wisdom not as simple intelligence but as “the ability to discern what the real problem is.” Therefore, he says that a lack of wisdom leads to frequent errors in judgment and ethical failures. Philosopher Valery Tiberius describes wisdom as “the judgment necessary for a good life.” Wisdom is the power to understand and embrace deep ethical insights, the unpredictable flow of life, wounds, and silence.
Ironically, as technology advances, the relative importance of human knowledge decreases, while the value of wisdom increases. The ability to ask questions rather than seek answers, to seek meaning rather than efficiency, and to seek direction rather than speed is a unique human domain that artificial intelligence cannot imitate.
Can artificial intelligence replace us? Jobs may change, but it will be difficult to completely replace humans. No matter how advanced AI becomes in mimicking emotions and empathy through knowledge and statistical predictions, it remains merely an imitation. The strength to endure ambiguity through real experience, the intuition to read context, the empathy to understand emotions, the imagination to create new meaning, and above all, the wisdom that comes from ethical reflection and spiritual insight are mental powers that only humans can cultivate and practice.
Of course, AI and humans can create greater value when they collaborate rather than oppose each other. While AI processes vast amounts of information and performs complex calculations, humans can interpret the results, make ethical judgments, and creatively utilize them. The key is not to become dependent on AI as a tool.
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