I have thought about several titles, for example, "This is a mutual compromise between humans and machines," "AI is a 'right' ceded by humans," or perhaps "AI is the translator between humans and the world." Finally, I settled on the word "Reconciliation."
I wanted to start with the first typewriter, to talk about live symphonies versus digital masters, and even more so about natural landscapes versus digital photos. I had even opened a search engine to find images, because being "illustrated" has always been a self-perceived specialty of mine. Yet, at that very moment, I realized that in the face of human's unbridled imagination, images lose their meaning.
As I sat down to sort through the deluge of models and papers released over the past month, my instinctive goal should have been a serious review report. However, the significance of this matter to humanity itself is far greater than the rise and fall of a few stocks. Putting aside my identity in the market, I should still feel at ease with my identity as a "social being": if accepting a job and enjoying the pleasure of work is a way for an individual to get along with the world, then accepting AI as our intimate partner may also be a way for humanity to reconcile with the world.
Granted, we have indeed been ceding many "rights" for this technological evolution. For instance, when we type research reports using Office or WPS, we cede the right to submit handwritten reports, retaining only the freedom of the "art of calligraphy."
Yet, this ceding brings us more: we can sit on a sofa and listen to a symphony; we can see the world's beauty without leaving home. The development of technology allows us to gain an increasingly better sense of presence.
Wait, someone might ask me, what does this have to do with AI? We are talking about AI! A "new species" that already possesses reasoning capabilities!
But which major technological transformation have we not regarded as a "new species"? If there were no electricity, no computers, and no internet or digitalization, where would AI be? If AI could exist independently of these, what would be so frightening about it? What would be so scary about the smartest brain if it could not manipulate any other tool?
Just now, I finished watching a transcript of an interview with Ilya Sutskever, which mentioned Transformers and the significance of "predicting the next word." Yes, for a model developer, this is equivalent to being given total freedom: because all the answers you need lie only in the data itself. That is a world, a universe, a "self-supervision" where one can let their imagination soar without worrying about any external dependencies.
That is not an illusory world; it is exactly the real existence in the sense that our civilization has understood for millions of years.
This world has language and text, vibrant colors, countless movements, myriad fragrances, water, air...
Perhaps even if we exhausted the strength of all people, we could not see this world we live in clearly. Then, we were fortunate enough to have the Transformer and the resources needed to unlock it.
Wait again, someone will say, we are discussing technology—if we start talking about philosophy, we can't have a conversation!
Yes, because what we now call AI is a reconciliation with this world, initiated by human representatives who have contributed to today's achievements.