Stop Fearing the Best-Case Scenario with Artificial Intelligence

“What receives less attention but is equally consequential is the extreme scenario in which AI saves all of humanity by making us immortal. Just as we are unprepared for life-destroying AI, we are equally unprepared for our AI savior.”

Doomsday fears surrounding artificial intelligence are peaking. In the most extreme scenario imagined, Artificial Intelligence (AI) will destroy all of humanity. This idea has received significant attention lately. For example, in a recent survey of CEOs, 42% said AI could “destroy humanity in five to ten years.” What receives less attention but is equally consequential is the extreme scenario in which AI saves all of humanity by making us immortal. Just as we are unprepared for life-destroying AI, we are equally unprepared for our AI savior.

Imagine a world where AI helps us to develop nanobots that cure defects in our cells right as damage occurs. This is one of the many possible ways in which AI could potentially bring about immortality. In an even wilder case, imagine if AI enables us to merge our consciousness with machines so that we become timeless digital beings. However this may play out, it is worth stopping to ask: Do we want a future where AI—one way or another—radically extends the human lifespan? And, if so, how do we prepare for it?

It is easy to argue that we do not, in fact, want this future. Any anti-aging discussion is fertile ground for science fiction dystopias. For example, what if we develop the ability to live forever, but only the extremely wealthy are able to take advantage of the technology? The longer they live, the more wealth and power these individuals accumulate until 99% of humans are servants of the god-like elite. Alternatively, AI enables everyone to live forever but only if people upload their consciousness to the digital realm. When evil forces conspire to overtake this realm, it quickly turns into a version of hell, and everyone is stuck there for an eternity of pain and misery.