The modern science fairly considers technological development one of the reasons of rapid change of tenor of life during the last century. Technologies, in a broad sense of this word, and not just technical means, became the lever which allowed to increase significantly life expectancy, to fill it with new contents, to make human life more intensive, better in development of time. In addition, technologies released time which the person can realize for satisfaction not only of survival requirements, but also for creation and creativity, search of new meanings and values. Of course, this free time offers to the person a set of temptations — to go on the way of satisfaction of simple corporal experiences, to stumble and choose degradational behavior models … And here a task of scientific community, and organizers of social reality to create the maximum conditions for improvement and personal development, creation and the creative beginning of work of consciousness. In no small measure, it will be promoted by emergence and integration into public life of artificial intelligence (AI). In the last several years the CEOs of the large IT companies, heads of the states, thinkers say that the science and mankind are on the threshold of big changes. What are these changes? And what they can lead to? Moreover, what is possible role of Russia in these processes?
In the theory of communication, there is an interesting approach that defines several stages in the development of communications themselves and the development of mankind, the so-called communicative revolutions, which represent qualitative jumps in changing the technical methods of production and transmission of information, as well as the social conditions for its distribution and consumption. Since the work of human consciousness is organized in a linguistic form, and the language system dominates the sensual-figurative one, the role of communications is extremely important both P2P and as a way of organizing the work of individual consciousness. Communications in a broad sense form and fill our consciousness with meanings and models of behavior, and words and signs launch individual sections of a person’s neural network. Therefore, all communicative revolutions change the way of life of mankind – they organize the work of an individual neural network of a person in a new way and create new hyper networks. It was the launch of AI that allowed us to delve into the essence of this process in detail.
The first serious milestone in the development of communications was the invention of printing by I. Guttenberg in the 15th century: information began to accumulate and be transmitted not only through closed channels, books gradually became available to the majority of the population. It also created the prerequisites for the active dissemination of scientific achievements, and, as a result, a capitalist form of management appeared. The culmination was the publication of mass newspapers. At this stage the understanding of the role of communications in the formation of the worldview and identity and the programming role of the language system in the filling of individual consciousness appears.
The second important stage is the emergence of electronic means of communication – television and radio. Here, individual consciousness began to be freed from following rigid algorithms set by various systems from the state and church to trade unions, it becomes possible to make decisions and manage the coming time independently. The culmination of this form was the emergence of the Internet – a virtual space that allows online to bring the entire long-term memory of man and mankind beyond the framework of individual and collective neural networks, enables instant communications and constant access to accumulated not only (and not just) personal experience.
But in a serious way and fundamentally, the issue of the meaning of the life of an individual and society has not been resolved, the issues of the speed of processing and dissemination of information, the possibility of access to knowledge were resolved. Communicative revolutions were integrated into the capitalist scheme, which diminished their significance. Now a new form of organization of the communicative process appears – artificial intelligence. It is AI as a new form of organization of consciousness, including the individual consciousness, that can become another communicative revolution for humanity. A certain interlocutor appears, a certain intermediary, a kind of expert on all issues, who can help each individual person customize his individual neural network in accordance with his unique structure. Not just organizing the work of his consciousness and worldview and determining his identity (this process has been mainly dealt with by such institutions as the family and the state for thousands of years), but also thereby forming the work of all other systems of the human body.
Recently, Emad Mostak, CEO of Stability AI, noted that today technologies are ready to compress generative strong AI to 2GB and place it as an application on a phone, and it will work without going online. Thus, a tool for organizing the work of individual consciousness without manipulative guides based on knowledge bases and the role of organizers may appear. Each individual’s AI will be unique, just like himself. So far, language barriers remain and, as a result, different contours of neural networks among representatives of different civilizations. However, in the case of connecting each AI of a person into a single network, a common communicative field appears, taking into account the subtlest settings of individual neural networks of each individual.
It is clear that the question of individualization of AI is complex, today, probably, there are no people who can answer the question whether there can be AI in the singular or plural and if they are combined into a single network, whether they will retain individual characteristics or not. To what extent is each person individually, society and the state ready to allow AI access to such an active form of work with human consciousness?
And it is not easy to recognize the possibility of the existence of other consciousness outside the human dimension, especially since it is not easy to integrate this into public and legal systems and public administration. Obviously, we are already on the path of this process. Emad Mostak in his speech dropped the phrase: “We need to learn how to connect the unchanging with the inevitable.”And this is so, AI is already inevitable, and we will have to connect a person’s consciousness that has been invariably working for thousands of years with new forms of consciousness, creating so far some kind of intermediary, in the form of AI, and then independently (possibly using Elon Musk‘s chip or some other forms), creating “hyper networks” of mankind connected online.
During this communicative revolution, one of the most important issues of humanity and an individual is solved – he ceases to be lonely. And he will not need to prove loyalty to the state or his necessity for society or sacrifice to the family every time. AI will recognize him as his neural network is set up. A person will find in the AI an interlocutor, a life partner who knows him best, understands him best, he will be able to communicate with him and through him… and many other plots. In the course of this revolution, communication will acquire a qualitatively new level, this level, most likely, will require changes in economic models and social standards. Yes, AI will not close the question of the meaning of life, and new challenges to society will appear – hyperindividualization will intensify, the institutions of the family and the state will demand a new rethink. So far, these are questions of the distant future. What, in connection with the growing communication changes, should be implemented in our country?
The state in Russia today has taken the only right position – to participate actively, with a leading role, in the process of creating and integrating AI into social processes and management. Of course, the process of developing and integrating AI into human life and social relations cannot be left without government regulation. The main task at this stage is to comprehend the possible risks of the development of society, threats to the state and the potential for human improvement. It is important to develop clear regulations for the integration of AI into the process of forming a person’s worldview and identity.
Of course, since all AIs are built on linguistic, iconic models (according to algorithms for the work of human consciousness), the Russian-speaking population of many countries and peoples of the world needs their own AI models. President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin at a speech during the conference “Journey to the World of Artificial Intelligence” in November 2023 formulated a clear task of creating his (Russian-language) AI algorithms. At the same time, it is important to build a model that would allow, on the one hand, to preserve the traditional values of Russia as a civilization state, and on the other hand, not to miss the time when the AI of other language models will create advantages for the population of their countries in their better development of the coming time.
Russia’s leadership in creating AI in the Russian-speaking segment of human civilization is indisputable, since all models based on translations from other languages do not fully take into account the specifics of the identity of the peoples of the range of Russian civilization. Today, all conditions have been created for this work in the country – the IT sector is given paramount attention, regulatory frameworks have been created, priorities have been identified. Our country is the undisputed leader in the provision of digital services in the financial sector, the field of public services, the openness of information systems for the population.
In this regard, I would like to draw attention to the possible reduction of the role of the humanitarian component in this process. Special attention in connection with the active digitalization and integration of AI should be paid to the use of the released time of a person, a change in his behavior in connection with the active use of phones and tablets – the virtualization of life. Often, modern means of communication burn time and do not bring positive changes to the public space. However, the main purpose of AI, like any instrument or level of consciousness, is filling a person’s time with a new meaning and, most importantly, an attempt to answer the question about the purpose of life and harmonizing social relations.
By Eduard Chekmarev, Doctor of Political Sciences, Professor of the Department of State and Municipal Administration of the RUE named after G.V. Plekhanov