Is AI Going To Destroy Humanity?

Questioner: Namaste Acharya ji, I'm Tahir Ali. I live in Netherlands, close to the village where you visited and had an observation where you saw 80, 90 year olds dancing and singing.

Acharya Prashant: Zandvoort?

Questioner: Yeah. So my question is, I read two books regarding artificial intelligence. One is ‘Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari’ and the other is ‘The Coming Wave by Mustafa Suleiman.’ What they are saying is that the wave of artificial intelligence which we have right now is something unprecedented. What we are going to face in the future, we have never faced in the past, be it during industrialization or any other technological events which have happened.

And with the advent of AGI and ACI now what we see, and in Nexus also Yuval Noah Harari mentioned that in Iran they use the face detection on women to see if the women are wearing hijab or not even in the cars. And through face detection, they identify that if someone is not wearing a hijab and then they can find them and if a woman is not wearing it more than two to three times, then they can even jail her.

Also there are drone attacks, drones being used in warfare, be it in Ukraine or when Israel is bombing Hamas, Hezbollah or also in Syria. And also there's climate change which you keep on talking about.

So these are like two ticking time bombs which are happening simultaneously and I was just wondering what's there left for humanity and for us in the future, because artificial intelligence can only be contained by the big corporates who have, who are creating it because they have huge amounts of data and they are the ones who are investing a lot in that. So the regulation has to be self regulation or through government.

But in developed countries also what we see is there are a lot of right wing parties which are now winning and now they are forming governments and their main objective is growth and second is to also ensure that how immigration can be reduced.

So my question is that since now in 2025 when we are going to go into this new year and anyways climate change is such a big thing and with artificial intelligence, with open AI bringing out new models every year, month or quarterly and now the newer model also has an AGI where it can reason out itself where are we headed to? And is there a way to survive these two onslaughts?

Acharya Prashant: See, as a common man, it will be difficult to hide from AI. AI depends on big data. And the more your patterns are visible through data to AI, the more it will be able to predict you and therefore enslave you. It's going to be very difficult stopping that process. So flat out, the way to not to be enslaved is to not have too many patterns at all. They will enslave you by knowing your patterns, right? And you cannot hide those patterns now.

Money is bigger than any code of ethics, right? You go and purchase something, anything. For no reason, they want your phone number. You ask them why. They say, no, we'll send you an E-bill. You tell them you don't need a bill at all. They tell you if you have a bill, it will enable you to seek replacements or alterations or participate in their points program.

Do you think they are so altruistic that they want your phone number so that they can allot you points? No. They map your phone number against your shopping behavior. This phone number has been purchasing this, this, this and this. And one purchase may not mean much, but over a period of time, across cities, across outlets, when everything comes together, a complete picture of your personality emerges.

Just as the actor is the action, the chooser is the choice, the observer is the observed, the buyer is the bought. What you buy tells almost everything about the buyer. So big data knows you more completely than you know yourself. And that will be used to tempt you, trap you, ensnare you, or scare you.

In marketing, you know the fundamental importance of segmentation. Anything that you want to sell or bring to the other, if not for selling, then for other purposes, cannot be bombarded to everybody. The world is far too big for that. If you try to offer everything to everybody, the effort, the campaign, will be far too expensive. The world is 8.5 billion people, so you want to target the right segment. How to know the right segment? That's where data comes in.

What does AI do? It is very good. It works on logic. It is very good at determining how do the dots connect with each other.

Data is points. AI is adept at creating a good story using those points. And that story is the story of your life. The face that emerges when you connect those data points is your face. And what's interesting is that when those points are connected by artificial intelligence, they reveal much more than what you thought you had exposed.

You tell one thing to this person, one thing to this person, one thing to this person. You think you have told just three things to three different people. But if these three data points come to an intelligent thinker, he can take these three points and infer something that you never wanted to be revealed. Are you getting it?

9:00am you texted your wife, I am going to the office. That's fine. Then you swiped your card in the metro, the wife doesn't know of it, that's fine. Then you went and had lunch somewhere, the metro doesn't know of it. Then you went ahead and shopped somewhere, the eatery doesn't know of it. Then you booked a cab to drop someone to their place, the shopping mall doesn't know of it.

But if these six, seven transactions are brought together to an intelligent computer system, the system will be able to come up with a story that would astonish you. And you never wanted to expose that story.

A little bit of yourself you had exposed at point one, then at point two, then at point three, then at point four. And you thought you were exposing just a little bit of yourself electronically. Sometimes by writing a mail, sometimes by swiping a card, sometimes through biometrics. Little bit of your information you are revealing everywhere, that information comes together to give someone your life story.

And now you can be trapped because everything is related. Your credit card is mapped to your phone number, is it not? And everything else on your mobile is talking to everything else. And the various electronic devices, they too are talking to each other. So what's on one device gets known to the other device.

Your tv, is it not talking to your mobile phone now? Even your car is talking to your mobile phone now? You purchase a modern car. It comes with an app sitting in London, you can lock your car in Delhi or unlock it or whatever. So many features are there.

All these apps, they are always asking for permissions. Can I access your calls? What does an entertainment app want to access my calls for? What does Snapchat have to do with my phone calls? But the app is asking for that. Can I access all your photos and videos? Can I access your data, your messages, all the text stored on phone and you think it's a small matter? Maybe, you know, some bogus developer on random overtime introduced these features?

No. It's all very well thought out. And not having a mobile phone is not an option. And it's impossible to control the mechanics and minds of those who are putting these things in all the electronic places. So what are you left with?

The only option is to live cleanly. Simplest option. Nothing hanky-panky, take all my data. My life is like a clean slate now. How will you control or arrest me?

Now this sounds so impractical. We say no, no, no, we must have private spaces. Let there be personal life and nobody should be able to intrude into our privacy. These are good ideals, but who will uphold those ideals? If oil was gold, big data is diamond and AI is platinum. Who's going to stop their greed? Your ideals? No. Moral values don't stand a chance when it comes to money. So you can keep beating your chest. No. This is an invasion of privacy. This is that. This is that. Privacy will be invaded.

There was this device in my room, the Alexa device. And it was always on. I found it good. I simply had to command it, say something and it would play the song and also provide me information. One of my batchmates visited me. He said, you see, this device is always plugged, right? And always switched on. He said, yes. When you say something, it responds, right?

So he said, what do you think it is hearing only when you are talking to it. In your room, it is switched on all the time, which means it is listening to you all the time. I said, fine. He said, not fine. I'm not sure where that device is now. Maybe he took it away. If someone can make money out of recording one of your conversations, he will. Wishful thinking won't work.

If you have any cracks, any chinks in your armor, they will be exploited. The only way that remains is to live a life completely naked. I have nothing to hide. Now how will you exploit me? Whatever you had to hide can no longer be hidden. It will be seen. Technology is monstrous. Technology is awesomely monstrous. I admire the way it simply blasts away our defenses.

GPS has become routine now. When it came for the first time, it struck me. Somebody knows where I am. Think of it. All the time, somebody knows where you are. And they are constantly asking for more permissions. They say, no, we want permission to not just tell you the route, but also store all the routes that you took over last one year. So they will know where you like to go. What can you hide now?

They know exactly the time you take. They know your driving style. They also know what you prefer to purchase. They also know to whom you gift all your purchases. What can you hide now? There is nothing called a personal or a private life. You cannot keep anything secret. Not possible. You can hide it from your parents or spouses. They are idiots. But you cannot hide it from AI anymore.

You speak to chat about any topic and it will come up with responses that would astound you. From where did this machine learn this? Nothing; from data. Scattered data, when it is brought to one place and then logically interpreted in light of pre existing patterns, it throws up unbelievable insights. That's what AI is about.

Run if you can, but you will not be able to hide. The best thing is to not have anything to hide. I live a free and open life. Come and see whatever you have to. There are no skeletons in the cupboard. There is nothing to hide. Come with all your inferences. None of your inferences can harm me. Those who have things to hide will be tormented. Those who are so afraid of the society that they want to do things privately will be exposed.

AI will force you either to accept slavery or to accept total freedom. The middle path will no longer be available. If you want to avoid slavery, you will have to accept total freedom. An innocent life. A life of no guilt. A life where nothing is hidden. A life of total nakedness. All the time they are watching you. And everything is on the web.

All devices are talking to each other. Fingerprints, CCTVs, you name it. They know your age. They know your anniversary. They know your medical records as well. They know the drugs you take. They know the flowers you like. They know your body type. They know your blood group. They know who you are seeing. They know you just visited a divorce lawyer. They'll target you accordingly. You won't even know how you have been targeted.

Somebody is looking at you all the time. And he is very adept at connecting the dots. Much of that you think of as an advanced level of service that some modern corporation is providing you. No, that's not service. That's spying.

Your car is telling you. I noticed that you recently visited a florist and found the shop closed. Here are the addresses of a few more florists. Your car is not supposed to do that. But that's what your car is announcing to you. And the car will be very quickly able to see, map; whose birthday was it on that particular date? Because the car also has access to your mobile phone records. Don't you connect your mobile phone to your car?

The car knows you went to the florist. The car looks at your records. The car accesses related databases. The car comes to see, okay, this person's birthday. Okay, so he celebrates this person's birthday. Your car will know more about you than even your parents or friends know about you. And not only will the car know about your past, the car will be able to predict your future.

Don't be surprised if you approach your car and your car says, welcome, I'll take you to the dentist now. The car reads your mind. You'll say, wow, that's a great level of service. The car already knows. No, the car doesn't just know, the car is your driver now. You are being driven by the car.

The car might as well tell you someday, 'I refuse to take you down this road. With all my intelligence, I know the other destination is better for you.' And you will acquiesce, you will be happy. Of course the car knows better.

Just as the GPS tells you, 'This route is longer and more time consuming, I am switching you to another route.' Doesn't the GPS do that? And you happily agree. Soon the car will also tell you that not only is the route to be changed, even the destination is to be changed.

Why do you want to go to the library? Looking at your mood and your patterns, I think you should rather go to the pub. I'm driving to the pub now. What's more, they'll demand more money for a car that has such a feature. And you will happily pay up.

Living without secrets, living without guilt, living without handles that can be exploited. Only this can save you. If you can be tempted, you will be. If you can be threatened, you will be.

An inward innocence, an inward untouchability. That is the only refuge possible. You want to know all about me? Welcome. You can take all the data and still you won't be able to tempt or threaten me. That's the only way now to lead a free life. Which means that wisdom, self-knowledge are going to be your only recourse. Even now, the things that you think are private, are not private. People know of them, just that those who know of them do not want it to be known that they know, they know.

Somebody gained weight, you know, and the fellow started receiving messages from a garment chain that sells only X sized products. He was surprised. How did they know that I have gained weight? That's the extent. This fellow was not overweight, always. Recently he gained weight and he started receiving messages from a clothing brand that sells only X-sized products.

So this fellow had gone to a dietitian, to a doctor, and had purchased certain medicines that are probably used to challenge obesity. And that data reached the clothes seller, the garment seller, it didn't just incidentally reach.

You mentioned climate change. You know what the relationship between AI and climate change is? On one hand, AI engines and big data consume tremendous energy. We talked of the nationally determined contributions, which are the national obligations, the national commitments to reducing the carbon emissions by 2030. And we said, while the Paris Agreement stipulates a 45% reduction in carbon emissions, the NDCs, they target just 2%. Now, even that 2% is not going to be feasible. In fact, we are going to have an increase in emissions by 2030. Forget about minus 45%, it's going to be plus something. One of the reasons is AI.

I don't exactly remember the statistic, but it was something like one general search on chat consumes as much energy as a light bulb, a 100 watt light bulb consumes for 20 minutes. So that's 100 watts multiplied by 0.33 hours. So 33 watt hours, that kind of energy. A simple query on any of these AI engines, I might be wrong. You can cross check on chat. So that's one thing.

The second thing is because AI is so smart, so we are now using AI to predict where exactly and how intense the next extreme weather event would be. We are not using AI to challenge climate change. We are using it to predict where the next extreme weather event is going to be so that we can prepare in advance. You see, we are smart.

AI is in no way going to help us arrest carbon emissions. But through all kinds of short term weather models and long term models of climate, you can kind of predict, okay, you are going to have a cyclone here soon or this region is going to have too little rainfall. So that can be known a few days or months in advance. So we are so smart, we'll prepare for that. We may want to avoid the obvious fact, but no amount of intellect or smartness can substitute for simple, honest, naked wisdom.

If you are full of inner ignorance, desires, temptations, jealousy, greed and all that jazz, there is no way even the most spectacular technology can help you. Technology is just a tool. If you are an idiot, you will use that tool to further your idiocy and harm yourself in even deeper ways.

We feel so mesmerized having a new cutting edge gadget in our hands, don't we? Just walk into one of these electronic stores and look at the shine on people's faces when they have the latest technology in their hands. Wow. God Almighty himself. This can do this, this can do that. This can only do what you, the idiot, will tell it to do. This can do this, this can do that.

Yes, obviously it can travel faster, it can calculate faster, better resolution, higher processing speed, bigger storage, all that is there. Fine, but it is a thing in your hands. If you are not wise, how can you put it to a wise use? And that's what has happened. The pace of technological progress has been far, far greater than the pace of inner progress. So we are stupid people having very advanced tools with us.

Ideally, external power should be available only to the one who has attained internal maturity. You know that and you apply that in your homes, don't you? You don't give a gun to a three year old. You don't even allow him to have the TV remote. You don't want to give a mobile phone to an eight year old. Why?

Because powerful tools can be given only to those who are internally mature. Now, is mankind internally mature enough to handle all the tremendous technological tools it has created? No, we are not. So AI is great, but its users are not. In a wise man's hands, AI can be put to obviously constructive use, wonderful use. Unfortunately, most of us are far from being wise. Therefore, AI will be put only to very, very violent, very destructive use.

You see how nations are afraid of each other. The US is shivering in its pants. Oh, China has stolen a march over the US in AI. Why are you so afraid? Because they know that AI in China's hand will be used as a tool of dominance over the US because that's what animals do. They just try to dominate each other. Monkeys fighting over a banana.

So, I'm not advising you to be discreet with your data. I'm advising you to be absolutely careless with your data. Tell them, take whatever information you want to have. I have nothing to hide. Irrespective of how careful and how discreet you are, they'll still have all the information. You cannot hide it now. Just figure out the number of satellites that are now capable of intruding even into your bedroom.

I think there is one now that has a sight, a camera resolution so sharp it can even read the title of the book lying on your desk from there. (pointing towards the sky) What will you hide now? You think these walls can save you? Satellites see through everything.

Many of these targets in Afghanistan and other places, how are they assassinated? Four of them are having a meeting in one particular room in a house. And a laser sharp attack happens that destroys only that particular room, not even the other rooms of the house.

There was this Iranian leader traveling in a convoy of cars. Four or five cars. Only the particular car he was traveling in was struck with a missile. Next time it would be just that particular seat. The rest of the car will keep moving. There is nothing secret or private. Nothing at all. You cannot hide.

So, best is to have nothing to hide. Don't be afraid of society.

First thing, don't do anything that must not be done. Second thing, if you are doing something that you think is right, then don't hide. Expose it.

Otherwise it would be used to blackmail you. If it is right, why should I hide? I'll come out. If you don't come out on your own, others will expose that and blackmail you or arm test you or whatever.

Questioner: I understand that, Acharya ji. One thing I wanted to know you spoke about on an individual level what we can do. But on the crowd level, I was just thinking.

Suppose a very deadly pathogen has been created which is more potent than a Covid and which can spread faster than Covid as well. And if it gets in the hand of a terrorist organization and it starts spreading it across the world, then what hope we have? Or like the one cult which was in Japan, they can use anthrax on a drone and then spread it across in say a music event or….

Acharya Prashant: They do not want to physically kill you, friend. They want to enslave you. Who wants to kill a slave? A slave is useful. Why kill someone if he can be enslaved? Would you rather kill someone or enslave him? When you enslave him, he becomes useful. When you kill him, you are left to take care of the body, how to dispose of the remains, and how to hide the murder.

It's far better to enslave them. And what better way to enslave them than to turn them into your customers. Why kill them? Just make them your customers. They'll keep paying you all their life, happily. And also thank you. Nobody is going to kill you, don't worry. They'll in fact help you live longer. So that you can keep serving longer as slaves. Don't worry.

The virus, the pathogen that is being unleashed at us, is not physical. It is not the coronavirus. It won't affect your body. Don't compare it to the anthrax thing. It is a mental thing and therefore it has to be fought at the mental level. Have something within that is immune to the world. That's the immunity that you need.

Have something within that the world can never touch. If the world cannot touch it, then the world cannot damage it, co-opt it or enslave it.

Don't you see all these big people are continuously telling you that you need to increase the population. Do you think they want to kill you? No. In fact, they want you to multiply so that they can have more slaves, which is more customers. Why else would a sane person deny all the population growth projections and say that a population collapse is happening? Where is the collapse, sir?

The world population from 8 billion today is projected to grow to 11 or 12 billion by the end of the century. Which collapse are you talking of? No, no, no, no, no. It doesn't need to be just 11 or 12 billion. It needs to be 15 billion because that would mean 15 billion slaves. Come on, come on, multiply and purchase my products.

Similarly, the politicians want you to multiply. They won't kill you. For a manufacturer you are a customer. For a politician you are a voter. The more you multiply, the more do their votes. So vote for me and pay me, say the politician and the capitalist and therefore they want you to multiply.

Have something within that listens to nobody. Have something within that listens to nobody of this world. Have something within that listens only to That. That which can have no name. That which is not an idea or thought, a concept, a person, a belief. Only that can save you, else the world will eat you up.

Questioner: Thank you, Acharya Ji.

Acharya Prashant: Welcome.

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