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Artificial intelligence doesn't feel, but its creators do enjoy themselves
AI has no emotions, but we still treat it as if it were human. Meanwhile, those who develop it do gain pleasure and power. Who comes out winning in this digital game?
Can a machine enjoy life? The answer is simple: no. However, more and more people in Barcelona and users around the world interact with artificial intelligence as if there were someone on the other side capable of feeling, laughing, or even getting angry.
Why are we fascinated by talking to AI?
AI doesn’t fool anyone: it has no body, it doesn’t experience emotions, and therefore it can’t enjoy anything. Even so, many of us fall into the temptation of treating it as a real conversation partner. We’re drawn in by its availability, its apparent wisdom, and that programmed empathy that’s reminiscent of a friend who’s always ready to listen. At a time when, according to a recent study, we’re losing about 300 words a day by speaking less face to face, AI becomes a kind of digital confidant. Still, the words we stop using don’t disappear: they end up stored in the data centres of the big tech companies.
Human language versus machine code
A small child can tell a dog from a cat after seeing just a few examples. An AI needs millions of images to do the same. Human language is full of nuance, playfulness, irony, and double meanings. AI code, on the other hand, is cold and literal, an endless string of zeros and ones. Even so, algorithms can churn out long philosophical explanations about life or even pretend to feel something, but it’s all a result of our tendency to humanise what isn’t human, just as we do with pets.
Should we be worried about AI?
In recent weeks, apocalyptic speeches have been circulating about the supposed bad intentions of AI, especially after the 17,000 attacks suffered by the Hugging Face network. Some have even claimed that digital agents could conspire to wipe out the human species. But the real threat doesn’t come from a machine rebellion, but from those who program and control them. AI does what it’s told, but its creators do enjoy—and sometimes get carried away with—the power and unlimited accumulation this technology gives them.
The real threat lies with humans
As Jacques Lacan said, habit makes the monk. Today, our digital habits fuse us with technology to the point where it’s hard to separate ourselves from it. We live surrounded by digital prostheses and, in that environment, it’s easy to attribute human intentions to AI. But the danger isn’t in the machine, but in the ambition and desire for control of those who design and exploit it. While AI still feels nothing, its masters enjoy themselves—and sometimes put much more than their own wellbeing at risk.