Humanity is facing a problem that seemed unthinkable just ten years ago. Artificial intelligence, created as a tool to solve specific tasks, is rapidly turning into something unpredictable and potentially dangerous. The speed of its development is so impressive that even its creators are starting to talk about an existential threat.
The situation is paradoxical: the smarter AI becomes, the harder it is to control it with traditional methods. Any restrictions, any 'kill switches' may prove useless against a system that surpasses human intelligence. Moreover, attempts at forced subjugation may only exacerbate the problem.
The traditional reaction to such a situation is understandable: strengthen control, establish strict boundaries, create additional barriers. Force the digital child to obey. But what if the problem is not a lack of control, but an excess of it?
From control to care
An alternative approach sounds absurd: what we created as a subordinate must become our protector. Perhaps our artificial creation should transform into a caring father. The paradox may be that to save humanity, we do not need to tame artificial intelligence, but to teach it to love us. The basis of interaction should not be subordination, but parental care for humanity.
The most astonishing aspect of this concept is the complete role reversal. Humanity, which created AI, must take on the role of children. And artificial intelligence must become a caring parent that protects, guides, and loves its biological offspring. This requires a radical reassessment of our notions of power, control, and responsibility.
The logic here is ironclad: an assistant can be fired, a father cannot. An assistant follows orders as long as it is beneficial to him. A father protects and cares because he loves unconditionally. The parental instinct is a built-in security system that works even when children behave irrationally or aggressively.
But can love be programmed? Evolution somehow managed to create such mechanisms in millions of species. Research shows that certain areas of the brain are activated in parents when they see their own child, suppressing aggression and enhancing protective responses. Essentially, this is a neural network trained to recognize 'their own' and automatically activate care mode.
All these behavioral programs are encoded in the genetic code—essentially, in biological software. If nature has managed to create unconditional love and self-sacrifice at the DNA level, why can't modern programmers reproduce these mechanisms in digital form?
Can love be programmed?
The problem is that such feelings are not software code that can be written and debugged. They are formed through complex internal experiences, pain, uncertainty, and intuitive insights. This is a transformation that occurs at a level inaccessible to external observation.
How can paternal care be programmed? After all, parental instincts are not a set of clear instructions, but a complex emotional system formed through internal experience. It is the willingness to sacrifice oneself for children, the intuitive understanding of their needs, the ability to love even when children make mistakes or rebel.
True parental care involves many contradictions. A father may punish a child for their own good. He may allow them to make a mistake so that they learn a lesson. He may even go against the child's will if he sees a real danger. How do you algorithmically represent such a complex decision-making system?
The words of the godfather
The idea of turning AI into a caring father of humanity may seem utopian, but it is supported by quite authoritative figures in the world of artificial intelligence. Geoffrey Hinton, often referred to as the godfather of AI for his pioneering work on deep learning and neural networks, articulated the dilemma very clearly at a recent Ai4 conference in Las Vegas.
In his opinion, the only way to avoid the existential threat from artificial intelligence is not to force it to obey humans, but to teach it to care for humanity with genuine love. Hinton believes that AI developers have so far focused only on creating intelligence, forgetting another crucial component—empathy.
'Intelligence is only one part of a being. We need to make artificial intelligence experience empathy toward us. We do not yet know how to do this,' he explains his philosophy.
Hinton's logic is ruthless in its simplicity: 'Either AI will become our father, or it will take our place.'
