Meaningful Lives in an Age of Artificial Intelligence: A Reply to Danaher.
Journal:
Science and engineering ethics
Published Date:
Jan 30, 2022
Abstract
Does the rise of artificial intelligence pose a threat to human sources of meaning? While much ink has been spilled on how AI could undercut meaningful human work, John Danaher has raised the stakes by claiming that AI could "sever" human beings from non-work-related sources of meaning-specifically, those related to intellectual and moral goods. Against this view, I argue that his suggestion that AI poses a threat to these areas of meaningful activity is overstated. Self-transformative activities pose a hard limit to AI's impingement on meaningful human activities. Contra Danaher, I suggest that a wider range of sources for meaning will continue to exist in a world dominated by AI.