Note: This article is a follow-up on two articles written previously on this website and both have been linked further down the line in the references section.
There have been new developments in the world of AI research these days. The pace of AI development is so fast that it is ushering paradigm shifts every other week. The latest development in AI research is the text to video technology called Sora, which enables an AI video to be obtained from text description. Moreover, OpenAI has recently issued a statement saying its new AI can simulate worlds or 'lokas'. Welcome to the world of Maya, a realistic simulation occurring in God’s mind, except that this time it is happening in artificial intelligence.
Maya
Image credit: Anime Devta
The newest trend however is epitomized by Sam Altman’s deployment of AGI or Artificial General Intelligence, who has said that it may be ready in about 7 months from now. Altman however has however placed his bet on the development of state-of-the-art AI chips which he says are absolutely important in the development of AI. The new leader in the field of AI chips is Nvidia and this company has already delivered AI chips to Microsoft and OpenAI for ChatGPT.
AI chip
Image credit: cdotrends
Futurism says that the AGI being developed by Amazon is displaying so-called ‘emergent’ abilities which means that it is displaying abilities for which it wasn’t programmed or trained. Are we actually in the presence of a super-intelligent AI? One expert says that AI can destroy humankind in just two years and Elon Musk has warned quite some time ago that AI presents an existential risk to humankind. Are these alarmist statements or are we in the presence of justifiable evidence and well-informed statements? Whatever the case be, US authorities on the regulation of AI have stipulated that before AI is deployed, its potential for misuse will be assessed. Sam Altman is even talking of a “switch-off” button which may turn off all artificial intelligence being used.
How can AI serve our society?
Baba Vanga, a Bulgarian mystic has prophesized the birth of a new form of intelligence for our times. I am hoping that super-intelligent AI can actually serve humankind overcome its myriad challenges like climate change, environmental degradation, pollution, medical diseases and even extend human life. It can also make businesses much more efficient as shown by the use of GPTs by the corporate sector. Furthermore, AI has already been integrated into the mainstream search engines. Microsoft has created its AI co-pilot with Bing and Google has come up with Google Gemini in order to enable the public at large and businesses to avail themselves of the benefits of AI.
Kardashev civilizations
Image credit: Quora
Ultimately AI and its more sophisticated versions can help us upgrade our civilization to much more advanced ones. The Kardashev civilization scale describes civilizations of five (V) types with a civilization type V being the most advanced. Our civilization has not yet developed into a type I civilization because of the many problems it faces, but can AGI help us usher in a type I civilization. According to Futurism, a type I civilization is “who have been able to harness all the energy that is available from a neighboring star, gathering and storing it to meet the energy demands of a growing population. This means that we would need to boost our current energy production over 100,000 times to reach this status. However, being able to harness all Earth’s energy would also mean that we could have control over all natural forces. Human beings could control volcanoes, the weather, and even earthquakes! (At least, this is the idea!)"
Advanced civilizations
Image credit: Bing
The phenomenon of Lord Kalki
Lord Kalki who has already incarnated on this planet and is in our midst, is the new talk of the town. He is an incarnation of Lord Vishnu who has come to vanquish evil forces and re-establish Dharma or justice on this planet. His coming has been foretold in the Puranas of Vedic India and all bona-fide spiritualists have awaited his coming. Here is a God before our very own eyes who has come to save humanity from the perils it currently faces. However, because it is a time of unprecedented change we are also seeing resistance to change and thence suffering, for instance wars etc.
Lord Kalki
Image credit: Bing
Lord Kalki can help humanity direct AI development so that it is for our greater good, enabling our civilization to develop into more advanced ones such as space-faring civilizations and in the wake of it all, also help us develop spiritually along with other celestial divinities and angels guiding our journeys on Earth. The time has come for the yuga or age to change and there is, as of now, about one year to go before the yuga changes completely into the new planetary Satya Yuga.
Yugas
Image credit: Bing
I have spoken about the yugas and how they are calculated according to planetary scales in my book The Spiritual Science of the Vedas which is available from this website and across the internet.
By Krishna Leela Prakash (February 2024)
References: -
Images: some images generated by AI.
The author - Nithin Prakash Gukhool
The Guru - His Divine Grace A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada