By Olusola Adeyegbe
We hear increasingly grave warnings about Artificial Intelligence, sometimes from the very experts who understand it best. We should not dismiss their apprehension. But perhaps we should look deeper. What if the greatest danger is not simply that machines are becoming more intelligent? What if the deeper danger is that human beings themselves are becoming increasingly mechanical?
Humanity is of the spirit. The spirit should lead. The intellect, remarkable and indispensable as it is, was meant to serve as an instrument through which the human spirit works upon the earth. But we reversed the order. We enthroned the intellect and gradually pushed the spirit aside.
And what has followed? We have become extraordinarily clever, yet not necessarily wiser. We can process enormous quantities of information, yet struggle to recognise what is truly valuable. We communicate instantly across continents, yet often fail to connect meaningfully with the person beside us. We calculate, analyse, optimise, compete and produce. But do we still deeply sense? Do we still listen inwardly? Do we still ask whether what we can do is also what we should do?
This is where the question of Artificial Intelligence becomes much deeper than technology.
Man has created machines capable of extraordinary computation, analysis and imitation. They can already perform some intellectual tasks faster and more efficiently than human beings. But the machine has no spirit. The tragedy begins when the human being who created it also begins to live as though he has none.
Then we confront something profoundly disturbing: a human machine deploying an artificial machine. One is increasingly governed by calculation; the other was created precisely for calculation. Should we then be surprised when the machine begins to outperform its maker in the very realm to which man has increasingly confined himself?
A human being who neglects his spiritual nature risks becoming little more than a drone: functioning, calculating, producing, consuming and responding to external stimuli, but increasingly disconnected from the deeper source that should give direction and meaning to his earthly existence. And now this human drone has created machines that can calculate faster, remember more, analyse more data and increasingly imitate many of the intellectual activities in which he has placed so much pride.
The answer cannot therefore simply be better regulation, more sophisticated technology or still more powerful intelligence. All these may be necessary, but they do not reach the root. The root is man himself.
Technology in the hands of spiritually awake human beings can become an extraordinary instrument for service, healing, learning, creativity and human advancement. The same technology in the hands of human beings governed principally by greed, vanity, domination, convenience and cold calculation can magnify those weaknesses beyond anything previous generations possessed the power to do.
AI therefore confronts us with a mirror. Perhaps its most important question is not, How intelligent will machines become? Perhaps the more urgent question is, How truly human will human beings remain?
Knowledge alone will not save us. Intellect alone will not save us. We need wisdom, understanding, responsibility and genuine spiritual purpose. We need the intellect restored to its rightful place as servant, not master. And above all, we need an inner change. Urgently.
For the abyss humanity fears may not ultimately be opened by Artificial Intelligence. It may be opened by humanity’s continued estrangement from its own spiritual nature.
The way forward is therefore clearer than we sometimes imagine. Become truly human again. Become spiritually awake. Let the spirit lead and let the intellect serve. Then even our most powerful machines can become instruments for good rather than masters of our destiny.
Otherwise, we may one day discover that while we were busy teaching machines to think, we had forgotten what it means to truly live.
May we find the wisdom to use our knowledge, intelligence and technology in the service of what is truly good.
And as always, I wish you well.
