I have written an article about how AI might lead to a Age of Darkeness. It is controversial written and I would be curious to hear your opinion, since the content of this article deals with the overall question of what AI should do for us in our lives:

Minerva, the roman god of wisdom, provided the people the light of enlightment. In our digital era this however has change. It is not Minerva anymore who provides wisdom to everyone, but rather big internet companies like Google.

In many aspects Minerva seems to be quite similar to Google. Just like Minerva, Google shared the vision to provide wisdom to everyone. With dedication, some time, and an idea about what you are searching for, Google is able to provide you the right information. Depending on the complexity of your search problem, this however required some self-studying by scanning various posts and developing an own understanding about your problem and the possible right solution. Google therefore was not enlightment itself, but a means to enlightment.

With technology advancement this is now changing. It didn’t therefore come unexpected that Google recently announced that it wants to give answers before you actually asked the question. While that seems like the next logical step in Google´s evolution and will include some tremendous benefits such as cognitive easing, it can also end up in losing the ability of critical thinking. When you don’t even have to ask the question anymore, what is it what you are actually still doing? By consuming answers of questions you haven’t even asked, your own mind basically becomes jobless. Emanuel Kant (1784) provided in my opinion an interesting reason why such services are relevant for people: “Laziness and cowardice are the reasons why such a large part of mankind gladly remain minors all their lives.”

Former executive Chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt, seemed to understand the power of laziness and cowardice and said, without even having the technological capabilities, in the year 2005:

“When you use Google, do you get more than one answer? Of course you do. Well, that's a bug. We have more bugs per second in the world. We should be able to give you the right answer just once. We should know what you meant.”( Laziness) .

In the year 2010 Schmidt said:

“I actually think most people don’t want Google to answer their questions, they want Google to tell them what they should be doing next” (Cowardice)

But does Schmidt really believe that people want that Google patronizes them by providing preselected answers to questions they haven’t asked? Even though such services claim to be in the best interest of the user, who can assure us that the algorithm behinds the suggestions is not acting opportunistically? If you don’t even have to ask questions anymore and you just willingly consume answers how will that influence your ability to critical think? Isn´t asking essential to the development of your mind, because by asking you are able understand cause and effects? By asking questions you are furthermore able to lead a dialogue in your desired direction. But when asking becomes obsolete, it might be soon companies like Google who are pointing you in one direction.

Before the light of enlighment therefore might go out and leaves us in the dark, I want to finish my thoughts with Emanuel Kant´s well-known quote: “Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed nonage. Nonage is the inability to use one's own understanding without another's guidance. This nonage is self-imposed if its cause lies not in lack of understanding but in indecision and lack of courage to use one's own mind without another's guidance. Dare to know! (Sapere aude.) "Have the courage to use your own understanding," is therefore the motto of the enlightenment.