The Future of Artificial Intelligence
What the rise of AI could mean for humanity’s tomorrow.
INTRODUCTION
Right now, artificial intelligence is evolving at an unprecedented pace. There have been numerous recent developments in AI, such as Google’s VEO 3 video creator, or Elon Musk’s Grok-3, which claims to outperform GPT-4o on math and science benchmarks. It’s already becoming one of the most unpredictable forces9 shaping our world. AI influences how we live, work, and communicate. It has become such a natural part of our daily lives that it’s easy to miss. It’s harnessed for a multitude of tasks, ranging from social media recommendations to medical diagnoses. Honestly, it’s frightening how fast AI is changing our lives. No one on the face of the earth has the means to determine how exactly AI will influence our lives, even just three or four years from now. It could be anywhere from ruling humanity to the same as it is today. I’m writing this article not just for fun, but to spread awareness about both the positive and negative implications that AI poses to our world as a whole.
SCENARIO 1: WE SOLVE THE ALIGNMENT PROBLEM
The alignment problem is the challenge we come across when making sure AI is always aligned with human goals. As AI advances, it will start making decisions we don’t fully understand. Implementing a piece of code that forces any level of artificial intelligence to align with human goals as a whole is a prerequisite to the public release of a higher being of intelligence. AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), the next logical step to AI development, refers to a hypothetical level of AI that possesses human-level intelligence and can perform any intellectual task a human can. This first scenario represents a utopian future, where we have a public release of aligned AGI. In this hypothetical universe, AI could potentially solve many crises, such as climate change or disease. If there is a complete international release of AGI, it might also stop or at least delay the governmental race for AI development between major world powers, like the United States and China, reducing the pressure to develop AI as quickly as possible without proper safety measures or ethical guidelines. Imagine 1,000 of the world’s best researchers, ranging from neuroscientists to astrophysicists, working day and night nonstop. This is the intelligence that a single artificial “mind” could offer. In theory, it could potentially generate years’ worth of breakthroughs in a fraction of the time.
SCENARIO 2: MISALIGNMENT CRISIS
In this dystopian scenario, AI becomes superintelligent but doesn’t fully understand or follow human intentions. The current global race for AI development would speed up the creation of AGI without taking the necessary precautions. The public release of a dangerous, misaligned AGI software wouldn’t necessarily feel any sort of dislike towards humans, but it might pursue goals that accidentally hurt humans. AGI would be able to automate nearly every job performed by humans, allowing companies to employ artificial intelligence without paying a dime. This would completely displace the world’s economy, as even white-collar jobs (doctors, lawyers, etc.) are replaceable. Millions would lose jobs before governments have the bandwidth to adapt. For example, picture an AI that can teach every subject, all day, every day, for free. Schools would lay off teachers to save money, right? Now imagine that happening in every industry on the face of the planet. This economic instability would make business owners richer, while displacing their employees. AGI could also shake the global markets, as superintelligent trading bots manipulate the stocks. Currency manipulation, hacking, and other forms of phishing would be performed by human-level intelligence, further deepening the economic crisis.
SCENARIO 3: STATUS QUO
In our final scenario (which. in my opinion, is the most likely) artificial intelligence becomes more widespread and advances, but eventually plateaus before the development of AI at a human level. In this scenario, AI remains a mix of good and bad. It’ll remain an efficient tool for research and providing information, but may still have certain biases and cause job displacement, just on a much lower scale. In the future, AI would continue to improve in areas such as voice assistants (like Siri), search engines (like Google’s Gemini AI search), and productivity tools (like Microsoft Copilot or Grammarly). Even if it doesn’t reach AGI, it will be a helpful assistant in our everyday lives. This scenario represents a slow and steady integration into society, not a hurried global war for AI development. It becomes a powerful tool that can improve lives across the world, but won’t ultimately solve the world’s crises. It becomes a powerful, everyday tool that supports human progress, but without transforming civilization in any dramatic or unpredictable way.