My interest in Amir Husain’s The Sentient Machine was piqued by my early encounters with large language models like ChatGPT-3 and Google Bard. Initially, I wasn’t convinced they were quite ready for widespread use.
Even then, I glimpsed their potential. Now, less than two years later, I’m using them weekly. In fact, artificial intelligence has helped me to both layout and edit this very post. The only part I did entirely on my own was writing the original draft.
It’s clear we’ve entered the age of artificial intelligence, and we must consider how this technology will impact society, and perhaps even our own place within it. After all, AI has the ability to act as a mirror, reflecting what it means to be human.
What is Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) describes the concept of building intelligent machines. The term was first coined in 1955 by computer scientist John McCarthy.
Artificial Intelligence is concerned with the development of intelligent algorithms, whether or not they learn.
Artificial Intelligence is the overarching term that encompasses other areas of technology, including:
- Cognitive computing: The development of AI based on the design of the human brain. Examples include neural networks used in large language models.
- Machine Learning: A subfield of AI that has evolved separately. Machine learning uses algorithms that are both intelligent and can learn, often driven by the development of neural network-based cognitive computing
The Human Brain V Artificial Intelligence
The human brain contains approximately one hundred billion neurons. On average, each of these neurons is connected to another 1,000 via junctions called Synapse. This network encodes most of the information held within a human brain.
The human brain has an estimated 2,500 Terabytes of storage. It excels at Cognitive tasks but is less adapt at purely Mathematical tasks.
The human brain is far more efficient than computer hardware, driving the development of current cognitive computers based on neural networks similar to those in the human brain that power today’s large language models like ChatGPT and Gemini.
The human brain is highly parallelised, allowing it to process multiple pieces of data simultaneously, though it has a slower clock speed compared to silicon-based processors like Central Processing Units (CPUs) and Graphics Processing Units (GPUs)
In 1989, George Cybenko, a researcher at the Centre of Supercomputer Research and Development, demonstrated that a digital neural network with enough neurons and data “could approximate a mathematical function with arbitrary precision.
These neural networks now power large language models, leading many to speculate that Artificial General Intelligence is just around the corner.
Neural networks are trained using a combination of Machine Learning and human input.
The underlying neural network in a large language model is known as a Transformer.
Large language models such as Google Gemini and ChatGPT can code at near-human levels, allowing users to define their requirements using natural language, with the AI then outputting the required code. OpenAI’s GPT-4 has even passed Google coding exams.
The Quest for Artificial General Intelligence
Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is artificial intelligence that possesses the same level of intelligence as an average human – not just in a narrow field, but across the board.
Artificial General Intelligence will likely be able to set its own goals, much like I do as a human.
Predictions regarding when Artificial General Intelligence is likely to arrive are constantly changing and cover a wide range of dates. The current median forecast for its emergence is somewhere between 2027 and 2040.
Artificial General Intelligence will likely require:
- Deep learning Artificial Intelligence (AI): A neural network with a large number of neurons arranged in multiple layers for processing. Current large language models are considered to be deep learning AI.
- Consciousness: The capacity to experience subjective thought and form its own perspective, as argued by Michael Wooldridge in his book The Road to Conscious Machines. However, many argue that consciousness isn’t required.
Is consciousness truly the missing key in artificial intelligence? It may well be – after all, the only example of Artificial General Intelligence we know is conscious, or at least I believe I am. But how can I be certain that you are conscious, or anyone else for that matter?
If we can’t be certain that other members of our own species are conscious, how can we know if an alien intelligence, such as artificial intelligence, has achieved consciousness?
Artificial Intelligence as a mirror to humanity
The concept of artificial intelligence as a mirror to humanity truly captured my imagination when I first encountered it in Amir Husain’s book, The Sentient Machine.
He argues that, prior to the emergence of Artificial General Intelligence(AGI)), Artificial Intelligence(AI)] will act as a mirror to humanity. This brief window will offer us an opportunity to try and answer some fundamental questions we’ve been asking ourselves for millennia, such as:
- What is uniquely human?
- What we want to become in the age of AGI?
- Do all of our complex goals come from our biological needs?
When I first read The Sentient Machine last year, I didn’t believe that large language models – which appear to be at the forefront of AI’s advance towards general-level intelligence – were quite ready. Now, in the summer of 2025, the technology has arrived
I have no idea how long this window to explore this reflection of our humanity – offered by these large language models – will remain open. It could be a matter of years, decades, or even millennia.
Even if it is millennia, given the complexity of the question, we need to start examining our reflection now and ask the biggest question: what are we, and what do we want to do with this incredible technology we’ve developed?
Addressing the fears of Artificial Intelligence?
Potential risks of Artificial Intelligence
Adam Frank, in an article outlining his concerns about artificial intelligence, stated that the hazards of AI can be categorised as follows
- Discrimination, exclusion, and toxicity
- Information hazards, such as AI hallucinations
- Misinformation
- Malicious use
- Causing harm while interacting with people
- Automation, access, and environmental harm
I’d like to add another hazard, highlighted by philosopher and historian Yuval Noah Harari, which is related to the large language models that form the vanguard of current AI development.
Harari considers language to be the human operating system upon which human civilisation is built, and we have now handed artificial intelligence the key to that operating system.
Human language is used to help humanity create what Harari terms intersubjective reality – a type of reality that our species, civilisation, or culture can agree on. Examples of our intersubjective reality include money, written language, legal systems, and our political system.
Through its use of language, artificial intelligence now has the capacity to impact our intersubjective reality. Until now, only humans possessed this ability.
It could even be that the sharing of content generated by Artificial Intelligence has started us down the path towards the singularity even without the invention of Artificial General Intelligence.
Potential benefits of Artificial Intelligence
The benefits of artificial intelligence include:
- Lowering barriers to learning
- Personalised education tools
- Tools that enhance scientific research
This list may seem concise, so I want to share some of my own experiences with using artificial intelligence. As you know, I’m a writer – in my spare time, though I consider it my profession.
Artificial intelligence has helped to improve my productivity, freeing up time for more valuable things, or even just to rest
I want to share this very post as an example. I keep my notes in an application called Obsidian, and I utilise an artificial intelligence tool developed by the community for Obsidian.
I was able to use that AI tool to summarise the key takeaways from the notes I’d taken from Amir Husain – notes that I maintain without AI assistance, as I need to engage with them directly to build my own knowledge.
This summary of my notes was then used by the large language model to create a detailed layout for this post, which I’ve used as the foundation for the blog post I’ve written. I wanted to weave my own thoughts and feelings about artificial intelligence into the mix.
Once I’ve completed my first draft, I’ll work with the same AI tool to help me edit my post and, I hope, make it more accessible to my readers.
It will also assist me with SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and the promotion of my social media. This partnership significantly increases my productivity, and the results surpass what I could achieve independently.
Balancing the risks of Artificial Intelligence
We have a window of opportunity to determine our future relationship with artificial intelligence and how we should manage these potential risks and benefits. But we must act decisively, as we have no idea how long that window will remain open.
Try large language models for yourself – all the popular ones offer free versions of their chat engines. Continue learning about artificial intelligence, keep an open mind, and, most importantly, share your thoughts with others. Feel free to leave a comment below.
As a technology blog I will be publishing a lot of content about Artificial Intelligence to be kept up to date with our latest news and content we have published sign up to our weekly newsletter.
Further reading
- The Sentient Machine by Amir Husain
- Organoid Intelligence’ Could Create Brain Cell-Powered Computers by Ashley Strickland
- How ChatGPT and Other LLMs Work-and Where They Could Go Next by Matt Burgess
- No Human Coders in 5 Years by Peter H. Diamandis
- Danny Sullivan, Will We Reach the Singularity by 2035
- The Road to Conscious Machines by Michael Wooldridge
- Adam Frank, I Signed the “Pause AI” Letter, but Not for the Reasons You Think
- Yuval Noah Harari, AI and the Future of Humanity
- Navigating the Future: Insights from Yuval Noah Harari on AI and the Humanity
- Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari- Three Types of Reality and how They impact us
- Why I replaced Obsidian Smart Connections with Obsidian Co-pilot plugin
- Refining My Content Schedule with Obsidian Co-pilot: A Case Study