Poll: It's 2045, What Do You See?
How will the AI-people interaction shape up?
Hi friend,
I hope you’re having a great summer.
Taking advantage of the distance from your day-to-day, it’s a perfect time to take a forest view and think far and wide.
Since we hang out here to chat about storytelling, how do you think the future story between the two protagonists, people and AI will take shape?
I know it’s hard to tell with all this rapid development but first, some key terminology.
This future advanced AI is typically referred to as AGI (Artificial General Intelligence).
It’s an AI capable of experiencing the world as humans; learning, reasoning, and solving problems across any domain at least as well as a human (Source: Wikipedia).
While AI was initially trained and could perform only narrow tasks, as AI is advancing, there is more discussion about its capabilities and if/when it will reach AGI.
A paper by Google DeepMind from 2024, “Levels of AGI for Operational Progress”, characterized five levels for classifying the capabilities of AI on the path to AGI.
Expert opinions vary on when we’ll reach AGI, from as early as 2027 (Sam Altman), while leading figures like DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis and Google’s Sergey Brin project AGI could arrive closer to 2030. Some think up to 2050, and others suggest there are still technical obstacles to reaching full AGI.
In the far, far future, experts like Oxford Philosopher Nick Bostrom describe Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI) as: “any intellect that greatly exceeds the cognitive performance of humans in virtually all domains of interest.”
Put simply, ASI means above Einstein-level in any field vs. AGI having capabilities like the average human.
Some context for the poll’s scenarios
In broad strokes, and for better illustration, I focus on visual storytellers, but it could be any field.
Consider the following scenarios:
Supporting: This is pretty much where we are now. People are thriving as AI is largely supporting than replacing, their capabilities (aka Augmented AI).
Dividing: In the middle, it’s a transitional period where we may enter a dystopian future bent towards AI replacing people. This may trigger a divided society of haves and have-nots. Think movies like Elysium (2013) or Ready Player One (2018).
This could mean savvy techies delegating AI to the max versus poor people who lack access or purists who voluntarily choose to stay off-grid and use traditional tools.
BTW, variants of this division could also happen in scenarios 1 and 3.
Replacing: In the far end, as you can guess, we see AI reaching AGI level and replacing people.
This could mean two outcomes:
People are in control: Sam Altman’s rosy projection, where AI automation creates thriving utopian societies with a generous universal basic income that free-up time for people to pursue their hobbies.
People lose control: AI reaches a singularity black hole level where it can improves itself (i.e., AI that generates new AI) with no human control and any guard rails. At this point, AI runs every aspect of human life with negative consequences. Think The Matrix or The Terminator series.
What do you think? Cast your anonymous vote:
As you’ve likely seen, I have been covering this topic quite a bit.
Here is a premium selection of stories to give you my take and the larger industry vibes:
Feel free to drop your perspectives below if you have more elaborate predictions.
See you next time!
Best,
- Shlomi
Shlomi Ron
Founder, Visual Storytelling Institute
shlomi@visualstorytell.com | Chat soon? 📅
story > visual > emotion > experience
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