Some people are afraid of AI. Maybe they took the movie The Terminator a bit too seriously, or perhaps they know something I don’t. I find it difficult to be intimidated by something that cannot form an independent thought and lacks the ability to desire anything. AI can barely figure out how to search the internet. It is not going to destroy humanity. Yet.

But people might. We seem pretty dead set on destroying ourselves…and AI can be a useful tool in such endeavors. We could destroy the human race (and other species) even faster and more efficiently.

People are researching ways to use AI to make even more money for the very wealthy. People are developing weapons systems that will make terror and genocide even easier. That, apparently, is what people do. If we put our energies and technologies toward generating baseless wealth or the machinery of war, we are creating a dystopia and a very unhappy ending for humanity.

But we do have a choice. We don’t have to put our ingenuity toward destruction and oppression. AI can help us solve our problems, rather than making them bigger and faster…if only we teach it to.

We can greatly reduce disease and suffering with AI’s help. X-rays, mammograms, and blood tests are already being read by AI trained to look for specific signs of injury and disease. AI is faster and more accurate than any human when it comes to looking at a lot of data and drawing a conclusion. We can use it to come up with treatment plans and invent vaccines when new viruses emerge.

We can reverse climate change with AI’s help (unless AI can’t figure out how to reduce the carbon footprint of AI, that is). AI is capable of taking all of the available environmental data and identifying small changes that can shift the cascade. Will it work? I don’t know. But it’s better to try something than to give up.

We can end poverty with the help of AI. Chat GPT isn’t even that smart, but it can already spit out a nine-point plan to end poverty. Do you know why? Because we already know how to do it. It’s right there in the mountains of text that ChatGPT consumed. AI knows it’s a distribution problem, not a scarcity problem. And AI is no commie.

We can make work fun and profitable with AI. It’s true: AI may steal your job. But if it does, it is doing you a favor. AI can free us from tedious, crappy jobs and give us the time we need to pursue more creative, engaging human things. With the solution to the aforementioned resource distribution problem, we can also have more leisure time without being poor. Sounds good, right?

We can overhaul the food production system using AI. We can optimize the system for high-nutrient foods and sustainable production and distribution. AI can tell us how to reconfigure our agricultural system to get us off the grains and sugar train. This could be a win-win for our health and the environment.

We can bring about world peace if we can take our egos out of the equation and trust AI to resolve our conflicts. Of course, we may end up in that episode of Star Trek where utopia is maintained by disintegrating a portion of the population each week. As creepy as that sounds, it’s a lot better than war.

I’m an AI optimist. The main risk, as I see it, is that humans will use it as a tool to make things worse. Crazy idea: what if we try to make things better instead?