Ben Shapiro Finds Reasons To Both Cheer And Fear Artificial Intelligence ‘Revolution’

 The artificial intelligence revolution could completely change how humanity lives, both for the good and the bad, according to Ben Shapiro.

The Daily Wire co-founder and editor emeritus made the comments on his Wednesday podcast, pointing to the medical and scientific advantages that could come with AI while also noting that humans would have the capacity to misuse the new technology. 

“The artificial intelligence revolution is here,” Shapiro said. “It is only going to grow more and more in both scope and breadth. Things like ChatGPT are actually very basic versions of what the techno-bros have in store for the rest of the world. And there are some people who are very hot on it, some people who are very scared of it.”

The best-selling author said he tends to take a more measured approach to the development of AI, predicting that it will transform how the economy works and stimulate human creativity. 

“I think that the upsides economically are going to be extraordinary,” he said. “I think in terms of labor-saving and productivity, we could see an explosion of productivity that essentially brings inflation down to zero. That makes an enormous number of products, goods, and services significantly easier to access for a wide variety of people. That allows pretty much anybody to engage in a variety of industries they never would have had access to before.” 

 

Shapiro also cautioned that the new technology would also impact human brain development, referencing the impact a smartphone had on his 7-year-old son. 

“There are some problems, I think, when it comes to the sort of human brain development aspect of AI that we’re going to have to discuss because one of the things that we’ve really never thought about with regard to technology, we’ve always thought about technology as something apart from us. Technology is a machine that you use, but the truth is the machine shapes you,” he said. 

Shapiro added that technology could not erase the human capacity to do evil, which is why there will be negative developments that stem from the increasing use of AI. 

“Humans beings are inherently sinful. Human nature is inherently unchanging, at least at the root level. We are not going to become better, nicer people. We’re not going to become free of sin,” he said, adding that AI could be used to both do evil and fight evil.