The consequences of the AI revolution have been the subject of much debate lately. Two opposing camps emerge.

The optimists point to the previous industrial revolutions that have mechanized agriculture and manufacturing, transformed communication and transportation, modernized work and life, and the list goes on and on. The outcomes have been enormously positive–freeing humans from laborious work, boosting physical and intellectual productivity, and unleashing the creative ingenuities unique to the human species. This time around is no different. AI is yet another tool taking orders to do things humans know how to do but find too time consuming, repetitve, un-creative or intellectually boring. The list of tasks we like to delegate to AI is long, such as driving, booking appointments, proofreading, and debugging, to name a few.

This camp advocates for more powerful and intelligent AI systems that would even relieve humans from finger typing or oral instructions. Preferrably, blinking eyes, moving eyebrows, shakng heads, or facial expressions should do the job. Ideally, AI learns how to decode brain activities, so that we only need to think about things to get done. Eventually, the day would come when we let AI do the thinking for us. Everyone is served to the maximum possible by AI. Success and happiness is in the air.

On the other hand, the pessimists no longer hold the view that AI will always be a tool invented and operated by human. Instead, AI is emerging as a true competitor to human beings. It is true that man-made tools have almost always been better than human, but only for specific, hand-engineered tasks such as calculators and spreadhsheets. This time around feels different. It is not just that AI appears to have acquired human-like intelligence. More alarmingly, AI is still a black box and we don’t know how it actually works, what it is capable of, and whether we will be able to keep the control. Even brushing aside the thought of a penicious future AI rebellion, AI insinuates the potential to out-compete human for all tasks that require judgement, intelligence, or creativity. The eventual outcome looks dire: we become the tools, with AI in control!

Now is certainly too early to tell. AI may continue to get better and ever closer, but never catch up or surpass humans. We as humans will and should welcome the competition.