In Brief
- The Core Issue: The safety and trajectory of Artificial Intelligence depend heavily on the moral character and intentions of its creators.
- The Human Dilemma: Controlling AI is not merely an engineering challenge; it requires humans to overcome inner weaknesses like greed, fear, and ego.
- The Solution: Practices such as meditation and soul-consciousness can help individuals cultivate essential virtues like compassion and self-control.
- The Science: Neuroplasticity confirms that repeated mental training and intentional behaviour can physically alter the brain, building the moral character necessary to wield advanced technology responsibly.
Will humans be able to control the increasingly powerful versions of AI that are being created? The characters of the people creating AI are as important as the intelligence of the AI itself. Are they creating systems motivated by compassion to serve and support, or are they driven by greed, pride, and domination? The wider issue is whether creators can control their own impulses of fear, anger, and ego. If the intention is power and profit, then whatever is created will be dangerous. The deception is that it serves or excites the imagination in the beginning, but over time, it leads to addiction and dependence.
AI is a highly sophisticated technology, so at a second level, when placed in the hands of immoral people, it can be used detrimentally, even if the technology itself has no malicious codes. Conversely, people motivated by service and cooperation are more likely to build and use safe systems.
The deeper question
Maintaining control over AI is not simply an engineering problem. It is a human character problem. We are attempting to create increasingly powerful forms of intelligence while still struggling to manage our jealousy, resentment, and fear. Before asking whether we can control artificial intelligence, perhaps we must ask whether we have developed sufficient self-control, sagacity, and moral responsibility.
The human character dilemma has existed for years, but as a race, we choose to focus on physical solutions for this non-physical issue. Consider the paradox of hoping for peace by starting a war. By itself, war has never created lasting peace; still, to this day, people persist.
Over the course of history, there are numerous examples of individuals and communities who have strived tirelessly to reverse this downward spiral with very limited success. We externalise, objectify, personify, and shift blame for our inner weaknesses. Literature from recorded history to now is crowded with examples intended to reverse this trend.
Apart from the collective trajectory of civilisation, there is still individual responsibility, codified in the phrase, “as you sow, so shall you reap.”
Meditation
To change what is inside, we must look in. Meditation begins as a tool for slowing down and observing the thoughts that cross the mind. We could separate thoughts into four categories: negative, waste, necessary, and charitable. Delete the negative and waste, and implement the necessary and charitable. Additionally, foster a fifth category that could be labelled as self-care.
Meditation is not an escape from technology; it is preparation for using it wisely. It is a discipline in which the individual regularly withdraws attention from external devices and turns inward to observe thoughts, examine motives, and strengthen the intellect. However, quieting the mind is not necessarily the same as developing character.
There is a second step of soul-consciousness, applied when the mind is reflective and can more easily accept a shift from the physical to a spiritual awareness of being a soul. The intention of soul-consciousness is the inculcation and practice of virtues.
Scientific Research
“A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of the Effects of Meditation on Empathy, Compassion, and Prosocial Behaviours,” by Luberto, C. M., et al. in 2018, suggests that human values and virtues can be deliberately cultivated through repeated mental training.
Virtues such as kindness, patience, and respect are not merely intellectual beliefs. They involve emotional responses and habitual behaviour. Meditation helps by creating a pause between impulse and action, allowing space for choice rather than automatic reaction. Additionally, positive performances in the form of patience, perseverance, and prudence must be practised persistently. Repeated behaviour creates character.
If a person meditates to become calmer, the primary result would be greater calmness. Meditation can be combined with an explicit intention to strengthen virtues and loosen the grip of misconduct. Furthermore, when practised in daily life, it becomes more directly connected with character development.
Neuroplasticity
Behavioural learning and neuroplasticity confirm that the brain physically changes in response to new habits:
Knowledge → Reflection → Intention → Behaviour → Repeated Practice → Habit → Character
Meditation can occupy an important position in this chain because it provides a controlled environment in which a person learns to observe thoughts and feelings without immediately acting upon them.
Ultimately, the question is not simply who will control AI, but whether we can find the courage to control ourselves. Assuming that we will not pursue our human values, there will not even be a need for AI to assure our destruction; we will manage that by ourselves.
