CHRISTOPHER BEHA OFFERS A GUEST ESSAY in “A.I. Isn’t Genius. We Are,” The New York Times, December 26, 2024. Here, in Parts 1 and 2 today and tomorrow, are tidbits gleaned from his article, together with my own philosophical musings.
Background. Beha observes, “Since the release of ChatGPT to the public two years ago, we have been awash in extreme claims about the potential benefits and threats of large language models and generative A.I. Boosters and critics alike believe the technology’s emergence is an inflection point in human history.”
Image from Unimedia Tech.
I’ve certainly spilled enough electronic ink on the matter: Google either “Simanaitis Artificial Intelligence” or “Simanaitis Large Language Models.” And, as Al Jolson said in the early days of cinema sound, “You Ain’t Heard Nothin’ Yet.”
Stealing Our Soul? Beha recounts, “Detractors worry not just that it will eliminate well-paying knowledge sector jobs and increase inequality but also that it will effectively steal the human soul. Once computers can produce songs and shows, paintings and poems indistinguishable from the work of living hands, the last remnants of human exceptionalism will be snuffed out.”
I’ve had similar concerns, specifically about A.I. honesty and ethics. Specifically see “A.I. And a Sense of Morality.”
However, Beha observes, “Even the technology’s champions acknowledge that it might have been overhyped a bit.…Of course, the technology is still relatively young, and it might make good on many of its promises. But the obsolescence of human culture will almost certainly not come to pass.”
The Transformative Power of Human Genius. “One way to step back from the brink,” Beha says, “might be to allow ourselves now and then to recognize and appreciate the truly transformative power of human genius.”
The Ancient Greeks. Here Beha offers historical views on the philosophy of “genius.” He describes, “Socrates claimed throughout his life to be visited by a spirit— ‘daimonion’ in Greek, ‘genius’ in Latin. The spirit did not grant him any substantive knowledge; it only guided his actions, particularly warning him against certain behavior.”
Socrates, c. 470 B.C.–399 B.C., Greek philosopher from Athens, credited as the founder of Western philosophy. Image from Wikipedia, a marble head in the Louvre (copy of a lost bronze by Lysippus).
“His career as a public gadfly,” Beha notes, “began when an oracle praised him for knowing more than any other citizen of Athens. Believing himself to know nothing, he started wandering the city, asking prominent Athenians some basic questions: What is truth? What is knowledge? What is justice? From their answers, he concluded that he was ahead of the pack only because he recognized his own ignorance.”
How rare this is today.
Tomorrow in Part 2 Christopher Beha leads us through the Christian Era, the Enlightenment, and today’s current perception of genius. ds
© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2025