The Future of the AI ​​Era as Seen by the Angel Mikhail [Window to Korea]

Dr. Nam-Kook Kim, Professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Korea University and Advisory Committee Member of CUKPE

In Tolstoy's novel What Men Live By, the angel Mikhail says that he realized that while people appear to live out of concern for themselves, they actually live out of love for one another. Judging from the story of the shoemaker couple who took pity on him and saved him when he was naked on a cold winter day, and the neighbor woman raising an orphaned newborn baby, the love he speaks of refers to compassion as a fundamental human emotion.

For a long time, the most important characteristic defining humanity was so-called objective reason, while emotions were regarded as subjective and capricious. The free and equal modern human being was a rational being who liberated themselves based on the achievements of reason and science attained. However, if reason were truly the core element defining humanity, human history could be called a history of the disastrous failure of reason. Look at the reality in which humans, possessing such objective reason, are destroying their own foundations through ceaseless, destructive wars.

In contrast to this understanding of humanity, David Hume viewed compassion as the characteristic that truly represents mankind, considering it an unchanging, essential quality. Martha Nussbaum viewed compassion as a kind of biological intuition common to all humans and argued that the moral sentiments of compassion and empathy are the most important characteristics explaining human beings. Richard Rorty criticizes the attempt to understand humans based on reason, noting that this created distinctions between humans, adults, men, animals, children, and women, and that those who established themselves as rational beings have oppressed and dominated others classified as rationally inferior.

In this transitional period of technological civilization where artificial intelligence (AI) is replacing human cognitive functions, people harbor both curiosity and fear regarding whether AI will eventually surpass human intelligence to assume a status and role equal to that of humans. For a new entity to attain a status equal to humans signifies more than mere functional superiority; it implies becoming a fellow citizen of the political community and an equal sovereign as a contracting party to the laws we create. While AI will likely challenge the realm of human reason—specifically data analysis and rational inference—human moral sentiments—which expand social solidarity through compassion and empathy for the suffering of others and choose justice amidst dilemmas—will remain a uniquely human domain.

In other words, the moral sentiments of compassion and empathy possessed by humans are not the last line of defense for humans who have retreated under pressure from AI; rather, they are the most fundamental human characteristic that precedes reason, transforming humans into agents of social solidarity and cooperation and ultimately enabling them to emerge as political sovereigns. Throughout human history, technological progress, such as that of AI, has not automatically brought about social progress that guarantees shared prosperity. The social outcomes of technology vary depending on the institutional design regarding the direction in which new technologies are developed and with whom profits are shared. Furthermore, such institutions thoroughly reflect real-world power relations, and the direction of power depends on the existence of social solidarity based on citizens' compassion and empathy.

Therefore, anti-humanism, which ridicules the compassion of those who empathize with the suffering of others and incites the corruption of moral sentiments, is an act of destruction against the core elements of humanity that is far more dangerous than the challenge posed by AI. Although AI, which poses a fierce challenge to the realm of reason, may not be able to replace humans, if we do not resist the attempt to corrupt moral sentiments by worshipping power, humans could be replaced by objects of a completely different form.

(This article was originally published as a column in Hankook Ilbo in Korean and translated into English with the help of Google Translate. The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official stance of the center.)