Artificial Intelligence (AI) Developments and Their Implications for Humankind: A Critical Analysis of Contemporary Trends and Perspectives

The recent appearance of widely available Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications such as ChatGPT and Bard has fuelled a flurry of popular and academic discussions about the implications of such AI tools for all aspects of contemporary life and culture. After examining some aspects of recent developments, this article goes on to review some salient critiques of the emerging AI debate with the intention of analyzing some of the key themes in the current discourse. The key objective will be to deflate some of the more overblown and alarming perspectives informed by anthropomorphising AI developments. In particular, there is an attempt to steer a middle course between doom-laden pessimism and futuristic optimism. Drawing on a range of philosophical positions, it is concluded that AI applications are best conceptualised as powerful tools which need to be utilised pragmatically and regulated ethically in partnership with humans in the best interests of all of us.