AI, Alienation, and the Role of Philosophical Practice in the Digital Age

Abstract

There is no denying that technology has had a positive impact on the evolution of mankind. From the mechanization of agriculture, to the advances in the fields of transports, communications or medicine, to those in the education sector, technology has had an impact in many areas, bringing along a number of improvements in people's lives. Nowadays, people can travel to any "corner" of the world, have running water and heat in their homes by the simple push of a button, while routine work has been more and more taken over by robots and automation. Artificial intelligence promises to take all these improvements even further and free us even more from the realm of routine work. The autonomous car assumes the role of the bus driver who drives on the same road every day countless times, cashier services, courier or home delivery services are increasingly performed by automatic machines, robots take over even some of the duties of medical staff, in areas such as radiology or neurosurgery, while content processing AIs are being used to a greater extent in journalism. However, many philosophers and scientists have warned about the negative effects of technology. In addition to the harmful effects on the environment, confirmed by multiple studies linking recent climate changes with the rise of technological activity from the dawn of the industrial revolution to present times, technological intrusion also has an alienating effect on both the individual and society. A number of negative effects of the increasing use of technology in everyday life have been identified, such as depression, anxiety, sleep disturbances or social isolation, that have been associated with manifestations of the individual’s alienation, which subsequently are reflected at the level of society. The problem this paper raises is whether the introduction of artificial intelligence does not lead to an increase in the level of alienation felt by the individual and reflected in society, trying to propose possible solutions from the perspective of philosophical counselling and that of the trans-humanist vision.