Technology Is Turning Human’s Intelligence Into Artificial Intelligence It is apparent that technology is affecting the way we think, read, write, and live. Although it has typically made everything easier, it has also caused some problems in one way or the other. Some, although acknowledge the essential functions of technology in the contemporary world, are careful to note that it has, in turn, turned the human race into lazy tech-dependent individuals. Others like Nicholas Carr in his technology article “Is Google Making Us Stupid” are of the opinion that over-reliance on technology and especially the internet search engines are making people not just lazy but stupid a well. Furthermore, Carr argues in the article that as humans 1come to rely too much on computers to facilitate our understanding of the world, it is their own intelligence that flattens into artificial intelligence (5). In agreement with Carr’s argument, this paper demonstrates that indeed, technology is affecting the intelligence of human beings adversely, and this, in turn, affects the way they live, read, write, and think. Technology flattens the human mind into artificial intelligence. By definition. The term artificial intelligence (AI) is taken to be the intelligence that is exhibited by machines, and arise as a product of human ingenuity and contrivance rather than a natural [revolutionary of biological] influence (Fetzer 3). In the field of computer science, an ideal intelligent machine is perceived as one that is a rational, flexible agent with the ability to sense the environment and take appropriate actions to maximize its chances of succeeding at some particular goal. Google founders, continually admit that their paramount mission is to turn the Google search engine into the best artificial intelligence (Carr 4). This means that technology is not there just yet but continually strive towards the goal. At this point what has significantly succeeded to be turned into artificial intelligence is the human intelligence, reason being, people no longer use their brain power as much as they did before. Rather, they rely on machines to provide solutions to their problems (Carr 4). The Google team further argues that once their ultimate goal is achieved, artificial intelligence will not replace human beings at their jobs, but rather will augment them. This is a positive and nice way of putting it, but we all know that it cannot be entirely true. For example, if a machine, say a robot, was created with the ability to think, read, write, judge situations, and take appropriate action, and this robot is also capable of doing a job that would take a dozen or more people to handle, will there be any need to retain so many human employees? The answer is, no. These employees would be laid off, and the machines would take over. “Chappie,” a 2015 American Sci-Fi fiction movie directed by Neil Blomkamp is an excellent evidence in support of this claim. In this film, a team of genius engineers creates robots and program them to be crime patrollers. The South Africa Police Department lays off hundreds of its police officers and replaces them with the robots, and for a long time, crime in the country is patrolled by a mechanized police force (Blomkamp Np). With this in mind, it becomes clear that Google’s claim that artificial intelligence would augment rather than replace humans at their place of work is not entirely true. Technology is flattening the human brain into artificial intelligence because it is gradually making human beings prefer artificial to natural intelligence. Carr, argues that 3assuming that the human brain would be better off if replaced or supplemented with artificial intelligence is quite unsettling4because “it suggests that intelligence is an output of a mechanical process, and this is not true (4). At this point, therefore, the question that arises is, if intelligence is not an output of a mechanical process; then what is it? To answer this, Fetzer defines intelligence as “the ability to understand and/or learn from experience; the ability to acquire and retain knowledge; mental ability.” The scholar provides the second definition of as “the 2ability to respond successfully and quickly to a new situation; ability to use of the faculty of reason in effective problem solving, directing, and conducting or performing certain tasks (3-4). This, therefore, means that when humans rely on their brains alone to conduct the above, then natural intelligence is at work. However, if they rely on computers and technology to do the above, then their brains are being flattened from natural to artificial intelligence. In other words, they are turning in one way or the other turning people into some sort of machines. Drawing an example from the film, “Chappie,” the senior robotics engineer and brain behind the robot cops, Dillon, is a human computer. He lives with and is served by robots in his house and everything about his life revolve around machines, computers, and robots. It, not a wonder that as the film comes to an end, Dillon is shot and to save his life, his conscience is transferred into one of the robots, and he lives the rest of his life as a human in an actual robot body/structure (Blomkamp Np). What is even more interesting about all these, is that the transfer is done by Chappie, a robot whose brain function is 100% human and Dillon’s masterpiece of artificial intelligence. This is a clear indication that the more humans rely on technology, the most technological and computerized they become; with or without knowing it. From a personal point of view, I feel that the beauty of life is experienced when one discovers something all by themselves. This discovery lasts in the mind for as long as the individual lives and nobody can take that away. It is, therefore, unfortunate that humans are allowing technology to deprive them of this beautiful experience. According to Fetzer, by relying too much on technology and intelligence from inanimate machines, we are in one way or the other taking for granted that people can and do possess the ability to learn, understand, and retain memory without the help of machines of any kind (4). Therefore, Nicholas Carr is right in every sense when he says that relying too much on technology and computers to understand the world is flattening human brains into artificial intelligence. It may not be turning into stupid people, but it does pose a threat to natural intelligence. That is why today many people do not remember much. Students do not conduct actual and profound research in the field because Google is ever ready to provide answers at the click of the keyboard. All one has to do is type the question, and the answer pops up, and to add to that, Google also gives ideas on what it feels the user may be interested in. This has gradually eroded our thinking, memory retention, and thinking capacities. Without knowing it, we are being turned into robots – doing and believing what the computer tells us. Our lives revolve around technology, and this is sad for the human race. Woe unto us if we make machines that annihilate our essence as the most intelligent of all creation!