Research: Are humans and AI merging to form an "evolutionary individual"?

The interaction between humans and AI technology could lead to the next major evolutionary transition in the history of the earth, comparable to the leap from unicellular to multicellular organisms. This is the thesis of a specialist article by two evolutionary biologists, which they themselves describe as speculative. However, there are already mechanisms that point to such a development. It is possible that in future humans will provide reproduction and energy for a mutually dependent system with AI, while the latter serves as an information center. However, uncontrollable developments are also possible if AI continues to develop according to Darwinian principles.

Self-reinforcing cycle

The two researchers refer to artificial intelligence (AI) as "the ability of built systems to perform tasks that would require intelligence if humans were to do them". Such technology is increasingly integrated into the infrastructure of human life, from recommendation systems to comprehensive frameworks for decision-making. The big question now is whether we are on the cusp of a change known in biology as the "Great Evolutionary Transition". According to her, humans and AI could function as "a single evolutionary individual", "similar to how the fusion of two microbes once led to the emergence of complex cells on which all multicellular life is based".

To support their thesis, Paul Rainey from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology and Michael Hochberg from the University of Montpellier point to mechanisms of interaction that they already see. For example, AI systems are already influencing how people choose their partners, how their careers progress and what access they have to education. Furthermore, there are feedback loops in which people train AI, which in turn shapes people's behavior. This is a self-reinforcing cycle. Because people are increasingly using AI to help with memory, decision-making and coordination, "life without it could become increasingly difficult".

In principle, the transformation would be "neither unusual nor necessarily threatening", Hochberg assures us. It is true that major life transitions are often associated with a loss of autonomy. At the same time, however, they led to "more complex and stable forms of organization", for example in insect societies. They describe the need to shape this transition as a greater challenge. It needs to be clarified how AI interacts with humans, how responsibilities are distributed and how they develop together. Given the enormous speed at which AI is being developed, this is difficult. It is unclear whether existing tools are capable of doing this. They have published their work in the scientific journal PNAS.

(mho)