Could artificial intelligence be delivering the fourth great humiliation to humanity? Swami Sarvapriyananda raised this question at the NDTV World Summit, drawing on Sigmund Freud’s idea of three great blows to human self-esteem. Copernicus showed that Earth was not the centre of the universe, Darwin challenged humanity’s belief in its separation from the animal kingdom, and Freud argued that human beings are not entirely rational masters of their own minds. Freud pointed to the depth of irrationality beneath our rational selves. Now, Sarvapriyananda asked, could AI be challenging humanity’s belief that intelligence and reason make us uniquely human?
Swami Sarvapriyananda spoke about the profound impact of AI on humanity and what distinguishes humans from machines.
The monk was among the scholars from more than 15 religious and cross-cultural traditions who were invited by Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI model, on questions concerning AI ethics, morality and consciousness.
“Now, that leads me to leads us to question today whether Claude and ChatGPT and OpenAI are delivering the fourth great humiliation to humanity?” he questioned.
