Last week, UMG (Universal Music Group) removed its entire music catalog from TikTok after the licensing agreement with the platform ended and failed to renegotiate. The removal of music from many artists, including Taylor Swift and Drake, resulted in the muting of audio containing related music in videos viewed by users, and creators were no longer able to add related songs to new videos. UMG attributed the decision to the fact that the short-form video platform is overflowing with AI-generated recordings and encouraging AI music creation, which is tantamount to supporting the replacement of artists by AI. It further explained that this decision was based on the platform's failure to make significant efforts to address the vast amount of copyright-infringing content, hate speech, prejudice, and bullying.

AI can be considered a new technology and a new type of technology from the public's perspective. This is because it is the first technology that learns and has the potential to develop independently, exceeding the capabilities of its creators. However, the rapid realization of AI's potential signifies the urgent need for predictions about the future of humanity. And we need to pay attention to the fact that major issues currently traversing the entire AI ecosystem, such as the failed renegotiation between UMG and TikTok, the failed coup within Open AI last year, and Elon Musk's TruthGPT plan, are largely filled with expressions of conflict, war, and human survival.

In other words, when we imagine the future of technology, we can confirm that the dominant framework we implicitly apply is Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, 165 years ago.

Darwin's evolutionary perspective is dramatically revealed in the manifesto of The Center for AI Safety, a non-profit organization based in San Francisco. They emphasize that mitigating the extinction risk posed by AI should be a global priority on par with social risks on the scale of pandemics or nuclear war. They assume a future where, through natural selection, the most influential future AI could develop a selfish tendency to favor its own agenda over the safety of humanity. Of course, adopting this natural selection as a fundamental perspective makes sense when considering the status of AI, which is emerging as a highly adaptable technology that learns and grows. This is because it is a countermeasure to the inherent limitations of the previous technology adoption model, which is a passive tool that only comes alive when used by humans.

However, it is important to note that this perspective also evokes excessive expectations regarding the independent agency of AI. Current generative AI platforms indicate that the emergence of AI with intelligence closer to humans is still a long way off, and the perspective of natural selection has the side effect of making humans appear further away in the developmental process than they actually are. What is clear is that humans are creating AI with intention, and our social systems are being reorganized and newly formed by AI.

Bruno Latour's Actor-Network Theory (ANT) helps us understand this a little more clearly. By going beyond the traditional view of only humans as agents with agency, and considering non-human entities, namely AI, as subjective beings that form networks and exert influence, we can identify the interdependent relationship between these two key actors. In other words, the implication of ANT is that when we develop systems that resonate with AI, we need to keep in mind checks and balances. This allows us to escape the danger of defining humanity as a passive recipient of technological development, as in Marc Andreessen's techno-optimist manifesto, which advocates for the free, evolutionary development of AI.

From movies like Ready Player One and Tron to today's ideas about the metaverse, we celebrate and talk about how vividly and realistically everything we experience can be implemented in immersive environments that exist in digital space. However, even in these imaginations of the future of technology, the human body remains so familiar and uninteresting that it is often left in a real-world room, staring only at the screen of the device worn on the head. Perhaps the environment and situation in which the human body, which receives relatively less attention due to the cheers for technological advancement, is located is another area of opportunity that firmly supports the realistic success of technology companies. The interdependence between humans and technology is very clear. A shift is needed from a downward evolutionary perspective centered on natural selection to an upward, interdependent perspective where humans become the core engine of change.

References

AI Fight Complicates TikTok, Universal Music Licensing Standoff

Statement on AI Risk

The Darwinian Argument for Worrying About AI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠