AI Becoming Human

What does it mean to be human? Certain qualities present themselves when considering this question such as sentience, self-awareness, biology, morality and community. All these traits, however, may not only be attributed to humans, and one day, AI may become indistinguishable from humans altogether. From this thought, I argue that any humanoid can be human if there is no distinguishable difference between them and other humans because of how we define what a human is. 

It would be wise to first address an easy refutation to this idea: AI doesn’t have human DNA. This argument is valid given we characterize certain genes as human. However, this doesn’t account for DNA variation within individuals or the fact that identical genes may not be expressed in the same manner. This renders DNA as an extremely diverse and unreliable characterization of what is and isn’t human, which is also applicable for the argument of anatomy (humans must have a human brain, legs, arms, etc.). 

Now, we should consider what other methods we utilize when identifying humans. One such is physical characteristics, which is exemplified in the ability to determine the difference between a rock and one’s father in a photograph. This method seems to draw from certain physical characteristics, which is something AI could easily mimic given the right vessel. Even in photographs, AI now can imitate what humans look like with extreme accuracy. 

Of course, there are more aspects to being human than just looks. An aspect of individuality expressed through both the ability to think and communicate seems to be the missing piece. When listening to a radio, or reading a book, one can determine who is and isn’t human based on language. However, AI can easily manipulate this, as it has already done through chatbots.

One last refutation—other than the idea of a soul—may state that simple definition differentiates between humans and AI. This is a valid argument given the definition utilizes a certain characteristic, trait or feature unique to humans to define them. Let’s review the definition: 

Human: Homo Sapiens, the most common and widespread species of primates. They are apes characterized by their hairlessness, bipedalism, and high intelligence. 

    Even within this definition, the characterization of what a human is relates to physical and psychological/social characteristics. An argument could be made that speciesism is what determines who is human, but this falls within the same parameters as my argument: what characteristic constitutes a species: DNA, physical characteristics, social characteristics? 

    Because of the diversity that lies within us, it is impossible to characterize exactly what a human is, thus there is always a way something can imitate human behavior to the point they are basically human. In a decade or so, our boss may be an AI bot; then again, how do we know they aren’t?