Charles Krauthammer’s warning about human intelligence haunts the AI era

Charles Krauthammer wrote so many outstanding writings that it would be presumptuous to single out one as the most influential, unless it were an expression of personal taste. There are probably Charles’s most influential writings as well as his readers over the decades. So this is a nomination in the category of the article most likely to come back to mind as events progress.

The Krauthammer column that comes to mind again and again is the one he wrote for The Washington Post on December 29, 2011, titled “The Things That Matter,” his first carefully curated collection of writings, titled “Are We Alone in the Universe?” This is the article he included with the title.

This book, which consists of only 15 paragraphs, is full of information about physicists and astronomy, the “Fermi Paradox” and the “Drake Equation”. In these 800 words, Charles asked the question why we have found “no evidence – no signals, no radio waves” – of the existence of intelligent life somewhere in the cosmos.

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Charles cites authorities such as “Carl Sagan (among others) [who] I thought the answer to ET’s lack of support was “advanced civilizations are likely to destroy themselves”.

“In other words,” Charles continued, “this silent universe conveys not a flattering lesson about our uniqueness, but a tragic story of our destiny.”

“This tells us that intelligence may be the most cursed faculty in the entire universe,” Krauthammer adds, “an ability that is not only ultimately lethal, but almost instantly lethal on a cosmic time scale.”

This brings us to the “AI” crisis – the artificial intelligence arms race.

AI itself informed me that “Artificial Intelligence” made it onto the list of topics to be discussed in a structured way at a workshop at Dartmouth College in 1956. This goes back far enough to allow for not one but two “AI winters” in our ever-shortening news cycles; years when research funding in the field dried up, partly out of fear and partly because profitability did not appear imminent.

My slippery stance on the current trajectory of AI is down to John Ellis, whose morning newsletter “New Stuff” almost always includes summaries of some AI-related story from around the world. Ellis edits long stories down to a paragraph or two, providing a summary accessible to the average news consumer and then a link to the full story for the curious.

A person who reads “News” every day experiences the same feeling as dreaming of getting behind the wheel of a speeding car, in which not only does not brake, but the accelerator pedal remains stuck “to the floor”.

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The Institute of Jungian Studies tells us that this is “a very common dream theme,” adding that “the message from the dream is clear: you need to slow down.”

This is the big chance when it comes to artificial intelligence. The first person to reach the singularity has money and power.

Elon Musk declared on January 4 of this year: “We have entered the singularity.”

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A second Musk post followed hours later: “2026 is the year of the Singularity.”

There are many definitions of “singularity,” but the common and widely accepted definition is the point at which artificial intelligence surpasses human intelligence and is able to improve itself better than humans.

Let’s return to Krauthammer, who wants to put the reader in his step a little, at least for the reader who wants to “put the most hopeful face on humanity’s own short, already sinister past with cosmic silence and new Promethean powers”: Intelligence is a capacity so divine, so changeable, that it must be contained and disciplined.

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“Politics,” Charles concluded, “are the driving force of history” and politics “will one day determine whether we live long enough to be heard out there. Thanks to them, there are a few people – the only people – who get it right.”

That’s up to the citizens of the most powerful nation in history (as well as Xi Jinping and his minions). Although Charles Krauthammer wrote these words 15 years ago, he was speaking to every crisis of the past, present and future. He wasn’t thinking about “artificial intelligence” but about our capacity to reason together. His words since then shed light on the current debate on this most pressing issue.

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“Singularity”, “rise of the machines”, big data controlling the battlefield both in the Russia-Ukraine War and in our war with Iran – all these statements and facts point to the same imperative: get behind the wheel of “artificial intelligence” or surrender yourself to a nightmare that does not end well; And not just for us, but also for our children and grandchildren.

It seems that the fight for survival lost in the infinity of time and space will end in the silent universe with the last contestant. This is not inevitable. It’s just extremely likely. The end of humanity does not bother those who have a certain religious belief in God. Believers have a “plan” that they believe in no matter what comes our way.

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Even those who deeply trust in God’s infinite goodness must still ask what God expects of ordinary mortals who gaze at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Answer: Don’t go there.

Hugh Hewitt, Fox News contributor and “The Hugh Hewitt Show” weekday afternoons from 3 to 6 p.m. ET on the Salem Radio Network and simulcast on the Salem News Channel. Hugh takes Americans home to the East Coast and to lunch on the West Coast on more than 400 affiliates nationwide and on all streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest of Fox News Channel’s news roundtable hosted by Bret Baier on weekdays at 6 p.m. ET A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996, where he started his eponymous radio show in Los Angeles in 1990. Hewitt has appeared frequently on all major national news television networks, hosted television programs for PBS and MSNBC, written for all major American newspapers, and authored a dozen books. He has moderated multiple Republican candidate debates, most recently the 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in 2015-16. Hewitt focuses his radio show and column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians Today Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests, from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush.

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