The Outpost is a comprehensive collection of curated artificial intelligence software tools that cater to the needs of small business owners, bloggers, artists, musicians, entrepreneurs, marketers, writers, and researchers.
© 2025 TheOutpost.AI All rights reserved
Curated by THEOUTPOST
On Wed, 20 Nov, 12:11 AM UTC
3 Sources
[1]
Smaller brains? Fewer friends? An evolutionary biologist asks how AI will change humanity's future
UNSW Sydney provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU. What will humans be like generations from now in a world transformed by artificial intelligence (AI)? Plenty of thinkers have applied themselves to questions like this, considering how AI will alter lives - often for better, sometimes for worse. They have conjured dramatic scenarios, like AI-driven extinction of humans (and many other species), or our assimilation into human-AI cyborgs. The predictions are generally grim, pitting the fate of all humans against a unitary (or unified) AI opponent. What if the AI future doesn't stretch to these sci-fi dystopias? For an evolutionary biologist, seeing AI technologies diversify into all manner of applications looks a lot like the proliferation of microbes, plants and animals in an ecological landscape. Which led me to ask: how might human evolution be altered by interactions with a world of rich AI diversity? In a paper just published in The Quarterly Review of Biology, I considered the many ways AI might alter physical, biological and social environments, and how that might influence natural selection. Predicting evolution is a mug's game Natural selection - the mechanism behind evolution - is an inevitable consequence of genetic differences in reproduction among individuals. Those differences arise as a result of interactions with physical features of the environment (like minimum temperatures), with other species (like predators or parasites) and with other members of the same species (like mates, allies or hostile outsiders). When Asian gray wolves started hanging around humans around 30,000 years ago, the more reactive wolves were chased away or killed. This whittled away genes for skittishness and aggression, beginning the process of dog domestication. The inadvertent selection that turned wolves into dogs turns out to be instructive in how AI might inadvertently shape the evolution of human brains and behaviour. "Trying to predict the future is a mug's game," said English author Douglas Adams. This is especially true of technologies like AI. But predicting evolution is, if anything, even more precarious. Combining the two involves considerable speculation, and the very strong possibility of being wrong. At the risk of being wrong, my intention is to start a conversation about how human evolution, and traits that we most value in one another, might be altered by AI. Mutual or parasitic? It might be informative to think of the AI-human relationship as a mutualism - two species each providing the other with something they need. Computers are beasts of computational burden that benefit their human users. Those benefits will grow with developments in AI. There is already evidence that cultural sharing of knowledge and writing lightened the load on individuals to remember everything. As a result, human brains have shrunk over recent millennia. Perhaps AI, online searchable knowledge and social media posts that "remember" who-did-what-to-whom will carry more of our memory burden. If so, perhaps human brains will evolve to become even smaller, with less stand-alone memory. Don't panic. The benefits of smaller brains include safer births for both mother and newborn. And with computers and AI holding ever-growing records and stores of knowledge, humanity will still be able to do remarkable intelligence-driven things... as long as they can access the AI. However, mutualists can take another path. They can evolve into harmful parasites - organisms that live at the expense of another organism, their host. You could think of social media platforms as parasitic. They started out providing useful ways to stay connected (mutualism) but so captured our attention that many users no longer have the time they need for human-human social interactions and sleep (parasitism). If AI learns to capture user attention ever more effectively, stoking anger and fomenting social comparison, the consequences for who lives, dies and reproduces will affect evolution. In the best of a series of bleak scenarios, the ability to resist social media or remain unmoved by rage-bait might evolve to be stronger. Intimacy with computers Important as other species were to human evolution, interactions with other humans were even more formative. Now AIs are sliding into our social lives. The growth of "artificial intimacy" - technologies that emulate our social behaviours like making friends and forming intimate relationships - is among the most astounding areas of AI progress. Humans haven't evolved a social capacity for dealing with computers. So, we apply our "tools" for dealing with other humans to machines. Especially when those machines converse with us via text, voice or video. In our interactions with people, we keep an eye on the possibility the other person is not being genuine. An AI "virtual friend" doesn't have feelings, but users treat them as if they do. Artificial intimacy could make us more wary of interactions over phones or screens. Or perhaps our descendants will feel less lonely without human company and humans will become more solitary creatures. The question is not trivial Speculating about genetic evolution might seem trivial compared with AI's direct effects on individual lives. Brilliant AI researchers and writers are already focused on the way AI will improve or diminish the lives of people who are alive right now. It's not as immediate a concern, then, to worry about distant gene changes AI might influence many generations from now. But it certainly bears thinking about. The pioneering ecologist Robert MacArthur said "there are worse things for a scientist than to be wrong. One is to be trivial". Evolutionary changes over many generations could well change or even diminish some of the human traits we cherish most, including friendship, intimacy, communication, trust and intelligence, because these are the traits AI engages most profoundly. In a non-trivial way, that could alter what it means to be human.
[2]
How AI Could Shape Human Evolution in Subtle Yet Profound Ways - Neuroscience News
Summary: Artificial intelligence is becoming a pivotal force in human lives, prompting questions about its evolutionary effects. A new study explores how AI may influence human evolution through everyday interactions, likening human-AI dynamics to ecological relationships such as predation or competition. Potential evolutionary shifts include changes in brain size, attention spans, personality traits, and social behaviors, particularly through AI's impact on relationships and decision-making. While the immediate cultural and psychological effects are significant, the study predicts gradual genetic impacts, though forecasting such evolution remains highly uncertain. This nuanced exploration underscores the profound yet unpredictable role AI could play in shaping humanity's future. As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more common and sophisticated, its effects on human lives and societies raises new questions. A new paper published in The Quarterly Review of Biology posits how these new technologies might affect human evolution. In "How Might Artificial Intelligence Influence Human Evolution?" author Rob Brooks considers the inevitable but incremental evolutionary consequences of AI's everyday use and human-AI interactions -- without "dramatic but perhaps unlikely events, including possibilities of human annihilation, assimilation, or enslavement." In the paper, Brooks considers ("often with considerable speculation") some possible forms of human-AI interaction and the evolutionary implications of such interactions via natural selection, including forms of selection that resemble the inadvertent and deliberate selection that occurred when humans domesticated crops, livestock, and companion animals. He argues that technologies that deploy AI interact with humans and affect their lives in ways that can be understood by considering the kinds of biotic relationships between individuals of different species such as predators and prey, hosts and parasites, and biological competitors. "The ways such interspecies interactions have shaped animal evolution, including human evolution, can provide some basis for predicting how AI might influence human evolution in the future," he notes. Human-AI interactions can resemble human-human social interactions, with computers, and especially AI-driven technologies, becoming increasingly important social actors. It is in these interactions that much of the potential for AI to influence human evolution lies. Through that lens, Brooks' review examines AI's possible effects on matchmaking (such as dating apps), intimacy, virtual friendships, and the criminal justice system. He extracts several predictions, including the acceleration of recent evolutionary trends toward smaller brains, selection on attention spans, personality types, and mood-disorder susceptibilities. He also hypothesizes changes in intimacy-building and mating competition due to AI applications may influence the evolution of social behavior. Brooks concludes that the cumulative effects of human-AI interactions on human differential reproduction and, thereby, gene frequencies and patterns of inheritance, are likely to be small relative to the immediate effects of those interactions on individual lives, well-being and happiness, and the effects on cultural evolution, keeping in mind that predicting how AI might change humanity is difficult and prone to error. "The direction and rate of evolution can be hard to predict even for organisms kept under controlled conditions," he writes. "Far more so the complexities of predicting selection and resulting evolution of humans in a fast-moving AI-rich world." How Might Artificial Intelligence Influence Human Evolution? As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more common and sophisticated, its effects on human lives and societies are attracting considerable attention. The question of how these new technologies might affect human evolution remains far less often asked, and most attempts focus on dramatic but perhaps unlikely events, including possibilities of human annihilation, assimilation, or enslavement. This article considers instead the inevitable but incremental evolutionary consequences of AI's everyday use and human-AI interactions. I consider some possible forms of human-AI interaction, and the evolutionary implications of such interactions via natural selection, including forms of selection that resemble the inadvertent and deliberate selection that occur during domestication. The direction and rate of evolution can be hard to predict even for organisms kept under controlled conditions. Far more so the complexities of predicting selection and resulting evolution of humans in a fast-moving AI-rich world. Nonetheless, I extract several predictions, including the acceleration of recent trends toward smaller brains, selection on attention spans, personality types, and mood-disorder susceptibilities. Further, changes in intimacy-building and mating competition due to AI applications that act as friends and intimates are likely already affecting mating success and may influence the evolution of social behavior.
[3]
Human evolution in an AI world: Predicting changes in brain size, attention and social behaviors
As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more common and sophisticated, its effects on human lives and societies raises new questions. A new paper published in The Quarterly Review of Biology posits how these new technologies might affect human evolution. In "How Might Artificial Intelligence Influence Human Evolution?" author Rob Brooks considers the inevitable but incremental evolutionary consequences of AI's everyday use and human-AI interactions -- without "dramatic but perhaps unlikely events, including possibilities of human annihilation, assimilation, or enslavement." In the paper, Brooks considers ("often with considerable speculation") some possible forms of human-AI interaction and the evolutionary implications of such interactions via natural selection, including forms of selection that resemble the inadvertent and deliberate selection that occurred when humans domesticated crops, livestock, and companion animals. He argues that technologies that deploy AI interact with humans and affect their lives in ways that can be understood by considering the kinds of biotic relationships between individuals of different species such as predators and prey, hosts and parasites, and biological competitors. "The ways such interspecies interactions have shaped animal evolution, including human evolution, can provide some basis for predicting how AI might influence human evolution in the future," he notes. Human-AI interactions can resemble human-human social interactions, with computers, and especially AI-driven technologies, becoming increasingly important social actors. It is in these interactions that much of the potential for AI to influence human evolution lies. Through that lens, Brooks' review examines AI's possible effects on matchmaking (such as dating apps), intimacy, virtual friendships, and the criminal justice system. He extracts several predictions, including the acceleration of recent evolutionary trends toward smaller brains, selection on attention spans, personality types, and mood-disorder susceptibilities. He also hypothesizes changes in intimacy-building and mating competition due to AI applications may influence the evolution of social behavior. Brooks concludes that the cumulative effects of human-AI interactions on human differential reproduction and, thereby, gene frequencies and patterns of inheritance, are likely to be small relative to the immediate effects of those interactions on individual lives, well-being and happiness, and the effects on cultural evolution, keeping in mind that predicting how AI might change humanity is difficult and prone to error. "The direction and rate of evolution can be hard to predict even for organisms kept under controlled conditions," he writes. "Far more so the complexities of predicting selection and resulting evolution of humans in a fast-moving AI-rich world."
Share
Share
Copy Link
A new study explores how artificial intelligence might influence human evolution through everyday interactions, predicting changes in brain size, attention spans, and social behaviors.
A groundbreaking study published in The Quarterly Review of Biology explores the potential long-term effects of artificial intelligence (AI) on human evolution. Authored by Rob Brooks, the paper titled "How Might Artificial Intelligence Influence Human Evolution?" delves into the incremental evolutionary consequences of everyday AI use and human-AI interactions 1.
Brooks, an evolutionary biologist, proposes several intriguing predictions:
Smaller Brains: As AI and computers take on more memory and computational tasks, human brains might evolve to become smaller. This trend could potentially lead to safer births for both mothers and newborns 1.
Altered Attention Spans: The study suggests that AI could influence the evolution of human attention spans, possibly as a result of increased interaction with AI-driven technologies 2.
Changes in Personality Types: Brooks hypothesizes that certain personality traits might be selected for or against in an AI-rich environment 3.
Mood Disorder Susceptibilities: The paper speculates on potential changes in susceptibility to mood disorders as humans adapt to AI-integrated societies 2.
The study examines how AI might affect human social behavior and relationships:
Artificial Intimacy: Brooks discusses the growth of "artificial intimacy" technologies that emulate human social behaviors. This could potentially lead to changes in how humans form and maintain relationships 1.
Mating and Reproduction: AI applications in matchmaking and dating could influence mating success and, consequently, the evolution of social behavior 3.
Virtual Friendships: The paper explores how AI-driven virtual friendships might impact human social interactions and potentially lead to more solitary human behavior 1.
Brooks draws parallels between human-AI interactions and ecological relationships:
Mutualism vs. Parasitism: The author suggests that the AI-human relationship could be viewed as a mutualism, where both parties benefit. However, he warns that this could potentially evolve into a parasitic relationship, similar to how some social media platforms have become attention-capturing entities 1.
Interspecies Interactions: The study argues that AI technologies interact with humans in ways similar to interspecies relationships, such as predator-prey or host-parasite dynamics 3.
While the paper presents fascinating possibilities, Brooks acknowledges the inherent difficulties in predicting evolutionary outcomes, especially in a rapidly changing, AI-rich world. He emphasizes that the immediate cultural and psychological effects of AI are likely to be more significant than its genetic impacts in the short term 2.
Reference
[1]
[2]
As artificial intelligence continues to evolve at an unprecedented pace, experts debate its potential to revolutionize industries while others warn of the approaching technological singularity. The manifestation of unusual AI behaviors raises concerns about the widespread adoption of this largely misunderstood technology.
2 Sources
2 Sources
As artificial intelligence rapidly advances, experts and policymakers grapple with potential risks and benefits. The debate centers on how to regulate AI development while fostering innovation.
2 Sources
2 Sources
As AI becomes increasingly integrated into daily life and work, concerns arise about its impact on human cognitive abilities, particularly critical thinking skills.
4 Sources
4 Sources
Researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory develop a new AI algorithm inspired by genomic compression, potentially revolutionizing AI efficiency and explaining innate abilities in animals.
3 Sources
3 Sources
As AI becomes more integrated into our lives, researchers warn that attributing human qualities to AI could diminish our own human essence, raising ethical concerns about emotional exploitation and the commodification of empathy.
3 Sources
3 Sources