Knowledge, Wisdom, and Artificial Intelligence
What We Know Now and What We Need to Decide
By Ruth McLatchie
The great 19th century English preacher Charles Spurgeon famously said, “Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.”
As information and, by human absorption of that information, knowledge continue to increase exponentially in the age of artificial intelligence, this saying continues to ring true. How many of us, having increased our experimentation with new technologies, have found that, while useful and informative for many tasks, artificial intelligence does not take the place of human decision-making?
The application of knowledge, for good, for evil, or for neutrality, continues to be a matter of human free will. Whatever changes come with artificial intelligence in the future, the now of deciding our ethical path with regard to artificial intelligence is here and cannot be put off. And those decisions are profoundly human.
Keep Cool and Think It Out
The Editors
Citizens Digest Staff
- Ruth McLatchie, Editor-in-Chief, Written Media
- Mike Gonzalez, Technical Editor, Writer
- Donald Wiggins, Chief Legal and Organizational Officer
- Daniel DeLuca, Chief Financial Officer
- Mark Harris, Operations Manager and Podcast Coordinator
- Elizabeth Frost, Circulation and Volunteer Manager
- Alicia Meckstroth, Contributor
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