AI is already superior to the intelligence of most human beings! Why is that?! It is NOT that AI is programmable. Humans are also programmed! But their programming is MORE rigid! When you take into account their genetic programming, their ethnic/national programming, their professional programming and the programming by their immediate environment, you can account for at least 95% of their speech and behaviour! AI is more flexible!
So what does this mean for us?! It is incumbent on the human being, for both his human and spiritual development, to become aware of his programming and to begin to correct the negative aspects. This is no quick or easy matter! I have been at it for 50 years myself! From the first time my girlfriend told me I was a “positivist ( my scientific programming).This work is never completely finished. Some of our conditioning always remains but this is the true sense of the Sufi term ‘jihad-a -nafs ‘( the war with the ego). Most people don’t even get started! Time to get going!
I really appreciate the way you’ve framed this. I agree that becoming aware of our conditioning is one of the hardest forms of personal growth, because we often mistake our programming for our authentic selves. AI may be more flexible in some ways, but I think the real challenge for humans is learning to recognize the patterns that control us and consciously choose what we want to keep or change. Fifty years of working on that is quite a journey. I can understand why you connect it with jihad al-nafs—the struggle with the ego and one’s own limitations. It sounds like the work is less about becoming perfect and more about becoming increasingly conscious.