A Matter of Choice: Do we really not need to learn anymore? - A review of UNDP’s Human Development Report

Since 2022, I mean while ChatGPT became a public figure, AI has dropped in the middle of our lives. Humanity spilt in half as always, for the first half AI is a miracle, the second half thinks AI is another trouble. Which side are you on? Will we be taken over by artificial intelligence or will our artificial intelligence slaves give us heaven on earth? Where is gender equality, environmental issues and the new society that will be formed, in short, the devil in this? (If you are interested in Turkish Rock music, I invite you to listen to Pentagram - Şeytan Bunun Neresinde before continuing.)

Welcome to Code Beyond the Earth! I'm Ece, the voice behind Code Beyond the Earth. Today we will continue with relatively soft topic. Where will this AI things go, will it take our job? What will happen after AI revolution, will the problem’s of humanity solve: such as gender equality and climate justice? Or will our problems deepen and deepen and we will reach the dead end?

Such a lovely way to start talk about the future! Nowadays everyone is talking about AI. As a computer scientist, sometimes I lost the edge of the science fiction and the real science. While I speaking about AI, my approach generally positive. I still don’t sure about the capabilities of the artificial general intelligence. Actually I am not sure about what should we expect from AGI. We have higher expectations from AGI, maybe it is like having a child. Humanity have an average intelligence for example human can draw without comparing themselves with masters’ such as Picasso, Dali, Rembrandt but if AI want to draw, it should perform like an genius otherwise it’s unfortunately a piece of garbage.

I am thinking about my cloud image generation project. It was definitely from scratch. I tried different neural networks, like a puzzle. Every time my model generate a new cloud image, I feel like a proud mother, even most of the images are not like the perfect clouds that I noticed in the real world. That’s why I think the harshest critics are those who haven't gotten their hands dirty with artificial intelligence, while we, who are humbly involved in this business, are like parents trying to protect our children from this cruel world.

AI became more powerful and intelligent day by day. What about humanity? There's something I've been feeling for the last few months, both in my personal life and in the world, that I'm / we are standing on the edge of possibility. While I was thinking like that as a consequence I saw the Human Development Report of UNDP. The title was calling me; “A Matter Of Choice: People and Possibilities in the Age of AI”. Before starting to talk about report I want to give you some insights about Human Development Index.

For next title, I will work with ChatGPT, mostly he is act like my second brain, maybe more than that :) Also do you notice how gender roles effected my word choices, I am constantly thinking about pronounce selection in the beginning of this blog post but while I talk about my own GPT, I proudly choose male pronounce, what a lovely feminist!

Human Development Index: History and Definition

Let’s start with a little bit of history. Measuring things always a human characteristic. We love measure things!

“Grown-ups like numbers. When you tell them about a new friend, they never ask questions about what really matters. They never ask: ‘What does his voice sound like?’ ‘What games does he like best?’ ‘Does he collect butterflies?’ They ask: ‘How old is he?’ ‘How many brothers does he have?’ ‘How much does he weigh?’ ‘How much money does he have?’ Only then do they think they know him. If you tell grown-ups, ‘I saw a beautiful red brick house, with geraniums at the windows and doves at the roof…,’ they won’t be able to imagine such a house. You have to tell them, ‘I saw a house worth a thousand francs.’ Then they exclaim, ‘What a pretty house!”

―Antoine de Saint-Exupéry,The Little Prince

Measuring the development of humanity trend started with GDP which is Gross Domestic Product based measurements. GDP is the total monetary value of all goods and services produced within a country’s borders over a specific period—usually a year or quarter. It’s one of the most commonly used indicators to measure the size and health of a country’s economy. Why is GDP important? Because it measures economic performance and it is a way to compare countries and guiding policy decisions. However; it has limitations, such as with GDP you can not measure inequalities, poverty, environmental damage, health, education, well-being, even unpaid work.

So humanity needs more efficient way to measure development. And 1990, HDI born. First Human Development Report published by UNDP. HDI is a summary measure created by the United Nations to assess and compare the overall development and well-being of people in different countries. It goes beyond just economic measures like GDP, aiming to reflect the real-life capabilities of individuals. In 1990, the original components of HDI are life expectancy (health), literacy and school enrollment (education) and GDP per capita (income).

In the following years calculation methods and indices are changed;

• In 2010:

  • method overhaul changed, instead of arithmetic mean, geometric mean started to use in calculation to reduce substitution effects,

  • literacy and enrollment component replaced by mean years of schooling and expected years,

  • GDP replaced by GNI per capita for more accurate national income distribution.

• Post-2010, more indices added. UNDP introduced:

  • IHDI: Inequality-adjusted HDI

  • GDI: Gender Development Index

  • GEM/GII: Gender Empowerment/Equality

  • Planetary pressures-adjusted HDI (PHDI) in 2020

2025 - A Matter Of Choice

After the brief introduction, now we can talk about this year’s report. Unsurprisingly, this year’s focus is human development under the shadow of AI development. Since COVID-19 pandemic HDI showing a stable trend instead of an increasing trend which is observed before the pandemic. Countries are still suffering the effects of pandemic unfortunately.

Despite this picture, artificial intelligence continues to develop. UNDP explain this situation with these sentences: “It is time to break the spell of technological inevitability: no path forward is about technology in isolation but rather how it is deployed—by whom, with whom, for whom—­ and with what kind of accountability.”

AI is evolving unstoppably. But what about society? Do we ready to shift our life to a new AI-powered life? UNDP define this question more poetically! “Are we on the verge of an AI-powered renaissance—or sleepwalking into a future ruled by inequality and eroded freedoms?” After this question, I remembered something I read many years ago. Escape From Freedom, Erich Fromm.

“The more the drive toward life is thwarted, the more people become afraid of freedom, and the more they try to escape from it. Freedom gives the individual the power to realize himself, but it also implies responsibility, insecurity, and doubt.”

We are edge of the decisions, to save our world, to build more equal society. AI can help us as a companion, as I always mentioned AI can intelligent as much as the developer who built it and the data -the society- it learned from. Humanity have to make a decision, by this decision we can build a new bright future or we can destroy all we have.

Many sociologist, mostly founder fathers but many of them, even the pessimist ones, believes that the humanity always go forward. There is a bright future ahead us. UNDP is not different. They say we need to choose the right way, open source AI development, respect the environment, reducing gender and opportunity gaps between people and countries. What will be the answer of humanity to this call, we will see it together!

My Point of View: The Things Made Me Uncomfortable

It was 2006, if I didn’t wrong, Google Translate launched. Since 2006, the real dream has been to eliminate the need for language learning. As a kid, a teenager and an adult; I always hate this idea and don’t know why. Recently I was talking with one of my friend and we were talking about learning a new language. In Turkish, we say I know a language enough to explain my problem. We were mocking up this sentence and I said that what is my problem, it is absolutely not only being hungry or tired. I think people should have problems such as what did we to the environment, why are we still protesting same shit, why do we still not know about most of the female sicknesses. Also we should talk about our culture’s stories, our happiness and sadness. That is my problem and explaining my problem in another language means that to learn about culture, myself and mostly the world.

Why am I talking about that? AI is successful in the things we are having hard times: doing math, learning languages, solving rational problems, writing complex algorithms… Yes, AI, LLMs, ChatGPT is a really good companion to me, sometimes my second brain. But as a human, I am not welcome the idea of AI can do everything you just learn prompt engineering! As a history reader, I know humanity develop because of our curiosity, challenges, the desire of change. But now AI pr’s shows us a new world that we don’t need to learn. You can just continue your doomscrolling, AI will learn foreign languages instead of you! You don’t need to worry about what is happening around you, AI can find you suitable reaction by using your precious data! Do you want to learn programming, why do you need AI can write codes instead of you!

So, I am mostly a supporter of AI. But I am trying to say, AI should help us to increase our capacities and skills. We need to work with AI for a better world. Business as usual is not what we need or what we deserve. Relying entirely on AI will be a lost for humanity. The edge of possibilities we can build a better life with tech!

From my world to yours, Ece 🌍✨