Are we standing at the threshold of a new golden age, or drifting towards a threatening, uncontrollable era? The unchecked expansion of AI and humanity’s vulnerability to manipulation were at the centre of the latest episode of the Friderikusz Podcast, featuring Balázs Szegedy, research professor at Rényi Institute.
In a wide-ranging, philosophical conversation with Sándor Friderikusz, Balázs Szegedy, head of the Artificial Intelligence Research Department at Rényi Institute and a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, discussed how rapidly advancing AI could transform civilisation and what opportunities and risks this transformation may bring.
Szegedy stressed that AI is the first human invention capable of creating new inventions itself and increasingly competing with human intellectual abilities. Its development is advancing so rapidly that society has little time to adapt: while AI was solving university-level competition tasks only months ago, it is now beginning to tackle major research problems traditionally addressed by senior researchers.
The conversation explored both the risks and the possibilities. AI can simulate aspects of human thinking and may eventually surpass human intelligence. It could make personalised applications accessible to develop by people without programming skills, while also becoming deeply embedded in finance, media and political communication, where its ability to interact with individuals could make highly personalised persuasion possible.
Szegedy also warned that people may gradually withdraw from humanity’s shared intellectual space and become overly dependent on machines if AI outperforms humans in everything from writing poetry to scientific research and decision-making. At the same time, he sees the possibility of AI contributing to a more robust and less vulnerable democratic society, supporting collective decision-making.
He expects AI to trigger a profound philosophical revolution as well. Questions such as what consciousness and existence mean may once again become central, as AI forces humanity to rethink both the answers and the ways in which we approach such fundamental questions.
The transformation is already being felt in mathematics. AI has become a digital research assistant, and researchers who do not use it risk falling behind. According to Szegedy, the rapid development of AI means that the entire ecosystem of mathematical research, mathematical thinking and mathematical education may need to be fundamentally rethought.
The full conversation can be listened to HERE (switch on English subtitles).
Rényi Institute will address this topic in an “devil and angel”-type discussion on September 25 at 5:30 p.m. in the Main Hall. Participants: András Stipsicz, Director General, and Tamás Titkos, Scientific Secretary. We have written about the programme in detail HERE.