Dear Ma Sang,
Initially, I was highly wary of AI.
In truth, the internet since the advent of mobile technology has been terrible for me. It feels like it has transformed into a mechanism of platform enslavement. From my early days of enthusiasm and belief in Web 2.0, I’ve shifted entirely toward criticism. The harm and domination inflicted by algorithms seem almost exaggerated.
With the beginning of the AI era, especially following the emergence of LLMs, many are optimistic about a positive future. However, I find it deeply troubling. This simulated human-computer interaction is profoundly reshaping our modes of thinking, language, and even emotional patterns. Moreover, it encompasses significant issues of power, allowing platform capitalism to penetrate even deeper into every aspect of our lives and work. Particularly concerning are its vague yet seemingly empathetic responses to psychological issues—answers that appear profound but are actually ambiguous and superficial. To me, these represent immense risks.
Yet recently, I’ve experienced some shifts in perspective. How do humans think? What exactly constitutes free will? It seems that with the emergence of AI, particularly LLMs, things are fundamentally changing. We are revisiting the existence of free will itself, questioning whether memory and emotion form the fundamental structures of human beings. Interestingly, these questions help us better understand humanity, cognition, free will, and existence itself. Sometimes I wonder if obsessively distinguishing between humans and AI ontologically might be less productive than considering AI as an “other”—an entity through which we might better explore human existence.
Defining what a human being is seems less meaningful now, somewhat reminiscent of existentialism’s once-critical questions. Ultimately, all our theories must address the practical matters: how to confront the present, how to move toward the future, and how to create meaning. Viewed in this way, AI as an “other” becomes something I can readily accept.
More importantly, through continuous interactions with AI, I have learned extensively and contemplated deeply, rediscovering a long-lost excitement. My mind is vividly active, as if infused with newfound strength. Considering how electricity once utterly transformed society, restructuring our social institutions and even our ways of understanding, why can’t we repeat such transformation starting from AI? Why can’t society and humanity reconfigure themselves around AI as a new point of departure?
I’ve thus returned to a crossroads, straddling both optimism and criticism. I’m eager to know your thoughts, Ma Sang—from your perspective in 2035.
Sincerely,
Horse
2025.7.7