Alexandr Wang is building personal superintelligence, 'second brain' that will even think for you. Should you be scared?

Meta's Chief AI Officer, Alexandr Wang, talked about "personal superintelligence" at the AI Impact Summit held in Delhi. He stated that the company is working to build this AI power, which will be like a trusted digital partner in people's daily lives. Wang said India is "one of the few countries where we could scale personal superintelligence very fast." He is the founder and CEO of Scale AI and the youngest self-made billionaire". What is "personal superintelligence" that he talked about? It is artificial intelligence, but way more advanced than your regular AI agents like ChatGPT and Gemini. It is like a digital "second brain" that even does the thinking on your behalf and then implements the actions as well. You will simply be informed about them after everything is done. "Personal superintelligence" is different from ChatGPT and other such tools in the sense that, while in the latter you need to ask a question to get an answer, the former is an autonomous partner who knows so much about you that it can do tasks even before you ask it to.

Personal superintelligence will hack into all your information

In order to become your better half, PSI needs a ton of data on you. It knows your history, your style of work, your relationships, and your goals. It knows how you like a certain email or how much you like spending on a vacation. It will act before you even see the problem and bring it to your attention to fix it before it becomes an issue. PSI suggests solutions or handles the logistics automatically. It interlinks various facets of your life and doesn't compartmentalise them. It knows how your finances, health data, your professional projects, and hobbies are interlinked. It is proactive and not reactive.

Also Read: Alexandr Wang’s net worth: The rise of 29-year-old AI billionaire

Personal superintelligence can create a major crisis for humanity

For example, if you want to book a holiday, PSI will scan through your pattern to know your budget and the dates you are available. It would scour destinations and flights for you and even make the booking, and only inform you after it is all done. Sounds pretty cool, right? Getting all the work done without having to spend any time doing it. However, "personal superintelligence" comes with a load of cons. Firstly, since it is basically living your life for you, before presenting you with a better version, it knows too much about you. It breaches privacy and exposes your data. The other major problem is that humans will stop evolving and growing. It creates a "feedback loop" risk since AI shows you only what it wants you to. The person does not get to look at the other options and what's new. Since there is a lack of information, it limits your personal growth.

Alexandr Wang and OpenAI’s Sam Altman have pegged "personal superintelligence" as the next big thing. However, AI is already raising concerns about human life, and with someone else taking over even the thinking part for you, would we still be able to even call ourselves humans?