Let’s not even talk about the invention of aeroplane, the first time I drove a car with an automatic transmission, I imagined what manual car drivers have to suffer. Then I remembered how our forebears walked several miles on bare legs to commute from one place to the other. That is what civilisation does.
From the stone age to modern civilisation, life has never been a rollercoaster but human beings have always devised means to make life easier and better. Different inventions have helped mankind to evolve from one stage to another. God gave man brain, from which he developed Human Intelligence to keep innovating to add value to his existence.
The internet is one of the greatest inventions of all ages. A world without the internet in modern day setting is hard to imagine. The internet has a solution to almost every problem that has a name. Humanity was having a good bargain of the deal until human beings began to outsource thinking to machines while the brain rests. Only that the brain functions best when it’s put to use consistently.
Human intelligence has many subsets with each having its unique contribution to social behaviour. Intelligence Quotient is the ability to think and reason relative to people of your age. The most talked about in recent history is Emotional Intelligence, because it not only helps you to manage your own feelings, it also helps you to understand that how you make others feel is as important.
While others can be acquired as skills or picked in formal settings, every human being is born with Native Intelligence, the natural ability to think and solve problems without formal teachings. If you call it Natural Intelligence, you won’t be wrong. Then comes Artificial Intelligence (AI), the brainchild of Human Intelligence, with the potential capability to solve all problems under the sun. With AI, I dare say that Human Intelligence is on trial.
The world is evolving so rapidly, it would appear Human Intelligence cannot cope with the speed required of the jet age. Nature is giving way to make-believe and almost every human endeavour is programmed for automation. It is either you are in or get ready to be out because this future that has arrived is impatient with stereotypes.
The modern age doesn’t like stress. Why worry when the job can be done by machine? This age thinks fast, but sometimes, without depth. Artificial intelligence guarantees speed, even with a good measure of accuracy, but the discretion with human face is only guaranteed by human intelligence. As I write this, AI is offering to rewrite for me in impeccable machine language. AI is the new normal.
With the rise and rise of Artificial Intelligence, it’s either you are smart or you will be outsmarted. With smart phone, smart car, smart television, smart house and every other smarts, what remains of humanity is for today’s smart kids to grow fully to smart adults before the world becomes fully automated. Only that Artificial Intelligence has no feelings, neither does it know compassion.
Pope Leo XIV has a word for humanity – “The world does not need an artificial intelligence that diminishes humanity. Rather it needs human intelligence enlightened by wisdom, political authority guided by conscience, and technological innovation directed by charity. Only then will artificial intelligence become not a rival to humanity but a servant of the common good.”
Humanity is on trial. Only human beings can defend humanity.
©️ Akin Oluwadare Jnr.
24 August 2026
