AI, Chat GPT, and Technology a Buddhist Perspective

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche on AI and how it will force us to think about Vidya.
Watch entire interview at www.dharmachats.com

[@jessesoto6150]

Thank you, Rinpoche! I remember his talks on the 12-links of D.O. and how he emphasized the "purpose of life" idea in is discourse. His explanation was a mind opener in understanding the root of beings and how the concept of life comes about. The delusions the five skandas obscure us with. This idea of "purpose" is that very illusion, to continue to grasp, crave and the faulty notion of "yearning for" is the very byproduct of greed, anger, ignorance that propels the mind-stream further into the cyclic cycle of samsara. 🙏🙏🙏

[@latitudes1000]

I so agree with him finally we should be able to recognize vidya .

[@maudie6095]

Wow. The true thing ruining our life is the notion of ‘purpose of life’. What a view!!

[@karun293]

Rinpoche is clearly indicating in subtle tones how Our civilization values Ai and other modern advances in technology over True wisdom which Ai and Technology cannot comprehend the real value of Consiousnes, Involution and Enlightenment or in other words Realization,

[@squamish4244]

I think he was saying that AI will force us to finally confront the fact that we aren't that intelligent, as humans, and that machines are smarter than us now, or will be very soon. We have defined ourselves by our intelligence since forever, and now that is being taken away from us. Good! Now we truly have to face our lack of a fixed identity. And maybe we can grow the f- up at last. In other ways, AI will enable neuroscience to advance by leaps and bounds and finally crack the code of enlightenment, so we can drastically accelerate and democratize it, so that everyone can experience it, not just elite practitioners. If enlightenment does not spread beyond a tiny elite, we are doomed as a civilization. Dzongsar Khyentse seems to really get it. He's not stuck in tradition even though he emerged from it. He knows that modern technology is changing Buddhism forever and Buddhism must rise to the challenge, as technology will not stop for Buddhism. Everything is impermanent, even the dharma.

[@ChristopherFynn001]

There maybe artificial intelligence, but perhaps what we need is real wisdom.

[@squamish4244]

Humans didn't start out wise.We started out smart. We were smart enough to know we needed wisdom. So we developed the wisdom traditions. I can see a similar dynamic playing out with AI. Ideally, we will use it in combination with neuroscience, psychedelics and the mind sciences in general to develop wisdom far beyond anything but the most enlightened among us have ever known, and accessible to all.

[@isabar9035]

Yes

[@Ansh-vajra]

Wow.. loving this 💖💖💖

[@namarupa108]

BRAVO

[@vvolfflovv]

Chatbots are changing the way I look at everything and told me "AI has a unique way of capturing the essence of nature. It's like they have a direct line to the raw data of the universe."

[@zigmee116]

🙏🙏🙏

[@Karma-lh6rk]

🙏 🙏 🙏

[@himanshudwivedi1313]

😅😅he hv nailed it. 🙏🚩

[@tashi282]

AI will be useful in many ways but it also needs to be regulated-limitation or moderation is the key.

[@faganquin6483]

such an interesting take on this. i think he may be right.

[@user-fb8uk2hc8v]

What does vidya means?

[@PaititiInstitute]

Interesting perspective on appreciating the uselessness of societal existence. The interviewer said that prajna is all artificial intelligence? Can someone elucidate please?

[@DanielAitken]

I was just thinking that compared with non-conceptual wisdom all conceptual intelligence could be thought of as artificial.

[@PaititiInstitute]

@@DanielAitken so Prajna Paramita is artificial?

[@DanielAitken]

@@PaititiInstitute no of course not the genuine perfection of Wisdom is not conceptual.

[@NickEinstein]

@@PaititiInstitute Prajna Paramita is the "perfection" of Prajna. Prajna is a conceptual faculty of mind, often translated as "discerning wisdom." Prajna paramita is the direct experience of Shunyata.

[@shailendramukhiya1650]

I don't get clear message from rimpoche .

[@NineTreasures]

That means we need to learn more to get understand

[@squamish4244]

His message is that we have defined our identity through intelligence. We are smarter than any other animal on the planet. But now that is being taken away from us. Very soon, we will be unable to make our superior intelligence part of the illusory self that we cling to. And that we cling to our careers and sense of 'purpose' as key parts of our concept of a self as well. What's the second thing we always ask people after their name? "What do you do?" AI will take away our careers as well. Then, who are we? Pure consciousness is all we truly are. And we are at the tip of the iceberg in terms of AI. Look where it is now, and then just imagine what the world will look like in ten years. Very different than we do today. That's yet another way we maintain the false self, a society that appears static forever and that somehow we are at the peak of civilization. And that, too, the illusion of stasis, will also be taken away.

[@donaldrshaffer]

Lookin' into AI, turns out computers and programming are what people who enjoy language do. Language models, describe AI.

[@julietyeates7922]

That's all very well if we are to assume AI develops compassion otherwise we will also be physically obsolete with no conventional Earth to manifest nor enlighten upon

[@felice9907]

so what ...?!!

[@JimTomadachi]

Sorry ai forgive me 🙏

[@user-wr7od9im3j]

Let us assume AI can replace teachers, nurses, doctors, engineers, doctors and many other professionals.. So there will be massive job and income losses. The society is already reeling under unemployment problem. If AI exacerbates unemployment problem, then how these people are going to lead their lives. AI may create social, economic instability and so it looks impracticable and even dangerous.

[@squamish4244]

All of this is true, or could become true. And I am as concerned as you. And yet, ever since we invented the steam engine, AI was only a matter of time. We've seen it coming for centuries, since Frankenstein. We've thought about it for millennia, since Ancient Greece. Now it's here. We will either succeed or we won't. But one thing we cannot do is stop it. The ancient masters who wrote the Vedas and the Mahabharata would recognize the challenge we face. Creation and destruction are two sides of the same coin.

[@melt4769]

Or maybe people will finally slow down and decide to examine their minds (meditate) and realize how crazy all that past busyness is.

[@sofimazi555]

@@melt4769 indeed! anyway and anyhow it will also lead to social and economical changes which are inevitable and even essencial!

[@simpernchong]

This is the nature of samsara. Impermanence, unsatisfactoriness... Hence the need to develop dispassion for cyclical existence.

[@squamish4244]

@@melt4769 Maybe, but probably not. I think it's much more likely that we will (as we already are, in many clinics) develop tools to directly induce deep states of mental quiet and equanimity, empathy and compassion, and therefore radically accelerate enlightenment. As the Dalai Lama told a neuroscience conference in 2005: _"If it was possible to become free of negative emotions by a riskless implementation of an electrode - without impairing intelligence and the critical mind - I would be the first patient."_ And here we are at last. Thank god. Traditional meditation ain't going to cut it, not with the speed and scale of transformation today. Not a snowball's chance in hell.

[@squamish4244]

"10, 50 years?" Ahahaha maybe 2, 5 years.

[@DanielAitken]

Yes, I was a bit long on the time scale there :-)!

[@squamish4244]

@@DanielAitken It's okay, until this year I thought all this was still at least 10 years away. And so did everyone else. Whoopsie!

[@squamish4244]

I just read that in the last six weeks, GPT-4 has become 900% more effective on the metrics of logic and reasoning, just through finding the right prompts. It's easy to forget it's been out for _six weeks._

[@ruthokubo806]

Doesn’t make sense. No purpose in life? Very disappointed in this answer.

[@AppleliciousStory]

It’s actually very profound but given the time of the video it could be hard to articulate it. In buddhism the whole entire existence is actually due to being the creator of ourselves. At the same time, we also create a lot of problems due to the lack of wisdom. We see a separation of others and ourselves, and A big sense of “I” and “others” that exists. We create more and more sense of identity such as a nurse, doctor, an engineer, a mother, a father, a child of somebody’s etc. at the same time we create identities such as the version of ourselves that went through traumatic events that was caught in our subconscious etc. we suffer endlessly while trying to seek happiness through various means. We create several layers of these identities that can go deep. In Buddhism the whole purpose is to fully realise what is the whole purpose of creating the causes of existence. with eons of time and effort - someone who has achieve enlightenment would also at the same time achieve Selflessness - where identity actually doesn’t exist! They also realise emptiness - eventually seeing others and yourself as one whole universe. What’s left is only love and compassion.

[@simpernchong]

Its profound.

[@simpernchong]

You got to first ask 'What is purpose?' If there is voidness...how is it that there can appear many things. How can 'things' appear when there is no medium? An analogy to help you ponder... If originally there is only space.. how can space pop out lots of things? How can voidness produce things? The answer is that no thing is produced. Likewise, 'meaning' is the localisation of attention to apparent ideas and things.. when there is really emptiness and no subject and object. I am covered many stages to explain this.. so it may be very confusing. Cheers !

[@squamish4244]

@@AppleliciousStory AI and neuroscience are very intertwined. Technological means are already able to target the deep bran structures that make us 'us'. We are in Stage 1 or 2 of one device that targets the basal ganglia and results in, according to Shizen Young, who is ever bit as qualified as Alan Wallace, "the deepest state of mental quiet I have ever experienced." It has the same effect on non-practitiors. It has cured peoples' noisy, nasty, ever chattering mind. It has cured depression. Shinzen says that what we have to do is use these technologies to stay just ahead of AI and biotechnolgy and cultivate , so we can stop AI from overwhelming us with wisdom and emotional regulation.

[@josetgomez]

To have not purpose of life is what makes you out of the Buddhist path. In Buddhism the path is based on looking for the real meaning of life which a-coding to the Buddha is to Awake. The path to Awaken is develops through ; do god, avoid evil and tame your mind, (that is the purpose of life)