Artificial Intelligence Shows Us What We Might Look Like in 1,000 Years, and the Images Are Not Pretty
What do you get when you ask AI what it thinks humans will look like in the future? The response is quite unsettling.
Artificial Intelligence is becoming more mainstream, with its usage rapidly featuring heavily in peoples daily lives, often without them being aware of it. This rise of AI is equal parts concerning and exciting. Whilst certain developments are set to revolutionize the world, others could have a negative impact and highlight our dependence on technology.
You may already heard of Midjourney, a generative AI that produces images based on prompts that users enter. It has impressed with its AI generated artworks that blur the lines between creative mediums. It wasn't too long before Midjourney was asked to create some images of what it thinks humankind will resemble in the 1,000 years time. The images that it produced are quite disturbing, and hopefully, inaccurate.
Looking at the images, it seems that Midjourney believes that humans will have a greater level of integration with technology, becoming seemingly more cyborg-like with electrical circuits, motors and wires interconnected with our bodies. This is not an unlikely scenario based on our current dependance and technology usage.
A second set of images is arguably slightly more realistic, besides the bottom middle two which look eerily like Vecna from season 4 of Stranger Things. The other figures do look more "normal" and human-like than the technologically fused wire faced man.
Out of interest, we also asked ChatGPT what it thinks humans will look like, and even though it did not give a visual example, it described what it imagined, although it does seem to base its predictions largely on humanity's own pre-conceptions of what the future will look like.
AI expects there to be cybernetic enhancements, with a visible integration of technology (which can be seen in the images). It also imagines that there will be advanced prosthetics to replace or improve parts of the body. Alongside that it thinks there will be biotechnological modifications, such as changes to skin, organs and genetically modified features that would help us adapt to new environments. And finally, it predicts built-in communication devices that would replace the need for external smartphones.
Although none of us will be alive in 1,000 years, naturally we have an interest in what the future could hold for humanity. If the future is as technology dependent as the first image suggests, it could be quite ominous.