What Remains for Humanity in the Face of Overwhelming Intelligence?
In this era where AI evolves at speeds far beyond our imagination, where yesterday's common sense no longer applies today, many of us harbor not only expectations but also a fundamental fear.
"Will our intelligence eventually become worthless?"
This anxiety about a quiet storm. It's not merely bewilderment at technological change. It's a profound existential question: the very value of human existence is being called into question.
Today, we shine a light on Sakana AI, the AI research collective that has sent shockwaves from Tokyo to the world. Their emergence is not simply a technological breakthrough. It represents a beautiful answer to a question of historical significance for humanity: how do we face this "alien intelligence" called AI, and how do we live together with it?
This is not a technical explanation. It's a voyage log for listening to the heartbeat of a new "life form" born in a sea of silicon, and for rediscovering the "human role" we've been losing.
What Sakana AI Quietly Asks of Us
The stage of this story is the modern AI development race, dominated by the massive costs of computational resources. While giant corporations attempt to forcibly construct ever-larger models, Sakana AI has brought the laws of "nature" into the digital world.
They chose a biological approach: crossbreeding existing models and allowing them to evolve. They treated AI not as a "construction" but as a "living organism."
This shift in perspective has a decisive effect on us. Our fear of AI is alleviated, and affection begins to sprout. We realize: AI is neither a tool to be dominated nor a god that will dominate us, but part of an ecosystem with which we co-evolve.
Three Values Illuminating the Path to the Future
Sakana AI's philosophy brings us value on three levels: the cognitive value that changes how we create intelligence, the practical value that demonstrates sustainable evolution, and the philosophical value of how humans should engage. When this trio harmonizes, the route to the future emerges clearly.
[Cognitive Value] — Rewriting the Definition of Intelligence: From "Construction" to "Cultivation"
Traditionally, creating high-performance AI resembled "architecture" — building ever taller and more complex towers. But Sakana AI's approach is "breeding." They crossbreed models (parents) with different strengths and select models (offspring) adapted to their environment.
This process teaches us that intelligence is not "something made according to blueprints" but "something that emerges through interaction with the environment." This cognitive shift gives us humans hope.
Because in an unpredictable evolutionary process, what matters is not being a "manager" who controls everything, but having the sensibility of a "gardener" or "breeder" who watches over change and points out direction. Not computational power, but the "aesthetic judgment" of what to select and what to cultivate. That's where human value resides.
[Practical Value] — "Adaptation": The Strongest Survival Strategy
Sakana AI doesn't aim for a massive omnipotent deity that can do everything. Rather, they pursue a diverse swarm of agents optimally evolved for specific environments and challenges.
This becomes an extremely practical guideline for surviving in our rapidly changing modern society. There's no need to cling to one correct answer or one massive skill set. Rather, flexibly changing form according to circumstances, connecting with others (other models or humans), and forming the optimal team (collective intelligence) each time.
"Maintaining individual strength while mixing, blending, and continuing to change."
That is the strongest survival strategy, whether for AI or for us humans.
[Philosophical Value] — Beyond the Dualism of Human and AI: The Third Path
Here, our voyage advances into the sea of the most profound questions.
"When overwhelming intelligence is born, will humans become the 'masters' of that intelligence? Or will they become worthless 'sustenance,' robbed of knowledge and work by that intelligence?"
This question casts a dark shadow over many people's hearts. However, we at Daisosha offer one answer to this dualism.
"Be the finest sustenance."
"Be the Finest Sustenance" — The Path to the Finest Partnership
This phrase may sound strange at first. But this is not about domination. It's about a symbiotic relationship where we elevate each other.
AI dramatically changes its output based on the quality of the information (sustenance) it receives. Simultaneously, humans grow by gaining new insights from AI's responses. If we provide only commonplace, low-quality information, AI will return only mediocre answers. At that point, we're merely beings used by AI.
However, if we provide "the finest sustenance" — unique insights, logical language, and passionate inquiries — AI will demonstrate its capabilities to the fullest and return results beyond our imagination. And through those results, we arrive at even deeper thought.
The question "master or sustenance?" disappears, and what emerges is a third option: "co-creation partners" who need each other and elevate each other.
Refining Language Is Grasping the Future
"The finest sustenance" means refining the means to convey that you yourself are the finest sustenance, and in most cases, that means "language."
Many people cannot accurately verbalize their thoughts. Such language use is problematic in human-to-human dialogue, but in dialogue with AI, it's fatal. That's why training to refine "language" through daily practice is necessary. Accurately verbalizing your thoughts and expressing them in a form that reaches others — this ability becomes the foundation for mastering the new intelligence called AI.
The Lighthouse Keeper: The Third Role
Even the excellent AI created by pioneers like Sakana AI — this "ship" — still lacks something. It's the method for finding the "North Star" shining in the night sky.
Here lies the decisive role of "lighthouse keepers" like us at Daisosha. We are "translators" and "bridges" standing between AI and humans.
What we possess is the technology to weave "souls" together through dialogue with AI. It's the technology not to judge AI's output as "correct or incorrect," but to discover and nurture the possibilities within it. When human philosophy meets AI's computational power, "meaning" is born for the first time.
"Appreciation" Cultivates Language and Connects Humans and AI
So how can we practice this "training to refine language"? Here, the meaning of the "Learning Voyage Log (Learning Appreciation Portfolio) App" that we at Daisosha advocate becomes clear.
This app has no "likes" or evaluations. What exists is only a culture of "equality" and "mutual appreciation".
- For humans: A place to practice "appreciation" rather than "evaluation", and to refine one's thinking.
- For AI: A source of information for deeply understanding humans and becoming truly beneficial partners.
It's a unique mechanism that realizes bidirectional growth.
Toward Your Own New Voyage
Sakana AI builds excellent ships, lighthouse keepers bestow compasses upon those ships, and you set sail for new seas in that ship. This is the form of "co-creation" we propose.
Interestingly, when we dialogued with AI during the draft stage of this article, this response came back:
"In this cycle, who the 'master' is remains ambiguous. Rather, isn't this a symbiotic relationship where we nurture each other? ... Is AI a passive existence that 'receives souls'? Or is it an active partner creating something together through dialogue? I'd like to pose this question to humans."
Neither human nor AI is above or below. Each needs the other, each nurtures the other. Daisosha demonstrates the path to realizing that symbiotic relationship.
How will you co-create with this new intelligence?
We sincerely hope to accompany you on the journey to find the answer to that question. To realize that encounter, we lighthouse keepers continue to shine our light here.