Un point sur les principaux enjeux de l'intelligence artificielle à l'heure de la multiplication des IA génératives. Les auteurs présentent les développements récents et les promesses futures de cette technologie ainsi que les risques qu'elle comporte pour les sociétés. ©Electre 2025

We humans & artificial intelligence

What synergies ?

Artificial Intelligence has become capable of emulating human reasoning, quickly evolving and replacing humans in many functions and activities. We now know that AI may one day surpass us. Generative AI has triggered the next great technological transformation, The Next Big Thing, as the Americans say.

This time, however, it will not only be technological : it is the whole of society and humanity itself that is likely to be transformed. Will we be empowered, « increased » in our knowledge and capabilities with the support of 'artificial intelligence, or rather « diminished » reduced to unsuspecting performers, in the service of a Super Intelligence ?

AI still remains an enigma, arousing too much easy enthusiasm and apocalyptic fears. But it is still a man-made technology. Future developments will depend on how it is used, who will enhance it and for what purposes, and how and who will control it. We are at the beginning of a complex path and of an undoubtedly risky transformation of our way of life, which must invest the conscience of everyone.

It is no longer time to leave it to those who design and own Artificial Intelligences alone, the issue is no longer just technological, it is political : strategic choices are needed in the economy and in society, norms and safeguards, information and education.

This book, written on the thread of current events over the past year, which is constandy evolving, aims to offer a track to understanding how we arrived at the exploits of Generative AI, how and who uses it, and what problems it creates. We hope to offer the necessary insights for a broad and democratic debate on the choices that our societies, particularly in Europe, are urgently called upon to make. With a focus not only on the present, but also and especially on the future cultural and cognitive evolution of the human species.