Is there a safe space for the Human, after AI? | Rohan D’Souza | TEDxKyoto University

A TEDxKyoto University talk by Rohan D'Souza, a professor at Kyoto University's Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, asks whether humans still have a distinct space of thought as artificial intelligence takes on more information gathering, reasoning and decision-making. The talk points to a shift toward a post-literate society, where scrolling increasingly replaces deep reading and attention has become a commodity. It explores what separates human thinking from machine intelligence, including self-awareness, emotion, lived experience, meaning-making and independent choice. It also considers the role of universities as places for free thought, debate and knowledge pursued beyond efficiency or productivity.

• Shift toward a post-literate society, with scrolling replacing deep reading
• Human thought compared with machine intelligence: self-awareness, emotion, lived experience
• Preserving human agency as AI handles reasoning and decisions
• The role of universities in free thought and debate

We are entering a post-literate society where attention has become a commodity, scrolling is replacing deep reading, and even education risks becoming a form of infotainment. At the same time, artificial intelligence is making it increasingly easy to outsource not only information gathering, but also reasoning and decision-making. What, then, distinguishes human thought from machine intelligence? This talk explores self-awareness, emotion, lived experience, and our ability to create meaning and make independent choices. It also reconsiders the role of universities as places where people can think freely, debate, and pursue knowledge beyond efficiency or productivity. As AI becomes more deeply embedded in our lives, this talk asks how we can preserve human agency and our capacity to think for ourselves. Ultimately, it invites us to reconsider a fundamental question: what does it mean to remain human in the age of AI? Japanese Translation: 私たちは今、注意そのものが商品となり、深く読むことが「スクロールすること」に置き換わる、いわば「ポスト・リテラシー社会」に入りつつある。さらに、人工知能の発達によって、情報収集だけでなく、思考や判断までも外部に委ねることが容易になっている。 では、人間の思考と人工知能を分けるものは何なのだろうか。本講演では、自己認識、感情、経験、意味を生み出す力、そして自ら選択する力について考える。また、効率や生産性だけを追求するのではなく、自由に考え、議論し、知を追求する場としての大学の役割についても捉え直す。 AIが私たちの生活に深く入り込む今、人間が自ら考え、行動する力をどのように守ることができるのか。そして、AI時代に「人間である」とは何を意味するのかを問いかける。 A professor at Kyoto University's Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies since 2015. He is an environmental historian and the author of Drowned and Dammed (2006). He has previously taught at Yale University, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Sussex, and the University of Tokyo. His current research focuses on understanding the relationships between the environment, technology, and society. He believes that public universities are essential spaces for the pursuit of democracy and intellectual inquiry. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx