General Artificial Intelligence in Light of the Philosophy of Technology: A Simondonian Reading of Hypertelia and its Ethical Risks.: UMA LEITURA SIMONDONIANA DA HIPERTELIA E SEUS RISCOS ÉTICOS

Abstract

This article investigates General Artificial Intelligence in light of Gilbert Simondon’s philosophy of technology, highlighting hypertelia as an ethical risk intrinsic to the trajectory of contemporary technical objects. By mobilizing Simondon’s distinction between abstract and concrete technical objects, the analysis proposes that AI should not be understood as a neutral instrument, but as a reality in ontogenetic becoming, co-constituted in relation to humans and the world. Narrow artificial intelligences, although highly specialized and efficient in limited domains, reveal their impotence when confronted with unforeseen contexts, evidencing a technical closure that blocks broader processes of individuation, while at the same time displaying greater openness to external demands, such as human intervention. General Artificial Intelligence, on the other hand, though still largely a virtual and speculative horizon, emerges as a promise of greater plasticity and concreteness, providing a more sophisticated internal integration while simultaneously closing itself off from external needs. The results indicate that the ethical issue does not lie solely in technological progress itself, but in the modes of individuation that may foster or inhibit the ongoing concretization of technical beings in relation to human beings and to the Earth itself. Thus, a relational and vigilant ethics is advocated: relational, in recognizing the co-evolution between humans and machines; vigilant, in resisting hypertelic tendencies that lead to sterile over-specialization and the loss of creative potential. This reflection contributes to rethinking the place of the subject in the technical milieu, suggesting that ethics should orient AI not toward excluding hyper-specialization, but toward open individuation.