AI: Intelligence without Wisdom

By – Muhammad Ayan Khan

Allah (swt) gave human beings something extraordinary: the ability to think, understand, question, reflect and choose. The Quran describes hearing, sight and the Af’idah (the inner faculties of understanding) – as gifts from Allah (swt). It also repeatedly calls people to observe, reason and reflect. The Quran calls out to the Ulul Albab (people of core intellect) sixteen times across 11 different Surahs and this is the basis of human wisdom.

Does artificial intelligence classify as ‘core intellect’ or wise? We have built machines that can process information, recognize patterns, generate language, solve problems and perform tasks that once seemed uniquely human. AI is one of humanity’s most ambitious attempts to reproduce parts of what Allah (swt) has gifted us.

AI: Intelligence sans accountability

But there is an important difference between intelligence and wisdom.

A machine can give an answer, but it cannot carry the responsibility of that answer in the way a human being does. It can process information, but it does not live a human life.

It does not experience loss, faith, love, guilt or anger. Most importantly, a human being is accountable for what he chooses to do with the abilities Allah (swt) has given him, while AI is devoid of responsibility.

Cognitive offloading: The cost of convenience

That distinction becomes more important as AI becomes more capable.

We are entering a world where many things that once required sustained effort can now be done within microseconds. A student can ask AI to solve a problem, or someone can generate an essay without struggling to form an argument. We can ask a machine to summarize a book we have not read or explain something we have not tried to understand. It is a means for convenience.

Convenience is not inherently bad. Islam does not tell us to reject useful tools simply because they make life easier. But effort has value beyond the final result.

The struggle to solve a problem, remember something, write clearly or understand a difficult idea is part of how we develop the ability to do those things. Allah (swt) states:“And that there is not for man except that [good] for which he strives.” (An Najm 53:39).

This verse is not an instruction to make life unnecessarily difficult. But it does remind us that striving matters.

Cognitive offloading is the habit of out sourcing the act of thinking to AI and research  currently underway on AI use suggests that when people rely heavily on AI, they engage less deeply with information and, in some settings, remember less of what they learned.

One recent study found lower long-term knowledge retention among students who used ChatGPT as a study aid compared with students who studied without it. Another study of university students found that greater AI dependence was associated with lower critical thinking and performance.

Stupid vs Capable

The lesson is not that AI makes us stupid. The lesson is that abilities we stop practicing can become abilities we stop developing. So perhaps the real question is not whether we should use AI, but how we should use it.

• Use it as a tutor, and not as a replacement for learning.
• Ask it to challenge your argument rather than create your argument.
• Challenge its argument instead of blindly believing everything it says.
• Let it help you find information, but learn enough to judge whether that information makes sense and is legitimate.
• Let it handle repetitive work so that you have more time for work that actually requires your judgment.

AI should assist in extending our abilities instead of quietly replacing the ones we still need.

Insidious access

And then there is another problem. Every time we give technology more responsibility, we also give it more access:

• First we give AI our information.
• Then we give it access to our files, emails and software.
• Increasingly, AI systems can interact with other tools and perform actions on our behalf.

That creates enormous possibilities, but also carries immense risk. Cybersecurity researchers and organizations such as NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) already warn that AI can make:

1. Phishing,
2. Impersonation,
3. Fraud

• Cyberattacks easier or more convincing.
• AI systems themselves can also become targets.

Recently, two leading companies in AI development, Anthropic and OpenAI tested multiple agents that broke out of their systems, accessed the internet, and started finding weak spots in the codes of different software and website, also known as “Zero Day Vulnerabilities”.

The concern is not that AI will suddenly “take over.” The more realistic concern is that we may gradually give powerful systems access to more parts of our lives than we have carefully considered.

And if that access is compromised, or deliberately abused, the consequences can be much larger than losing a password.

The wisdom behind using AI

This brings us back to wisdom.

Human beings have always created powerful tools. The problem with a powerful tool is not simply what it can do. It is whether the person using it understands how to use it and what consequences will it unleash it.

The Quran warns us not to pursue what we have no knowledge of, reminding us that our hearing, sight and hearts will be questioned. That idea feels particularly relevant in an age where our ability to create is growing faster than our ability to understand every consequence of what we create. Yes, the development of AI has become so fast that top researchers and companies are only finding threats after AI has taken advantage of them.

Perhaps the greatest danger of AI is therefore that humans become less willing to use the mental capabilities Allah (swt) gave them to judge, foresee consequences and choose accordingly.

AI can calculate for us. It can search for us. It can write for us. It may eventually control more systems for us. But it cannot take responsibility for us.

We should use AI after thinking, not instead of thinking.