AI and Heidegger's Question Concerning Technology

Does AI present a glimpse into the paradoxical saving power contained in modern technology?

Several months ago, I read Martin Heidegger’s The Question Concerning Technology. Admittedly I did not fully grasp it at first, but after re-reading it and talking to a professor who is quite knowledgeable on the subject of Heidegger, I began to understand what Heidegger was saying. One of the most intriguing points he makes, near the end, is that the enframing power of technology, a danger in the highest sense, also holds the saving power. He cites Hölderin’s poem Patmos, which reads,

But where the danger is,
also grows the saving power.

Heidegger concludes that the essence of technology (its enframing power), has in itself the saving power to counteract the threat modern technology poses.

Without getting into the weeds, because this essay is extremely dense, I will try to summarize. Excuse me for any inaccuracies or crudeness.

Man’s dignity, Heidegger says, lies in his “keeping watch over the unconcealment—and with it, from the first, the concealment—of all coming to presence on this earth.” Now, to simplify, let’s just say that man’s free “essense,” what he is fundamentally, lies in his discerning and coming to understand the Truth about the world. In Heideggerian terms we might say that it is man’s capacity to “unconceal” the enduring essence (truth/nature) of things on earth. The danger of technology is its enframing power and the way it enframes our world. The best way to convey this power is through illustrations. Modern technology’s revealing is a challenging. It challenges nature and man, it sets upon nature and makes demands of it, often unreasonable demands. Because it reveals things in this way, it enframes reality in such a way that a river, once seen as a source of life or having spiritual aspects, is now seen as a source of energy, a source of production. Some may object that the river is still part of the landscape and still seen as beautiful, but Heidegger points out that even here, the river is still expected to be “on call for inspection” by tourists and the vacation industry.

Ultimately, technology threatens to enframe all of nature, including us. We could say it begins to understand the world for us, and in fact begins to cause us to understand ourselves within the same framework. You can make your own conclusions as to how that may unfold based on what I just described.

Heidegger sees this as truly existential and horrifying threat, which is completely understandable. So how can he also say that this danger presents also the saving power?

First, he notes that in order to realize the saving power, we must first notice what technology is doing to us and our world and ponder it. We cannot just let technology pass us by or go unaware of its effects. We cannot look at it as nothing more than a tool to be used or think that the response to technological problems ought to be technological solutions.

He then suggests that “all saving power must be of a higher essence than what is endangered, though at the same time kindred to it.” So, perhaps the saving power lies in the highest truths about our existence and the world around us.

He goes on.

“But might there not perhaps be a more primally granted revealing that could bring the saving power into its first shining forth in the midst of the danger, a revealing that in the technological age rather conceals than shows itself? There was a time when it was not technology alone that bore the name techne. Once that revealing that brings forth truth into the splendor of radiant appearing also was called techne. Once there was a time when the bringing-forth of the true into the beautiful was called techne. And the poiesis of the fine arts also was called techne.”

Where is he going here? The answer is clear: art, as a mode of revealing and bringing-forth, may contain the saving power.

The poetical brings the true into the splendor of what Plato in the Phaedrus calls to ekphanestaton, that which shines forth most purely. The poetical thoroughly pervades every art, every revealing of coming to presence into the beautiful.

Could it be that the fine arts are called to poetic revealing? Could it be that revealing lays claim to the arts most primally, so that they for their part may expressly foster the growth of the saving power, may awaken and found anew our look into that which grants and our trust in it?

Finally, Heidegger makes the following point at the very end of his essay, a point that struck me with great force.

Because the essence of technology is nothing technological, essential reflection upon technology and decisive confrontation with it must happen in a realm that is, on the one hand, akin to the essence of technology and, on the other, fundamentally different from it.

Such a realm is art. But certainly only if reflection on art, for its part, does not shut its eyes to the constellation of truth after which we are questioning.

Art. Art may be the realm in which we can confront the essence of technology, since the essence of art and the essence of modern technology have similarities in that they reveal and bring forth truth but are diametrically opposed in their way of revealing and how they reveal.

Why, then, do I mention Artificial Intelligence in the title? Because now we see, in real time, the realm of art being confronted by technology. I think most people who have interacted with AI or know of it online, see that it has risen to prominence in the world of art and illustration. We see digital artists and illustrators sounding the alarm about how AI might replace them, or how AI generated content might develop to a point where it is indiscernible from human work. We see users online generating AI images for memes, for political posts, for propaganda, for sexual content, and many other purposes. The debate around what constitutes art is lively.

Have we questioned the essence of technology in all this? Heidegger can help us understand what technology is really doing here. Technology is setting upon art itself! It has revealed art as nothing more than a standing-reserve to be called-upon at any moment by any person, whether they’re talented or have an IQ of 80. AI presents us with a new danger: it threatens to extinguish the very realm that Heidegger saw the saving power in.

Yet, all is not lost. Once again, in the greatest danger is, also grows the saving power. AI has forced us to think about what art is, about how we use art, and about how we use modern technology. At least, it gives us the opportunity to do so. AI presents a moment for reflection. It is an opportunity for us, briefly, to step back and ponder what we are doing and how modern technology is affecting us, not merely in a physical or productive sense, but in the essential sense. AI presents a challenge to us, yes, but perhaps also wakes us up and forces us to reckon with what human freedom—even humanity itself—really means. What is the essence of reality? What is the essence of truth? Of beauty? What makes art beautiful? What gives art its properties?

Let me be clear: What I am saying is not meant to be the frantic cry of a Luddite, calling for us all to throw our computers out the window (though maybe that should be left on the table as a possible course of action). What I am saying is that, first of all, we must continue to question the essence of modern technology, as Heidegger did. We also must question how modern technology is interacting with the truth, the world around us, and even ourselves. We must question the nature of art. And we must realize that this moment of AI and AI generated content presents both a great danger as well as a moment of reflection that could allow us to see and grab hold of the saving power.

There are many aspects of all this to think about and to explore further, and I hope to do that and inspire others to do it as well. We may not yet have the answers, but it is far better for us that we be aware of what is going on in this regard and keep a close watch on modern technology, instead of letting it pass by us unnoticed, in which case it consumes us and determines our own fate for us.