When will AI make us no longer human?

Re: “Police probe Tesla’s Autopilot feature after car rear-ends fire truck,” May 15.

Once again, the crash of a Tesla car in self-driving mode puts us face-to-face with the question: Are we humans trying to escape all responsibility for ourselves?

It seems that Elon Musk can’t understand why a few failures of his new technology are such big news. It seems he doesn’t realize this isn’t just another piece of equipment going through break-in problems. This is part of a paradigm shift in how billions of people, all over the world, will transport themselves in their future automobiles.

We are about to ask billions of drivers: Are you ready to give over responsibility for the driving of your car to a computer? Allow artificial intelligence to take over the world’s streets and highways? And then what?

Are we so fed up with ourselves that we are ready to abandon all of our traditional roles and responsibilities to AI? And if so, where does that leave us?

What are we becoming, as we continue to be dazzled by new technologies that are assisting us out of existence? At what point have we forfeited so much of our roles and responsibilities in the real world, we can no longer be considered homo sapiens?

We are now at the point, thanks to progress and technology, where not just the rich, but the entire human race can be made to lose their common touch and common sense, and start acting helpless and silly. Hubert Meeker Victoria