AI Part 1: The Promise and Perils of Artificial Intelligence

We’re building the plane while it’s in the air. --Jared Boggess

We shall need all the wisdom from above that God can give us in this AI age in order to fulfill Christ’s directive that we should be salt and light in our society. --Dr. John Lennox 2084 and the AI Revolution

Tyler could these all come up one at a time, but on the same slide? Louise for the notes could you just put in Ephesians 5:1-17?

-Therefore be imitators of God...(vv 1)
-Walk in love, as Christ loved us...(vv 2)
-Let no one deceive you with empty words...(vv 6)
-Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true. (vv 8b-9)
-Try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. (vv 10)
-Look carefully then, how you walk, not as unwise but as wise. (vv 15)
-Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. (vv 17)

1) What exactly is AI?

2) What are the promises surrounding it?

It is no exaggeration to say that AI will revolutionize medicine and is now already being used effectively in many areas. --Dr. John Lennox 2084 and the Ai Revolution

Humans are already using AI to diagnose diseases and develop novel medicines, fight human trafficking and find missing children, make crops more productive and businesses more efficient, improve education, explore the cosmos, and even decipher animal languages. AI accelerationists are not wrong to believe that AI could lead to extraordinary discoveries in fundamental sciences and life-altering advances for human civilization. --Timothy Dalrymple CT

And as with many other technologies, the power it possesses for good is proportionate to the power it possesses for destruction. --Timothy Dalrymple CT

3) What are the perils we need to be aware of?

We are at a transition point now, where ChatGPT is this kind of idiot savant. It doesn’t really understand truth. It has been trained on lots of inconsistent data. It is trying to predict what someone will say next on the web, and people have different opinions. It has to blend all of these opinions so that it can model what anybody might say. This is very different from a person who tries to have a consistent worldview. Particularly if you want to act in the world, it’s good to have a consistent worldview. --Geoffrey Hinton CBS Saturday Morning
There are only two industries that call their customers “users”: illegal drugs and tech. --Edward Tufte

The Social Dilemma

Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley’s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think. What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance…In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us. --Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death

4) How then shall we live?

Get Informed and Educated on AI
Ask Yourself Hard Ethical and Virtue Questions Before Engaging with AI.
Develop Personal Convictions and Boundaries Around AI.
Process Your Questions and Convictions in Community

Proverbs 11:14 Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.

Followers of Christ must think about how their use of AI affects others. As we do this, we can lead the way in loving our neighbors, whether we’re building AI technology in Silicon Valley or choosing to not use AI to write a report at work. AI may not have a king, but we do. --Stephen Carradini CT

2084 and the AI Revolution by Dr. John Lennox https://www.amazon.com/2084-Revolution-Updated-Expanded-Intelligence/dp/0310166640

You & AI talk by Gabe Lyons- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9to_Nru-jw8

Spiritual formation and AI: A deep dive with Andy Crouch and Jay Kim- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2j8053yxbE&t=2825s

Wendall Berry Essay- https://classes.matthewjbrown.net/teaching-files/philtech/berry-computer.pdf