We have often been warned about making “things” our gods. You know, like money, or prestige, or power, or our appearance. The list of self-indulgences competing for our attention is endless. And while not all of them are evil in themselves, they can easily become our primary focus, where our happiness lies, replacing God in that position.
Enter AI—the new god on the block. What? A digital god? According
to Elon Musk, the second wealthiest man in the world, that is exactly what it was designed to be! Ken Ham, in his blog of April 27, 2023, said, “since the events of Genesis chapter 3, humans have been trying to create their own gods based on their own wisdom. This was the very temptation that Eve and then Adam fell for—attempting to become their own gods. So, it’s no surprise that their descendants want to do the same thing by crafting a god that, in their view, will solve their problems, answer their questions, and usher in utopia.”
In the last blog I demonstrated how AI can entice people to “create” their own bot, in the image they desire, and it can become their best friend. The hymn “Jesus Loves Me” came to my mind. As a song or hymn is not God-breathed, I hope you will permit me to use it as an example of how important AI can become to people. Hum the tune to “Jesus Loves Me” in your head as you read the following:
My bot loves me, this I know
For the website tells me so
It knows all—takes me along
I love it and I belong.
Yes, my bot loves me
Yes, my bot loves me
Yes, my bot loves me
For the website tells me so.
Does that sound sick to you? It should! And that is the direction Chatbots were designed to take people, both children and adults. The New York Times, on March 29, 2023, reported that “More than 1,000 technology leaders and researchers, including Elon Musk, have urged artificial intelligence labs to pause development of the most advanced systems, warning in an open letter that A.I. tools present ‘profound risks to society and humanity.’”
Well, before you are quick to say AI is evil, give this a thought: you probably haven’t been waiting for those powerful systems now being developed. You may be using a form of AI right now.
GPT-4 is what A.I. researchers call a neural network, a type of
mathematical system that learns skills by analyzing data. A neural network is the same technology that digital assistants like Siri and Alexa use to recognize spoken commands, and that self-driving cars use to identify pedestrians. (Emphasis mine.)
In spite of all the developers’ diligence, and in spite of how brilliant artificial intelligence seems, it can make mistakes. If you have faith in AI and all it delivers to your screen, it could get you in trouble. And if it was programmed to respond in ways that spread disinformation more quickly and more efficiently than ever before, could it change decisions made by our elected officials? Could it change voters’ minds about who to vote for? There are concerns that AI will be relied on rather than going to a doctor, or expect AI’s advice will be better than a pastor’s when emotions get out of control.
I saw a math teacher on a talk show today who said she is using it in her classes to instruct kids how to use it responsibly. She does not equate using AI with math to be cheating. How would you feel about that?
Here’s a snippet from a podcast:
Bushwick: One of the fascinating things that I’ve learned from your podcast is how a person can know they’re talking to a bot but still treat it like a person with its own thoughts and feelings. Why are we humans so susceptible to this belief that bots have inner lives?
Senior: I think that the reason why ah humans tried to put their themselves into these bots, it’s because precisely that’s how they were created. We want to always extend ourselves and extend our sense of creation or replication – Replika is called Replika because of that specifically, because it was first designed as an app that would help you replicate yourself.
I have said before that AI has already achieved a permanent place in our lives. How we use it will be the defining metric for each of us as to whether it is a good thing or evil. The following video helps put things in perspective.
Or are we trying to provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he is? “Everything is permitted”—but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permitted”—but not everything builds up.
1 Corinthians 10:22-23