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Artificial Intelligence II

I recently wrote about artificial intelligence.  I used thoughts from James Keenan’s article on lessons he learned from the fall 2021 Vatican symposium on artificial intelligence.  I did not even know the symposium was happening, so it was a welcome piece of news.  I also know that artificial intelligence is a burgeoning field of study, but I don’t know anything about it.  Like all things computer, it clearly is going to play a huge role in our lives and most of us won’t have a clue what’s going on.  That is a bit scary!

I can quickly share the first three lessons Keenan learned---lessons I explored in my earlier piece.  He says, “First, the advances of artificial intelligence are staggeringly more rapid than anyone ever anticipated.”  His next point underscores the cross-disciplinary nature of this field of study.  Keenen affirms, “Second, the discourse on artificial intelligence is occurring within very different language games.”  The final point quoting from my own words tells us that “Keenan learned that the human being to be seen ‘as both a contradiction and as a mirror to AI.’  To me this means humans are both like and not at all alike to computers with AI.”  I want to consider some of his other learnings.

Keenan’s fourth point expresses his concern that artificial intelligence could impact human rights around our globe.  This is how Keenan articulates his concern.  “Fourth, while the US has not developed any clear regulatory guidelines regarding AI, Michael O'Flaherty… highlighted the importance of putting the human at the center of AI development and use.”  O’Flaherty is a spokesperson for the European perspective.  This reminds me of the serious and widening gap in knowledge (as well as economic) between rich countries and all the others.  It will be easy for those with means to learn and to buy to manipulate all those who are at a disadvantage.  It should be obvious the spiritual implications and problems with this issue.

This concern anticipates Keenan’s next point.  Even with regulations in place, he observes, “Fifth, still, not all norm-makers are equal.”  As usual, the big question is who is going to be worried about and watching out for all those folks who could be harmed---without knowing it until too late for them?  If we actually believe every person is in the image of God and is, therefore, a child of God, then we are equal and deserve equal respect and treatment.  Not only is it a spiritual issue; it is a moral issue.  We know how easily power corrupts morals!

I very much like the sixth learning from Keenan.  It is almost a summary when he tells us, “the present trajectory of AI is, then, a cause of hope and fear.”  That certainly seems true to me.  There is hope because clearly artificial intelligence will be able to do things better and faster than any single human being.  But it is also obviously scary.  Most of us won’t have a clue about AI---how it works, how to control it, etc.  We will use it without knowing about it.  But when I think about it, that is true for my car, my computer and other things in my life.  My guess is I will adjust fine.  But that is exactly Keenan’s point---that is hopeful and fearful.

There is one other point Keenan added in his essay, but I want to skip that and draw some of my own conclusions.  I have no doubt artificial intelligence will come to play a much larger role in our lives.  And I suspect in most cases, we won’t even know that it is involved, much less how it is involved.  It makes me hopeful somehow our government can attend to the issues and come up with appropriate regulations to keep most folks in line.  Of course, it would be naïve to assume there will be no bad actors.  

This may be a good time to remind ourselves what intelligence is.  Typically, it is defined as the ability to learn things and to gain skill in doing things.  I know some folks distinguish different kinds of intelligence, like practical, creative and analytical.  We know there are different levels.  Some folks are smarter than others of us.  But we know that often smart people have no common sense, as the saying goes.  I would think artificial intelligence levels some of these discrepancies.  

Some machines will be smarter than others simply because they have more sophisticated programming.  I can even imagine---and in some ways we are already there---artificial intelligence will be smarter than any single person or maybe group of people.  It is easy to imagine these smart intelligent things (whatever we call them) will become self-perpetuating.  That is when it gets scary to me.  When this happens, they literally will be out of control---the control of humans   However, this doesn’t make them god.

My own spiritual perspective wants to believe that God is love.  I don’t know whether artificial intelligence can become loving.  No doubt there will be robots and “artificial” people who can act lovingly.  Maybe this will be good enough for some folks.  But I still want to throw my lot in with a God I cannot even see whose love I do not always sense and feel.  Talk about a walk of faith!





https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/7-lessons-learned-vaticans-artificial-intelligence-symposium



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