{"id":3289,"date":"2024-01-10T13:15:39","date_gmt":"2024-01-10T18:15:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=3289"},"modified":"2024-01-10T13:15:39","modified_gmt":"2024-01-10T18:15:39","slug":"the-challenge-of-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/10\/the-challenge-of-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"The Challenge of AI"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,<\/em>\u00a0click here<\/a>
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Automation isn\u2019t just the wave of the future.\u00a0 It\u2019s already here.\u00a0 \u00a0
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Extraordinary machines assemble our pickup trucks, sweep our floors, and will soon be driving us around in autonomous vehicles.\u00a0
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Now there\u2019s even a robotic, self-cleaning kitty litter box.\u00a0 As someone who shares life with six cats (four in the barn, two in the house), I consider this a landmark moment in human progress.
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But what about artificial intelligence-based software programs that are designed to gather, collate, and report information faster and more efficiently than any person who has ever lived?\u00a0 Is AI on the verge of eliminating human productivity?\u00a0 \u00a0
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Last spring I decided to see if AI was up to the task of writing reflections.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0
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I enlisted ChatGPT, a program pioneered by the research organization OpenAI, to compose a devotional based on a single verse of Scripture: I Timothy 3:16.\u00a0 I instructed the program to include relevant quotes by John Calvin, Billy Graham, and Yogi Berra.\u00a0 That should make things interesting, I thought.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
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I hit the Start button.\u00a0 My screen was immediately populated with sentences.\u00a0 The entire composition was delivered within 45 seconds.\u00a0 Wow.<\/em>\u00a0
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The exegetical comments on the verse, to be honest, weren\u2019t particularly insightful.\u00a0 I thought the Calvin and Graham quotes were useful.\u00a0 And Yogi?\u00a0 Here\u2019s how ChatGPT wrapped things up: \u201cYogi Berra, the famous baseball player and coach once said, \u2018If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.\u2019\u00a0 Berra’s words may seem out of place in a discussion of this verse, but they remind us that we need to have a clear sense of direction in our lives. We need to know where we are going and what we are aiming for, so that we can follow the path that God has set for us.\u201d
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Not bad for 45 seconds.\u00a0
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Nevertheless, my brief encounter with the future wasn\u2019t nearly as eye-popping as New York Times<\/em> columnist Thomas Friedman\u2019s experience last year with Craig Mundie, the former chief research and strategy officer for Microsoft.\u00a0 Mundie provided a demonstration of GPT-4, a highly advanced version of ChatGPT.\u00a0
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\u201cYou need to understand,\u201d Craig warned Friedman, \u201cthis is going to change everything<\/em> about how we do everything<\/em>\u2026 It is qualitatively different \u2013 and it will be transformational.\u201d
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Since Mundie was about to make a presentation to the board of Planet Word, an innovative museum of human language in Washington D.C., he asked GPT-4 to summarize the mission of Planet Word in exactly 400 words.\u00a0
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Done.\u00a0 In just seconds.\u00a0 Then he requested a summary in 200 words.\u00a0 Then in Arabic.\u00a0 Then in Mandarin Chinese.\u00a0 Then back to English again, but this time in the form of a Shakespearean sonnet.\u00a0 Each task was completed in about two seconds.
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Mundie then asked the program to summarize Planet Word\u2019s mission in abecedarian verse \u2013 that is, 26 total lines, where the first one starts with the letter A, the second with B, and so forth, all the way through the alphabet.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the stunningly creative composition that appeared on the screen almost before Friedman could blink his eyes:
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A<\/strong>lluring in Washington, is a museum so grand,
B<\/strong>uilt to teach, inspire, and help us understand.
C<\/strong>urious minds Planet flock to Word\u2019s embrace,
D<\/strong>elving into language and its intricate grace
E<\/strong>very exhibit here has a story to tell,
F<\/strong>rom the origins of speech to the art of the quill.<\/em>
And all the way to Z\u2026
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Now that\u2019s impressive.\u00a0 And not a little frightening.\u00a0
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Are we ready for a technology that can run circles around human capacities \u2013 that genuinely seems powerful enough to change everything<\/em> about everything<\/em> we do?\u00a0
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The evangelists of artificial intelligence promote it as humanity\u2019s ultimate servant.\u00a0 Imagine what might be accomplished through human-machine partnerships in the realms of scientific research, medical diagnosis, technological innovation, and strategic problem-solving.\u00a0 Shouldn\u2019t we unleash \u201csuper-intelligences\u201d to work on complex matters like climate change?
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But other scientists and innovators are leery of AI\u2019s startling power. \u00a0What if our servant decides to become our master?\u00a0
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Is it possible that a super-intelligence, for instance, might come to the conclusion that life would be a whole lot easier if human beings \u2013 with our sloppy emotions and lousy track records of impulse-control \u2013 \u00a0were simply pushed aside?
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A few years ago, Time<\/em> magazine\u2019s culture writer Lev Grossman called the idea of a robot uprising \u201cone of our most enduring nightmares.\u201d\u00a0 When DARPA \u2013 the high-tech arm of the U.S. Department of Defense \u2013 revealed its desire to build robots that can do things that are unsafe for humans, like defusing bombs, Grossman pointed out, with mock panic, this is how it always starts in the movies<\/em>.\u00a0
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Then there\u2019s physicist Stephen Hawking, who told the BBC shortly before his death:\u00a0\u201cThe development of artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.\u201d
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Danger, Will Robinson!\u00a0 Danger, Will Robinson!<\/em>
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When it comes to machine-human interfaces and artificial intelligence, two issues are front and center at the present moment.\u00a0
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The first is this important question: What does it mean to be human?\u00a0
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Many scientists \u2013 but certainly not all \u2013 subscribe to the view that human beings are highly evolved biological entities.\u00a0 We are complex machines composed of living tissues.\u00a0 In the words of biologist Francis Crick, \u201cYou are nothing but a pack of neurons.\u201d\u00a0 Those two words, \u201cnothing but,\u201d should fill us with terror.\u00a0 According to Crick and like-minded colleagues, there is no You.\u00a0 Consciousness, free will, and imagination are simply momentary states of brain cell agitation.\u00a0 When your brain is gone, you are gone.\u00a0 Forever.
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According to this view, a bot with advanced AI can equal and surpass any human being, since humans are likewise nothing but machines.
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Those who subscribe to belief in a Creator see things differently. \u00a0Human beings are, as Genesis 1 asserts, made in God\u2019s image.\u00a0 Consciousness is not an \u201cemergent property\u201d from cellular tissues (and therefore just an illusion), but primary evidence that we have been made to know God and be known by God.\u00a0
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Even the most committed materialists find it difficult to explain fundamental aspects of our common experience \u2013 like love, compassion, hope, courage, and the yearning for justice.\u00a0 All of us live as if we are persons<\/em>, not machines.\u00a0
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The second AI-related issue before us concerns the current speed of technological advance.
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How in the world can we possibly make wise decisions about the future when progress in automation is outstripping our ability to engage in careful, essential ethical conversations?\u00a0
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Here we might recall Ian Malcom, one of the characters in Jurassic Park<\/em>, who says to John Hammond, the entrepreneur who has created a theme park swarming with live dinosaurs: \u201cYour scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could<\/em>, they didn\u2019t stop to think if they should<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0
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There\u2019s a huge difference between what is possible and what is wise.\u00a0 It\u2019s urgent for thoughtful people of all persuasions to wrestle with the future of artificial intelligence.\u00a0
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Is there a Robotapocalypse just around the corner?\u00a0 There\u2019s no evidence for such a thing, despite what Hollywood tells us.\u00a0 But followers of Jesus have come to know something else from experience:\u00a0 Whenever we look for security or happiness or progress via things that are Not God, our creations will betray us.\u00a0 Our idols always turn on us.
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As an AI-based program recently reminded me, \u201cIf you don\u2019t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.\u201d
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Yogi Berra never spoke a truer word.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here\u00a0Automation isn\u2019t just the wave of the future.\u00a0 It\u2019s already here.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Extraordinary machines assemble our pickup trucks, sweep our floors, and will soon be driving us around in autonomous vehicles.\u00a0\u00a0Now there\u2019s even a robotic, self-cleaning kitty litter box.\u00a0 As someone who shares life with six cats (four in the barn, two in… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3289"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3291,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3289\/revisions\/3291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}