AI’s growth is exponential: What are the implications for humans and the Church?

[Michie]

SEOUL, South Korea — AI is changing the world as we know it, and the Church has a responsibility to be ahead of the curve, says Christian technologist Nick Kim.

Kim, who has spent over 20 years working in the technology sector, including time at Google and YouTube, says AI is unlike anything else ever invented because while these “make our lives easier, they don’t really challenge what it means to be human.”

“AI is fundamentally different from any other invention because it is taking our most prized asset, our intelligence, and we are now outsourcing it to a machine,” he said.

Continued below.

AI’s growth is exponential: What are the implications for humans and the Church?

AI is changing the world as we know it and the Church has a responsibility to be ahead of the curve, says Christian technologist Nick Kim

www.christianpost.com

 

[JustaPewFiller]

Well, we can't really put a bucket over our heads and pretend it isn't going to impact the Christian world. AI can (and probably will ) impact almost every area of human existence sooner or later.

 

[John G.]

Am I the only one who thinks this AI scare is similar to the Y2K scare which turned out to be... nothing?

 

[JimR-OCDS]

Am I the only one who thinks this AI scare is similar to the Y2K scare which turned out to be... nothing?

Y2K and AI are not the same problem.

My biggest concern is that AI could get into a nation's major defense system and present a false reading that
they are under a nuclear attack.

 

[timothyu]

Jesus returning as an AI doppleganger? I wouldn't doubt it is already being worked on and it will be nothing but the opinion of its AI creator and not the will of God.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

SEOUL, South Korea — AI is changing the world as we know it, and the Church has a responsibility to be ahead of the curve, says Christian technologist Nick Kim.

Kim, who has spent over 20 years working in the technology sector, including time at Google and YouTube, says AI is unlike anything else ever invented because while these “make our lives easier, they don’t really challenge what it means to be human.”

“AI is fundamentally different from any other invention because it is taking our most prized asset, our intelligence, and we are now outsourcing it to a machine,” he said.

Continued below.

AI’s growth is exponential: What are the implications for humans and the Church?

AI is changing the world as we know it and the Church has a responsibility to be ahead of the curve, says Christian technologist Nick Kim

www.christianpost.com

.... while I think the jury is still out on the fullest implication of A.I. as a part of modern technology, I've been leaning toward something akin to John Lennox's sentiments on the subject, and I've been doing so for the past couple of decades. That's all I'll say on the topic.

 

[FireDragon76]

.... while I think the jury is still out on the fullest implication of A.I. as a part of modern technology, I've been leaning toward something akin to John Lennox's sentiments on the subject, and I've been doing so for the past couple of decades. That's all I'll say on the topic.

I think Nick Kim's analysis also focuses alot on a particular Protestant view of human personhood, too: intelligence as measured by use of instrumental reason and, moreover, efficiency.

Sure, if your religious tradition views human personhood as fulfilled and sanctified through selling your labor to capital in the name of greater efficiency (which is pretty much synonymous with how Protestants have traditionally thought of work), AI can look really threatening. But technology and automation has been eroding that for decades, and one might argue, it's coming from a benighted perspective to fail to see how alot of the "damage" has already been done, and alot of AI is just the "coup de grace" to what is a long story beginning with Britain and the Netherland's economic and industrial innovations.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

I think Nick Kim's analysis also focuses alot on a particular Protestant view of human personhood, too: intelligence as measured by use of instrumental reason and, moreover, efficiency.

Sure, if your religious tradition views human personhood as fulfilled and sanctified through selling your labor to capital in the name of greater efficiency (which is pretty much synonymous with how Protestants have traditionally thought of work), AI can look really threatening. But technology and automation has been eroding that for decades, and one might argue, it's coming from a benighted perspective to fail to see how alot of the "damage" has already been done, and alot of AI is just the "coup de grace" to what is a long story beginning with Britain and the Netherland's economic and industrial innovations.

I don't have a specific 'religious tradition' [or in this context, a specific Christian denomination] to serve as a foil for my worldview, and my view on eschatology is "my own," emerging out of all I've studied over the years from a spectrum of sources rather than being foisted upon me through overt overtures from dogmatic preachers. My view on human personhood is likewise emergent from a wide swath of considerations from various scholars.

So, while I do think that we are trending toward a form of Brave New World and/or Metropolis, my view of economic arrangements in society are critical of both Communism and Late Modern Capitalism and not beholden to either one.

But yeah, we are now in the Age of Talking Icons............... I think this should be a concern for everyone. Not because of what the A.I. will do. No, rather, it is what can be done with it by ill-intended individuals, over and above everyone else's shoulders, without social contracts, and without a mutually agreed upon and consenting mode of application where all involved are fully informed. Like I alluded to above: it's a Brave New World a'coming, and some of the things that Paul Kingsnorth has been saying of late---who is a former dabbler in Buddhism and Wicca and now an Orthodox Christian---gives me further food for thought about our technocratically oriented future.