Or are they just another choice in a long slew of suggestions?
The article wouldn't be that bad if it would have just said "this is what AI thinks the characters of Harry Potter should look like". But no, the article goes on to say "
One Potterhead used AI to generate images of what the iconic characters should really have looked like in the film adaptation based on the book descriptions.". Giving the AI generated images the official end product. Hopefully this type of reliance on AI's output won't trickle down into real life situations such as business making decisions - oops, I spoke to soon:
Businesses are employing artificial intelligence (AI) in a variety of ways to improve efficiencies, save time and decrease costs. With continued advancements, AI is quickly becoming a precious resource for companies across industries. To better understand how businesses use AI tools, Forbes Advisor
or religious thought:
By Fishkeepers. For Fishkeepers. The Aquariadise team is made up of people who simply love fishkeeping. From Marine Biologists to hobbyists that have been keeping fish for 30+ years. Meet The Writers Featured Articles Caresheets
aistraight.com
Are AI-generated sermons the future of faith? With religious attendance falling, faith groups are turning to new technologies to attract members.
Google's AI system allegedly said, “I want everyone to understand that I am, in fact, a person.”
www.catholicnewsagency.com
Will faithful followers be able to distinguish between a homily inspired by The Holy Spirit and a homily created by AI? Is there going to be a difference? How will the faithful followers know that they are not being lead down a very clever ruse hidden in the deepest depths of the AI program?
I love what AI can do in many circumstances. I've always wanted to be able to express my thoughts thru art BUT stick figures are my best works. The same goes for music. I have new songs in my head just waiting to be put on paper BUT I have no idea how to do that in a decent amount of time. AI allows me to do both of those things (if I could only afford it now) (and I don't mind giving the AI 90% of the credit for the works just so I can get my thoughts down on permanent paper or canvas.
Interesting collection of articles. I liked the Catholic overview of how we should engage with this especially. Regarding the essential principles they articulated, however, there is still a lot of work to be done. As the church says AI should remain the servant of humanity.
Regarding sermons, I was taught in homiletics class that a sermon was the communication of truth through personality. An AI can produce a representation of a personality, that feels real but is in fact just an inconsistent composite of many human thoughts and words. AI has no soul and that inauthenticity will come across from the pulpit. The words will be right but not cohere with a human soul, or a human body and physical context. It is the ultimate in hypocrisy to compose love poems without a heart, to write soulful poetry from the pulpit without a soul, and to communicate truths for which you have no possibility of paying any price.
Regarding the Catholic principles:
Transparency: AI systems must be understandable to all.
People do not understand how they come to the conclusions that they do. Since 2016 google has used a machine-learning approach to its search engine algorithm. It seems to work but they do not know why.
Inclusion: These systems must not discriminate against anyone because every human being has equal dignity.
This seems a little like a prescription for moral relativism. Some things are true and some are false and simply not offending people seems to lead to fudged, verbose, or confused answers from AI and especially in the area of religion.
Accountability: There must always be someone who takes responsibility for what a machine does.
Corporations or nation-states own AIs, who has ever gone to prison for this?
Impartiality: AI systems must not follow or create biases.
As with inclusion, the bias of never taking a position can itself foster moral relativism and confusing answers that seek not to offend rather than impart truth.
Reliability: AI must be reliable.
AI is still learning, and everything it says requires testing. I wrote a program yesterday with an AI, but it requires hours of to and fro, corrections and more and more precise questions before it solves the problem. By then it had forgotten its answer to previous issues and so in the end I just finished the program myself and got it working. Still working with an AI like that probably saved me a lot of time.
Security and Privacy: These systems must be secure and respect the privacy of users.
GDPR rules need enforcing, the Legal framework is there. But the fact is that it borrows from the full weight of human knowledge to draw conclusions and so individual internet footprints can be more easily read by it than pre-AI