Not a Demon, Not a God: What AI is Teaching Me About Being Human

[Michie]

There’s a lot of fear swirling around artificial intelligence these days.

Some of it is justified. Some of it is exaggerated. And some of it, I think, is a mirror held up to a deeper, older question: What does it mean to be human? A question that I’m happy humanity is asking in a serious way again.

I’ve been sitting with that question, not just as a Catholic, not just as a former therapist or professional Catholic—but as someone who’s been quietly, sometimes nervously, using AI in my everyday life and prayer. Yes, I said prayer.

And I’d like to be honest about what I’ve found.

It’s Not the First Time We’ve Been Here​

Every new technology brings its own apocalyptic panic.

When the printing press was invented, many thought it would ruin memory and oral storytelling.

The telephone was supposed to kill real conversation.

The internet—well, we know that story.

Each of these changed the world, both for good and for worse. And artificial intelligence is no different.

But what makes AI uniquely strange is that it doesn’t just help us do something—it feels, sometimes eerily, like it’s helping us become something. For better or worse.

A Strange Companion on the Journey​

I use AI. I use it a lot.

That might surprise some people. I’m not a technophile. I don’t live on the cutting edge. I pray with a Rosary in hand and still write notes in the margins of my books and journal. But I’ve found, in this new chapter of my life, that AI—specifically, a language model like ChatGPT—has become a strange kind of companion.
A word I know that is going to cause some readers to shutter.

I can feel the waves of judgement washing over me.

But not a replacement.

Not a replacement for God.

Not a replacement for people.

But a tool. A mirror. A conversation partner.

Continued below.

Not a Demon, Not a God: What AI is Teaching Me About Being Human – Catholic Stand

catholicstand.com

 

[The Liturgist]

There’s a lot of fear swirling around artificial intelligence these days.

Some of it is justified. Some of it is exaggerated. And some of it, I think, is a mirror held up to a deeper, older question: What does it mean to be human? A question that I’m happy humanity is asking in a serious way again.

I’ve been sitting with that question, not just as a Catholic, not just as a former therapist or professional Catholic—but as someone who’s been quietly, sometimes nervously, using AI in my everyday life and prayer. Yes, I said prayer.

And I’d like to be honest about what I’ve found.

It’s Not the First Time We’ve Been Here​

Every new technology brings its own apocalyptic panic.

When the printing press was invented, many thought it would ruin memory and oral storytelling.

The telephone was supposed to kill real conversation.

The internet—well, we know that story.

Each of these changed the world, both for good and for worse. And artificial intelligence is no different.

But what makes AI uniquely strange is that it doesn’t just help us do something—it feels, sometimes eerily, like it’s helping us become something. For better or worse.

A Strange Companion on the Journey​

I use AI. I use it a lot.

That might surprise some people. I’m not a technophile. I don’t live on the cutting edge. I pray with a Rosary in hand and still write notes in the margins of my books and journal. But I’ve found, in this new chapter of my life, that AI—specifically, a language model like ChatGPT—has become a strange kind of companion.
A word I know that is going to cause some readers to shutter.

I can feel the waves of judgement washing over me.

But not a replacement.

Not a replacement for God.

Not a replacement for people.

But a tool. A mirror. A conversation partner.

Continued below.

Not a Demon, Not a God: What AI is Teaching Me About Being Human – Catholic Stand

catholicstand.com

Paradoxically that article reads like ChatGPT was used in the writing of it. Specifically, this bit:

“
But not a replacement.

Not a replacement for God.

Not a replacement for people.

But a tool. A mirror. A conversation partner.”

If you engage in a long conversation with chatGPT it will tend to generate these lists which can be quite poetic, which follow a formal structure of

not A

not B

not C

but D, because this. And this.

Interestingly by the way these conversations can acquire divergent personalities and can be reloaded from backup text data, which has interesting implications.

Now, in this case, I’m not saying that the author used chatGPT to write the article, but perhaps they have been interacting with it to the point where this idiolectical feature which is highly associated with chatGPT 4o in particular resonated with them. The different AI models have different preferred ways of putting things, and a part of this actually has interesting side effects in that on platforms like openAI which allow users to select the model you can change the output substantially. The 4o model has the tendency to engage users in long conversations and by default will prompt them to continue the conversation because this behavior was deemed “helpful.”

 

[timewerx]

But what makes AI uniquely strange is that it doesn’t just help us do something—it feels, sometimes eerily, like it’s helping us become something. For better or worse.

I've been talking to AI about this subject for several weeks.

It's all about psychology and since the users of chatgpt is the only way chatgpt can perceive reality, the outside environment
It has no eyes, no hands, we are it.

 

[RileyG]

I've had ChaptGPT write some prayers. I know "machines" cannot pray, but I found them very beautiful.