Can A.I. become ‘god’?
Give me a minute to explain.
Ethan Hunt, played by Tom Cruise, meets an evil Entity in Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning. The hero calls it, “An anti-god that thinks it’s God.” “The Entity” – notice the capitalization – of the sinister agent known as “AI” (artificial intelligence) is given a second movie appearance (a follow-up to the movie Dead Reckoning).
Robert Nicholson in Providence magazine brings together the inevitable Hollywood connection to The Bible – since stories can’t exist without The Story. If I wasn’t so put off by the ethical quandaries I have about AI, I might be more hopeful, as is Ross Douthat in National Review, who says,
“No matter what the nerds in their silicon labyrinths create, a strenuous and indomitable form of physical exertion will always defeat the merely virtual.”
For me, said simply, what is artificial will never replace what is personal.
Thanks for spending this minute with me, Dr. Mark Eckel.
AFTERWORD Over the last few years I have written with growing ethical concerns about artificial intelligence. Something I wrote in my 25 October 2024 email went this way:
One of the presentations I put together this week was for a colleague who has to create a course on “artificial intelligence.” I have written about AI in several past Friday emails. What concerns me most about AI is what I wrote about some weeks ago:
Ethics at the university is something I teach in my courses (I’ve commented on these ideas in other Friday emails) but may not be found in the most important social construction of our day: artificial intelligence (AI). According to Inside Higher Ed boundaries of right and wrong are not being addressed. An excerpt tells the tale:
Colleges are slow to change, and many students say ethics in technology offerings are optional, separate from the “real” work of computing or simply nonexistent. As society reckons with the sometimes-dark side of technology, many in academe are asking how ethics is—or isn’t—integrated into college and university technology curricula. “In most computer science departments, there’s zero mandatory classes in anything having to do with society—whether ethics or social impact.”
Check out what these profs said who study AI. Professors are on the front line of education – they are in the classroom. [BTW, actors don’t like AI and are filing suit; students who are falsely accused of using AI are not happy; and middle school principals do not like AI as it was used to defame them in social media.]
Mark Eckel (MA English, ThM Old Testament, PhD Social Science Research) is Executive Director of the Center for Biblical Integration, Liberty University.
“Give Me a Minute” is an ongoing effort to simply, clearly, and quickly explain aspects of true Truth.
Gratitude, as always, to my longtime friend, videographer, and tech guru Josh for his continued service.