Carlos F Velázquez

Stuff like this article is why so many smart people, not understanding the technology to even a small degree, assume AI is the spawn of the devil. As a famous science fiction author said, "any sufficiently advanced technology will look like magic (paraphrasing)." And we all know that magic is biblically prohibited.

But AI is not magic. The foundations for AI were written in scientific papers on neural networks almost one hundred years ago. What needed to happen and has happened was the development and creation of super fast computers and digital storage systems of high capacity and speed.

I can personally affirm that the level of apparent intelligence and knowledge of AI is beyond anything that I ever could have imagined. Nor anyone else.

I have shown chats on certain Christian topics to a seminary professor who said it was amazingly on point, or words to that effect. Frankly, if I had not prompted the AI chatbot myself and read what it responded, I would have thought it was the work of a highly educated and knowledgeable biblical scholar.

Yes, I know the devil can quote the Bible and misapply it for evil purposes. But that's not what happened in my example. Can AI be used for evil? Yes, absolutely. Any tool can be used for evil. A surgeon's scalpel can save a life or take a life in the hands of an evil person. Cars and vehicles have been driven by evil people into crowds with the intent to end lives. The wheel was invented in pre-biblical times and used for peaceful transport and for war chariots. By both pagans and God's people.

Woman asks ChatGPT to analyze her date's texts, left speechless by response
newsweek.com

Tim adds:

While the technology itself may not be inherently evil (any more than an atomic bomb is evil in and of itself) but the human heart most definitely is and these machines can and often do reflect the thoughts and desires of their creators.

I am mindful of the Tower of Babel in the Book of Genesis. Was building a big tower evil? Normally no but in that context it was because of the purpose to which it was intended; to ascend to Heaven and seek equality with God. I fear that these AI gizmos are ultimately intended for that same purpose. They are an attempt by Man to create a new god for himself.

Yes, Arthur C. Clark did say any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. And there is a difference between technology and magic, no question. But at what point do the two overlap? We live in an era of witchcraft via science. Transgenderism being the most obvious example; we believe these days an act of will can change a fundamental biological condition, and we use science to serve that magical purpose. AI may bot be witchcraft in and of itself but it certainly makes witchcraft a whole lot easier.

Isaac Asimov wrote a story "The Last Question" about a world-girdling AI called Multivac. Over the course of history people asked the last question "can entropy be reversed". In the end Multivac finds a way; it becomes God and creates the universe. While an interesting story from the atheist Asimov (whom I enjoy reading, or used to when I could see to read) it bespeaks the arrogance of the HUMAN heart, that we can create God. That is, I fear, where this AI stuff is heading.

And everything in the Book of Revelations, about "all eyes will be upon them" and about the complete control the Antichrist has of his slaves,the cashless economy and the works, can only be achieved through these types of computer AI's. The machines themselves may not be evil in themselves but their creators certainly are.

I suspect in the Kingdom Age technology will be a lot more limited. Technology is a tool to circumvent the curse put on Mankind by God in the book of Genesis. It is not evil in itself; in fact God probably is pleased by efforts to improve the lot of Man's neighbors (as indeed that is no small part of the reason for our lives, I suspect) but technology has always been misused. The first guy who sharpened a stick and stabbed the man he was robbing abused technology. And we've abused it ever since.But in the Kingdom Age God Himself will do for us what technology has done. I suspect people will realize how badly it has served us over the centuries not because it is in and of itself bad but because we cannot be trusted with it - like babies with razor blades, it inevitably cuts us.

At any rate there is no stopping this technology. Those who do not embrace it will perish. That is why I believe time is running out for Mankind. We created a new god and the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will inevitably take action against this false deity.

BTW writer Larry Niven once wrote a story about an AI. It was after aliens had visited Earth and the dominant aliens (all of whom went to the Draco Tavern) sold plans for an AI to the tavern owner. They never used them "machines should be proper servants". The AI wasted huge amounts of the hero's money, and in the end just shut itself off, apparently a common problem with those machines which is why the aliens didn't use them. The machines just grew bored over time, dealing with what were to them dimwitted biological intelligences. Then of course there was Skynet...

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 08:25 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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