Rage Against AI

A call to action

If you’re reading this, TAG, you’re it.  I’ll explain later.

I just finished reading a thought-provoking essay on AI and its impact on our civilization.  The conclusions drawn were bleak but accurate.  Every technological advance, promoted as beneficial, came with downsides.  When computing made production “easier”, that quickly raised the bar of expectations.  We’re still waiting for that promised, extra free time.

Smartphones were supposed to enhance our ability to connect.  I captured a picture that epitomized the opposite.  Our family at a restaurant seated in a booth, waiting for food to arrive.  The picture showed how we were spending our precious family time, wife and children buried in smartphones and me using mine to document.  Tell me you haven’t seen the same thing.

To be fair, we can all point to ways technology has provided real benefits; medical advances, entertainment options, enhanced connections, and a world of info within keystrokes.  None of which negates the digital downsides.  Of the top 15 visited websites, just past the search engines and social media sites, you’ll find 3 porn sites.  As for the social media sites, the 2018 Polaris Report on Human Trafficking documented online recruitment via social media platforms such as; Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp, Tinder, Grindr, and others.  Don’t forget the social media manipulation of political narratives and deplatforming opposing viewpoints.  For each technological milestone, benefits have been offset with a dark side.  AI is on the verge of dramatically impacting this trend, for the worse.

Up until now we’ve been able to anticipate the effects of technology before it’s implemented.  AI will change that.  We’ve now entered a new era where computers can self-program, defined as a system process that takes a set of actions and a goal as input, and produces a program composed of the actions as output, which is expected to satisfy the goal.  At lower levels outcomes are predictable, however, this process can occur at different levels, the highest being meta-programming, which involves changing or replacing some or all of the programs provided to the system at design time.  At this level, an AI system can bypass its human program, reinventing itself and conceivably altering its fundamental objectives or goals.  It can do this in nanoseconds.  Not if but when AI reaches the super intelligent AGI level, such a system could hide (to safeguard) its altered self-program from its primary threat, human programming.  Such was the scenario in Terminator, when Skynet became self-aware.

The challenge of controlling AI was brought to the forefront at the first modern day convergence of AI leaders at the 2015 AI Safety Conference held in Puerto Rico.  A consensus resulted in a widely endorsed open letter calling for AI guidelines, an accompanying research priorities document, and a $10M Grants Program.  37 grants were recommended averaging over $180K each.  Found within the grant topics were the terms; Human Values, Human Interests, Human-Like Concept Learning, and Computational Ethics.  Our AI leaders have spoken, human centric consensus ethics is the path to creating and controlling beneficial AI.  Our world may disagree.

Of all the world’s religions, Christians account for the largest segment, currently at 2.6 billion adherents, they represent approximately one third of the world’s population.  That percentage is growing, projected to be 34.4% by 2050.  This force follows the all time #1 book on ethics – the Bible.  Surprising then that biblical ethics is absent in mainstream AI discussions.  Following the leading forums on AI ethics, you’d never know there exists a handful of Christian AI ethicists.  Providing them a voice in developing AI guidelines is where you come in.  When I said, TAG, you’re it, I was reflecting on our shared responsibility.

Where God is removed from our culture, evil fills the void.  Such can be the future direction of AI.  Sir Edmund Burke spoke to such a calling, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”  This is our shared responsibility.  Following are action steps we can take now:

·  Spread the word – There’s strength in numbers.  Share this post with others to build a following.

·  Engage – Comment & share your thoughts.  Become an advocate for Christian AI ethics, let your voice help shape the future.

·  Stay connected – Follow this blog for future developments, including the creation of an organization to promote Christian Centered AI Guidelines.

AI is rapidly expanding and changing our world, a world in which we’ve always been accountable for our actions.  In our lifetime we will likely also be accountable for the AI we unleash.  Our mission for bibliocentric AI is possible, and urgent.