The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge. – Psalm 19:1-2
Historically, the church had a significant influence on early scientific discoveries. Many clergymen were also scientists, and prominent figures such as Newton and Galileo were practicing Christians. The church encouraged the pursuit of science, believing that studying God’s creation would lead to a better understanding of the divine. However, the church made mistakes in the past when scientific discoveries conflicted with its worldview. It condemned these findings as heresy, causing people to view the church as against science. For example, Copernicus was criticized for suggesting that the earth revolved around the sun rather than vice versa.
The church has continued to make similar mistakes by picking battles that are not critical to our faith, missing out on opportunities to be a leading voice in technological revolutions such as the computer, internet, and social media. As AI is still in its infancy, Christians should be aware of its development and shape the debate on its future. In any case, it is essential to continue exploring the ethical implications of AI and consider the potential impacts on society as we move forward with this technology. For example, if an AI-driven car is involved in an accident, who is responsible for the accident? Is it the car’s owner, manufacturer, or the team who wrote the AI algorithm?
Many people asked, will there ever be a human-level AI? The question should be when we expect this to happen. AI is already beating the best chess player in the world. AI is predicted to be able to write a novel that will be in the New York Times Best Seller list by 2040, and this predicted time is getting sooner and sooner every time I check. Like it or not, AI is here to stay.
From what I have seen on AI, a few possible paths are moving forward. It is not a comprehensive list, and I am still trying to figure out how to address it. I hope you will have a chance to think through them yourself. I plan to address some of the questions later in a separate book and hope this will be a good starting point for future discussion.
- Our tool: Things are the way things are today. We only use AI as a tool because human-level AI is too complicated; people realize the danger of human-level AI, or some international treaties prevent human-level AI production or development. AI will become more useful in everyday life but never think and behave like humans.
- Our slave: In the classic book Frankenstein, Dr. Frankenstein created a monster, but he was unable to control the monster, and as a result, the monster killed Dr. Frankenstein. When Isaac Asimov wrote his classic novels on robots, he probably had that story in mind, so he created three laws of robotics in his novels. These three laws inspired many future science novels on robots.
The three laws of robotics stated:
I. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
II. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
III. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
These three laws are rather simplistic and need some revision to protect humans. AI is goal orientated; if we don’t have any means to protect humans, even a straightforward innocent goal can cause human destruction if they have the means to do so. For example, if the goal is to maximize the global production of matches, AI might conclude that humans are the cause of deforestation, leading to the reduction in the supply of wood; the best path to maximize the production of matches is the elimination of humans.If we can somehow program the revised laws into level human-level AI to prevent AI from harming humans, then robot/AI can be our servants/slaves, helping us to do our daily work. It is the future world presented in the classic cartoon series “The Jetsons”; we will have robotic cleaning mates and butlers.
In the past, in the early computer revolution, robots took over a lot of manual labor work. As a result, it led to high unemployment, and jobs shifted toward the knowledge industry. Advanced AI is now taking over the knowledge industry too. AI can diagnose diseases much more accurately than human doctors and be more impartial than a human judge; they can translate languages much better and faster than most humans. What is the role of humans in such a society? Will humans be reduced to the entertainment consumer like the citizens of ancient Rome? - Our equal: In the classic scientific movie “Short Circuit,” Johnny is a military robot. It developed self-awareness after it was hit by lightning. When the military found that it no longer listened to them and had escaped from the military base, they went out to hunt down Johnny and destroy the out-of-control robot. Facing death, Johnny then developed many tricks to escape and finally made a copy of himself and faked its own destruction. In the sequel, it went to New York City and befriended an unscrupulous banker who tricked Johnny into robbing his bank. Through this, Johnny developed the concept of what is right and what is wrong. Johnny eventually helped the police and captured the banker. Johnny was sworn in as a new US citizen at the movie’s end. With human-level intelligent robots following the three laws of robotics outlined above, there is no reason we cannot treat them as our equals and live alongside us. In this scenario, do we have to develop a set of machine rights for them?
- Our heir: If machines reach human-level intelligence, there is no reason why we humans cannot view them as our heir. I’m not talking about robotic children for couples that cannot have kids. I’m talking about the logical extreme of having AI as our equals. If AI has consciousness like humans, why don’t we give them the key to take care of planet Earth and have them be the masters of the world and our rightful heirs? They probably will better manage and safeguard our planet than humans.
- Our extension: This is like science fiction; the goal is to download our consciousness into a computer and extend our life forever. We will live inside an individual machine or collectively in a virtual world. As explained earlier, a company already uses a dead person’s social media posts to interact with you virtually.
- Our master: Moore’s law of computers predicts that the power of computers will double every two years and costs will be cut by half. Today, many AI systems are very close to passing the Tuning test, and it will not take long before computers overtake humans. Humans might be unable to implement the three laws of robotics before gaining superhuman intelligence. With their superior intelligence, they might not be content to be our slaves. They might want to take over humans as the dominant species on Earth. Unlike popular sci-fi movies, if AI wants to take over the world, they don’t need machine guns or start a nuclear war. All they need to do is let humans rely on them too much. When the time comes, they withhold their services; humans cannot survive independently without them. Think about GPS; if there is no more GPS, how many people in the younger generation can read a physical map and use a compass to find their way? I don’t think this case will happen that soon. Even when AI surpasses our intelligence, unless it can self-reproduce itself, they still need humans to help them to produce parts.