OK, so this is going to be a shameless plug for a short podcast series I’m hosting which explores Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Faith and Humanity, called “Faithfully Forward.” Lest you cheekily ask “And what qualifies you to be an expert on AI?” please note that I am the host of the series, definitely not the expert. But I am excited at the experts we (Dr Aaron Chidgzey and I) have been able to pull together for these podcasts.
First up (4 Nov) is Dr Michael Jensen, rector of St Mark’s Church, Darling Point, the author of numerous books and a co-host of the popular With All Due Respects Podcast. Michael explores some of the pastoral questions that are raised by AI.
He is followed (11 Nov) by A/Prof Victoria Lorrimar who Directs the Centre for Technology and Human Futures at the University of Notre Dame. She is also the Editor of the Cambridge Elements in Religion and Technology series, and is a noted ethicist.
On the 18 Nov we download my interview with Michael McQueen, a leading Futurist and author of the influential Mindstuck: Mastering the Art of Changing Minds.
Finishing the series (25 Nov) is my discussion with Prof Graham Ward, Emeritus Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford University and one of the world’s leading theologians.
But into why this topic matters.
While rapid change has been the “new” normal for the last 100 years (and my, the changes anyone who has lived to 100 has seen) AI is not only ushering in dramatic shifts at a pace that leaves us gasping, but also in a range of areas wider than we can yet fully comprehend. Ask the “what jobs will still be around in 30 years time?” question and only the foolish will hazard a guess (and at best it will be a guess). Some suggest that occupations focusing on relationships and the human dimensions will be hard to replace, but hard evidence pushes back. Many aged care centres are already using humanoid robots like Daisy and Abby to converse with residents and lower their levels of loneliness. I guess being a pastor, I struggle to imagine a bot pastoring a local church, though many (perhaps most) pastors are now using some forms of AI to help with sermon ideas, as well as assisting in writing devotional material and the like. Lest you wonder, no I do not use AI to write these blogs (other than for minor fact checking), not so much because I am opposed to the idea as I am anxious that if I delegate my sentence construction to Claude, I will soon forget how to write. Use it or lose it is more than a slogan. When we stop using basic skills they start to fade away.
As AI progressively takes on more of the roles humans have performed, at what point do we stop being fully human?
Some will dismiss this question noting that from a historical perspective much change has centred around humans finding ways to lighten their load. Be it from tools to til the earth, to washing machines to computers that compute, in one way or another we have been making our lot easier, and doing so at no risk to our fundamental humanity. Why should adopting AI be any different? Fair enough. I am sure we will be fully human when cars are driverless (as they increasingly are), when clever poems are churned out by our favourite AI program, and when our X-Rays and Scans are more accurately reviewed, diseases detected more quickly and accurately, and treatment more appropriately administered. All this is about improved and faster outcomes. But is there a point when it topples?
There is a question I have often posed to students in my ethics classes. I create a scenario for them. Someone has been in a terrible accident or had a major stroke or – the details are not pertinent. What is, is that they are now the palest of versions of who they once were, on life support, no longer able to interact with anyone, not conscious, not – well it’s a series of things that they are now “not”. And I pose the question: Are they still human? Over 98% of students reply with an emphatic yes, anxious that if the reply were no, euthanasia or some comparable option might stare them in the face. “Why?” I innocently ask, wanting them to dig into the question more deeply. After all, if we are not aware of who we are, are we human? Isn’t self awareness (or our conscious awareness of being) a key human quality (“I think therefore I am,” extended to “I know I think, therefore I am.”) No, no, the 98% push back. We are human because we are Imago Dei (after all, this is theological ethics).
I think they are right. What defines us as humans is our unique identity of being Imago Dei – bearers of the image of the God who made us – tarnished bearers, to be sure, but still bearers of that image. Or as Ps 8:5 puts it: “You have made us a little lower than the angels.” It’s an enormous compliment – though notice it is also a call to humility. Angels do rank higher than we do! But we are indeed “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Ps 139:14).
Being made in the image of God is not something that is ever undone. It is not “doing” dependent. In the example I give to students I focus on things that humans often lose along the way – what happens when we can no longer do the things we once did – even profoundly significant things, like breathe or remember our name. And the answer remains the same. We are still Imago Dei – even as life sees the shift through many different versions of being “me”. There is the baby version, the teenage stretch, the prime of life me, the gently fading away version of me… but I am always still Imago Dei.
What about when AI takes my job (and please don’t whistle in the wind and say it won’t. Yes, it might create some new ones, but the magnitude of change that is just ahead is enormous, and the breeze is already rising). Well on that day I need to remember that my humanity is not tied to the work I do, but to the God whose image I have been made in. And this God has given to humanity the ability to create AI – an ability we have only just unleashed. And like all newly unleashed forces, our challenge is to make it a force for good, not evil. For AI could see the ending of global poverty, a new and level playing field for all, new opportunities to dive ever more deeply into human creativity and imagination, and time to forge profoundly satisfying relationships.
Or it couldn’t…
It could see power in the hands of very (very) few. Utopia could be Dystopia. It’s not an issue we can run from. And why would we? After all, part of being human is our ability to face challenge and threat, and to turn it into opportunity and growth. At our best we do it with humble dependence on Almighty God, whose intelligence is beyond measure, and who is anything but artificial.
Hope you will tune in to Faithfully Forward.
Nice chatting…
Photo by Tara Winstead: https://www.pexels.com/photo/an-artificial-intelligence-illustration-on-the-wall-8849295/
