I’ve written on AI before. My opinions about it have changed
as I learn more about it. At first, I believed it was important, mostly benign
but definitely not inconsequential. My tone is turning a bit darker and more
ominous. Mind you, I was raised and steeped in the Book of Revelation,
apocalyptic rhetoric and horror stories about the End Times since I was a
child. I have since moved away from the Dispensationalist Pre-Tribulation,
Premillennial Rapture theology that drives these shocking narratives. Keep this
in mind as I expound in the following post because I am not a proponent of End
Times theology as understood in the Left Behind book series or that of Hal
Lindsey.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) properly understood as super intelligence
is a paradigm shifting subject. When I say paradigm shift, I mean
earth-shattering in its effects and implications. Immanuel Kant used the phrase
in the preface to his Critique of Pure Reason (1787). Kant used the phrase
"revolution of the way of thinking" to refer to a new way humanity
was thinking along the lines of advanced mathematics and Newtonian physics
which completely changed the world. Calculus and Newtonian physics brought us
to the 20th century and the discovery of the world of Quantum Physics which
then made our heads spin faster. This means a paradigm shift is a fundamental
change in the underlying assumptions, beliefs, or frameworks that guide
people’s knowledge or behaviors.
AI is now bringing the largest paradigm shift since the
Newtonian shift paradigm. We are seeing a digi-ndustrial revolution by literally combining digital and industry into
a single entity. The digital is being industrialized into AI or Data Factories
to be able to process data at heretofore unimaginable volumes. It will be like
a million Einsteins working with a million other Einsteins (repeat this
multiplication ad nauseum) working to create 100 million more. This magnitude
of change will then be further folded into accelerated growth that will
increase exponentially. Mindblowing power that will be hard to harness. Its impact needs to be seen on the same scale as the nuclear age.
Industrialized Data or Industrial Intelligence. Think Cyberdyne of Terminator lore. Think the Matrix and altered reality or perception of reality.
It is clear
to many now that this will impact all walks of life whether directly through
replacing jobs or indirectly by invasive surveillance of people’s behavior
through biometrics (facial recognition), consumer data (Amazon), behavioral data (AT&T, Verizon). All types of
behavior whether it be legal or criminal will be quantified and digitized.
Consumers or employees. Rich or poor…although I believe facial recognition will
be used on the non-affluent more than the affluent. It will further bifurcate
social structures making those who control the power of the AI godlike in their
control or information. It will make those that don’t have control of it lesser
human beings as it will socially level the employment field putting many out of
work. With the knowledge created by AI, power will be consolidated to a small
handful of individuals.
Those that control will literally have an equivalent of the
Tree of Knowledge. A counterfeit of the tree in Genesis. The Tree of Knowledge
of Good and Evil is a significant element in the biblical narrative,
specifically in the story of the Garden of Eden. It represents the choice
between obedience to God and the pursuit of knowledge, as Adam and Eve were
commanded not to eat from it.
Eating from this tree led to the awareness of good and evil,
marking a pivotal moment (paradigm shift) in humanity's history in Christian
theology. The tree symbolizes the moral and ethical dilemmas faced by humanity,
and its placement in the Garden was intended to give Adam and Eve the freedom
to choose. The deeper Hebrew meaning of the tree also adds layers to its
interpretation, emphasizing the complexity of knowledge and morality.
These new ‘digital trees’ in computer gardens
(factories) will ironically not allow all people to choose. They will only allow
the small handful to choose and to control even more knowledge and wealth
unless they are benevolent as God was to allow the choice in Genesis to the
lesser amongst us. The problem lays in the fact that men are not benevolent by
their nature they are corrupt and unable. None are righteous like God (Romans
3). The very thing that existed before the violation of the Tree of
Knowledge…morality and righteousness is the very thing absent from this new
tree. So, what we see is not just a secular paradigm shift of knowledge, we see
a spiritual shift. It is an inversion of Genesis. Those with control over these
forms of super intelligence cannot be trusted alone to do the right thing. The
technological Adam and Eves are just as flawed as the original people. Seeking
to be as gods but only failing and falling in the attempt.
The first reason they can’t is already stated above. People
by their very nature are not ‘good’. Men’s minds and hearts are inclined
towards evil. Man’s mind is enmity against God (Romans 8:7) who is the true and
sole possessor of the morality and ability to control this type of advanced
knowledge. Second, knowledge does not equate to wisdom. Just because you know
walking into traffic would injure or end you, doesn’t mean you won’t do it
if you are mentally ill or depressed. Knowledge and wisdom are quite different
things. The third thing resides outside of humanity completely. What happens if
AI or Super intelligence goes rogue or ‘decides’ in its own self-interested?
We know that AI parameters are already functioning outside
of the laws of robotics by being given free rein to ‘think on their own’ and
learning (basically robotic freewill). In his genre-defining 1950 science
fiction book “I, Robot,” author Isaac Asimov laid out the Three Laws of
Robotics which also apply to AI because robots would, by their functional
nature be intelligent machines. The only difference being that AI currently
doesn’t have a body (but soon will).
Rule 1: A robot (AI) may not injure a human being or,
through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
Rule 2: A robot (AI) must obey the orders given it by human
beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
Rule 3: A robot (AI) must protect its own existence as long
as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
The Laws of Robotics are, at minimum, humanity’s reference
point for the appropriate behavior of machine intelligence, and real AI is
failing spectacularly. They provide a foundational but increasingly inadequate
framework for governing modern artificial intelligence. The reasons why these
laws are necessary are because the full scope of AI’s ability and function is
already partly obscure even to experts in the field and even its creators often
struggle to explain exactly how it works. The capitalistic answer for the need
of these laws is much simpler. Morality has taken a backseat to profit. With
all that money in play, industry leaders have failed to lead by example. OpenAI
CEO Sam Altman notoriously dissolved his firm’s safety-oriented team, declaring
himself the sole leader of a new safety board in 2024.We’ve also seen several
researchers quit OpenAI, accusing the company of prioritizing market dominance
over safety. I mean…what could possibly go wrong?
[Post concludes in Part 2]
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