“The statement comes at a time when artificial intelligence (AI) is growing in use with such products as Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa to driverless cars and applications in such fields as business, finance, health care and the military.” - BPNews
“The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission will host an event in Washington, D.C., at which the “Evangelical Statement of Principles on Artificial Intelligence” will be released. The document is intended to provide the church with an ethical foundation for how to think about artificial intelligence” - BPNews
“The who’s who of star tech companies together spend billions to crack even a sliver of the great problem of true intelligence. But my toddler, unbidden and unsupervised, does this entirely of his own agency. He is an analog masterpiece.” - CToday
Some explanation of what it actually is, a brief history, and some present-day uses… Using Artificial Intelligence to Address Criminal Justice Needs
“A top bishop in the Church of England issued his “Ten Commandments of artificial intelligence,” during a major policy debate in London last week, based on the importance of trust and ethics in the evolving technology.” CPost
Shibuya Mirai is an AI chatbot designed to interact as a seven-year-old boy. Mirai was granted residency status in Tokyo, marking another milestone in the journey to the development of consciousness in machines. Cognitive scientists Dehaene, Lau, and Kouider suggest that “consciousness arises in the only physical system that undoubtedly possesses it: the human brain,”1 and they essentially consider consciousness to be computations, report, and self-monitoring.
Mirai possesses at least computational aspects of consciousness and even personality, and gives occasion for inquiry into whether or not these attributes ultimately require a divine spark, or whether they can be demonstrated simply through natural processes. In short: if humanity can create machines that can fulfill core human functions, perhaps that would be evidence that no supernatural creator is necessary at all.
The pursuit of artificial intelligence is an incredible one, and significantly worthwhile, even if only for different reasons. Mirai’s existential setting illustrates the value of the process, and evidences some vital truths:
“The ethics of artificial intelligence (AI) has drawn comments from the White House and British House of Commons in recent weeks, along with a nonprofit organization established by Amazon, Google, Facebook, IBM and Microsoft. Now, Baptist computer scientists have called Christians to join the discussion.” BPNews
