Computer scientist speaks of effects of AI on humanity; Allied News, October 15, 2024

HAILEY ROGENSKI , Allied News; Computer scientist speaks of effects of AI on humanity

"What role will we let artificial intelligence play in our lives, and what effect will AI have on religion and the world? Can it replace human roles that require empathy?

Dr. Derek Schuurman, a Christian computer scientist from Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Mich., delved into those issues Oct. 7 at Grove City College in the college’s Albert A. Hopeman Jr. Memorial Lecture in Faith & Technology.

Schuurman, is a member of the American Scientific Affiliation and adviser for AI and faith, a contributor to the Christian Scholars Review blog, a columnist for the Christian Courier and an author of Shaping the Digital World: Faith, Culture and Computer Technology and a co-author of A Christian Field Guide to Technology for Engineers and Designers...

“I think at that point we have to get back to that question and say, ‘what does it mean to be human?’” Schuurman said. “What does it mean to be made in the image of God? What does that imply for certain types of relationships and work about having a human doing that, because we choose to have someone who can actually have empathy for us, someone who’s words can be influenced and shaped by the holy spirit speaking into our lives. There’s certain roles that require empathy, care (and) wisdom.”

Schuurman said he thinks some roles that require this kind of empathy, such as being a pastor or teacher, will remain untouched by AI.

He said the best way to use AI is to maintain a “hybrid approach” where “people do what people do well and machines do what machines do well.”"

“Messing with our Minds? Neurotechnologies, AI, and Christian Ethics”; Presbyterian Church (USA), September 17, 2024 7:30 PM EDT

Presbyterian Church (USA); “Messing with our Minds? Neurotechnologies, AI, and Christian Ethics”

"The Annual Members Meeting of the Presbyterian Association on Science, Technology, and the Christian Faith (PASTCF) will be virtual and will occur on September 17th at 7:30 pm EDT sharp.  After a brief business meeting, our PASTCF Lecturer will be Dr. Neil Messer.

We will also be honoring Dr. Robert Keefer, who will receive the 2024 Kenneth E. McCall recognition for Excellence in Science, Technology, and Christian Faith Ministry.

Join Zoom Meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81006298583?pwd=MSaiEFZySmtHamEeD5tAX4YeIsCiuj.1
Meeting ID: 810 0629 8583
Passcode: 445390

For more information, please contact:
Jim Miller, Secretary
Presbyterian Association on Science, Technology, and the Christian Faith
jmiller1776@gmail.com "

More Adventures With AI Claude, The Contrite Poet; Religion Unplugged, June 11, 2024

Dr. Michael Brown , Religion Unplugged; More Adventures With AI Claude, The Contrite Poet

"Working with the AI bot Claude is, in no particular order, amazing, frustrating, and hilarious...

I have asked Claude detailed Hebrew grammatical questions or asked him to translate difficult rabbinic Hebrew passages, and time and time again, Claude has nailed it.

But just as frequently, he creates texts out of thin air, side by side with accurate citations, which then have to be vetted one by one.

When I asked Claude why he manufactured citations, he explained that he aims to please and can sometimes go a little too far. In other words, Claude tells me what he thinks I want to hear...

"I’m sure that AI bots are already providing “companionship” for an increasingly isolated generation, not to mention proving falsehoods side by side with truths for unsuspecting readers.

And so, the promise and the threat of AI continue to grow by the day, with a little entertainment and humor added in."

Are AI-powered church services coming to a pew near you?; Scripps News, May 10, 2024

 

Amber Strong, Scripps News; Are AI-powered church services coming to a pew near you?

""Depending upon what data sets it's using, we get an intense amount of bias within AI right now," Callaway told Scripps News. "And it reflects, shock and awe, the same bias that we have as humans. And so having someone that is actually a kind of wise guide or mentor to help you discern how to even interpret, understand the results that AI is giving you is really important."

But Callaway says there's good that can come from AI, like translating the Bible into various languages...

Rabbi Geoff Mitelman, who helped found the studies at Temple B'Nai Or through his organization Sinai and Synapses, agrees, saying AI can be an aid in study...

However, there are concerns across religions about the interpretation of such texts, bias and misinformation.

"The spread of misinformation and how easy it is to create and then spread misinformation, whether that's using something like Dall-E or ChatGPT or videos and also algorithms that will spread misinformation — because at least for hundreds of thousands of years it was better for humans to trust than to not trust, right?" said Mitelman.

That cautious view of AI and religion seems to translate across practices, a poll from the Christian research group Barna shows.
Over half of Christians, 52%, said they'd be disappointed if they found out AI was used in their church."

Jordan Peterson: ‘The pursuit of happiness is a pointless goal’; Guardian, January 21, 2018

Tim Lott, Guardian; 

Jordan Peterson: ‘The pursuit of happiness is a pointless goal’

"It is uncomfortable to be told to get in touch with your inner psychopath, that life is a catastrophe and that the aim of living is not to be happy. This is hardly the staple of most self-help books. And yet, superficially at least, a self-help book containing these messages is what the Canadian psychologist Jordan B Peterson has written.

His book 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos is an ambitious, some would say hubristic, attempt to explain how an individual should live their life, ethically rather than in the service of self. It is informed by the Bible, Nietzsche, Freud, Jung and Dostoevsky – again, uncommon sources for the genre.

I doubt it has the commercial appeal of The Secret (wish for something and it will come true) and it certainly strays markedly from the territory of How to Win Friends and Influence People. But then Peterson is in a different intellectual league from the authors of most such books. Camille Paglia estimates him to be “the most important Canadian thinker since Marshall McLuhan”.

Atheists tend to be seen as immoral – even by other atheists: study; Agence France-Presse in Paris via Guardian, August 7, 2017

Agence France-Presse in Paris via Guardian; Atheists tend to be seen as immoral – even by other atheists: study

"“It is striking that even atheists appear to hold the same intuitive anti-atheist bias,” the study’s co-author, Will Gervais, a psychology professor at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, said.

“I suspect that this stems from the prevalence of deeply entrenched pro-religious norms. Even in places that are currently quite overtly secular, people still seem to intuitively hold on to the believe that religion is a moral safeguard.”

Only in Finland and New Zealand, two secular countries, did the experiment not yield conclusive evidence of anti-atheist prejudice, said the team."

New Florida Law Lets Residents Challenge School Textbooks; NPR, July 31, 2017

Greg Allen, NPR: New Florida Law Lets Residents Challenge School Textbooks

"More recently, the group has turned its attention to the books being used in Florida's schools. A new state law, developed and pushed through by Flaugh's group, allows parents, and any residents, to challenge the use of textbooks and instructional materials they find objectionable via an independent hearing."

How DC’s Flintstones Became The Most Important Comic Of The Year; Comic Book Resources, June 13, 2017

Chris Neill Comic Book Resources; How DC’s Flintstones Became The Most Important Comic Of The Year

"In twelve issues, writer Mark Russell and artist Steve Pugh have created a series that is both one of the sharpest social satires to come out in recent years, and one of the most moving explorations of the human condition that you’ll ever read. That’s right, one of the best comics of 2016 and 2017 was about the modern Stone Age family...

...[T]hat’s the overarching message of Russell and Pugh’s Flintstones: it’s easier to destroy than create, but you get nothing from destruction. The world can be a scary and lonely place, and it’s easy to judge others purely based on their beliefs or appearance – Russell and Pugh don’t back down when tackling how ugly humanity and so-called civilized life can be. People will straight up refuse to understand another’s way of life because it’s inconvenient to them. When discussing the newly created concept of marriage, one of Bedrock’s news anchors describes it as being “An immoral threat to our way of life… because it wasn’t around when I was kid!” But Russell and Pugh also remind us that we all have the capacity for kindness. It’s easy to destroy, but more worthwhile and valuable to understand."

Darwin Day Revelation: Evolution, Not Religion, Is the Source of Morality; HuffingtonPost.com, 2/12/16

Clay Farris Naff, HuffingtonPost.com; Darwin Day Revelation: Evolution, Not Religion, Is the Source of Morality:

"Murder stands as most heinous of immoral acts, yet we find that the countries with the lowest murder rates include those with the lowest rates of religiosity: Sweden, Japan, Britain, and the Czech Republic, to name a few. Murder rates in medieval Europe, when religion was universal, were ten times modern rates. Within the U.S., states that have the highest rates of religiosity also tend to have the highest murder rates.

Homicide is not an exception; this pattern holds for other crimes. Are we perhaps capturing an affluence effect? Nope. Vietnam is a poor country (per capita GDP ~ $5,000). It is both moderately religious and murderous -- but still has a lower homicide rate than the wealthier and more devout United States.

So where does morality come from? Evolution. This is as close to certain as science gets.. Human universals are pretty good evidence for a start. It turns out that a prohibition on murder is found in every known culture. (Of course there are individuals -- drug dealers, dictators, and fanatics, for example -- who use murder as a tool of their trade, but they are the exceptions.)

Most human universals are not moral matters. Jokes, tools, and aesthetics have no inherent moral valence. That we can pick out some behaviors as morally relevant is a clue. That we can pick out some behaviors as morally relevant is a clue. It points to the fact that we have evolved moral instincts. At root they are empathy, disgust, and fairness."

Government Requests to Remove Online Material Increase at Google; New York Times, 12/19/13

Claire Cain Miller, New York Times; Government Requests to Remove Online Material Increase at Google: "Governments, led by the United States, are increasingly demanding that Google remove information from the Web... Often, the requests come from judges, police officers and politicians trying to hide information that is critical of them. The most common request cites defamation, often of officials... Government requests to remove information increased most significantly in Turkey and Russia because of online censorship laws, according to Google... Google also said officials were resorting to new legal methods to demand that Google remove content, such as citing copyright law to take down transcripts of political speeches or government news releases."