I have seen enough science fiction movies to be a little concerned when our government announces — to great fanfare — a $500 billion artificial intelligence (AI) system being funded by dozens of billionaires and multinational companies.
To make matters worse, they call this new creation “Stargate.”
I guess it could have been worse. They could have called it “Skynet,” the name of the system that took over the world in all those “Terminator” movies. “Stargate” is also a sci-fi movie title about meddling with ancient technology that almost went south if not for the heroic actions of the movie stars in the film. It’s a good thing those sci-fi movies had an action star to come to the rescue.
We, on the other hand, are on our own. Yet, the more I think about the advance of technology, I realize it is not something to worry about obsessively. There is a reason “do not be afraid” is the most common phrase in the New Testament. Yes, it can be fearful, but technology can also be a means toward many goods and can even point us in the direction of the divine.
The science bequeathed to the world by the ancient Greeks, rediscovered by so many Church-sponsored scientists, expanded our understanding of the universe. Contrary to popular culture, the quest for scientific and technological discovery did nothing to make any believing Christian doubt their faith.
Another concept held so dearly by many people today is treating science and technology as a source of truth. Revealed is infallible. The scientific method to get at the truth is not. Galileo’s development of the telescope brought him to the correct conclusion that the Earth revolved around the sun, not the other way around. But his calculations of the centered orientation of our sun in relation to the universe as a whole were off by several trillion light years.
The Shroud of Turin was seemingly exposed as a fraud by carbon-14 dating performed on a small fragment of the cloth in the 1980s. Later investigations using newer technology and testing techniques now point to the shroud’s age comporting much closer to the time of Jesus. Advanced computer science recently applied to the shroud revealed the image coming from a three-dimensional source, and the latest photographic technology shows the coins that were placed on the figure’s eyes were minted during the protectorate of Pontius Pilate.
Nowhere does technology and science bolster Catholic teaching stronger than when it comes to life issues. The pro-choice argument that most abortions are the removal of a “clump of cells” has been sent the way of the dinosaurs by prenatal medical science. Genetic science (a field first championed by a Catholic priest, by the way) is a marvel of God’s creation seen in the fertilization of the human egg where the genetic blueprint of the mother and the father are instantly combined.
So, what do we make of the next horizon of human behavior we call artificial intelligence? It is already here. I know people who use it at my day job. When they have to produce 200-300 words on a topic, they plug some details into ChatGPT, and magically the words appear. I have resisted the temptation. My writing may not always be intelligent, but it is never artificial.
We can rail like Luddites against the encroachment of technology, but it is pointless. We had the nuclear arms race, the space race, and now we are in an AI race to have the best technology in the world. The results of such a mammoth headlong rush into unknown territory send me back into Scripture to find one of those “do not be afraid” passages.
Fearful or courageous, I believe $500 billion spent on creating a hyperactive version of artificial intelligence is going to have negative repercussions just as advancement in atomic science had. But think of the gains. Think of the ability to diagnose, and even cure, cancer because AI can run millions of permutations in seconds that would take 10 humans their lifetimes.
Whether it helps liberate us from mundane tasks or makes us captives to its abilities, it is all part of a plan devised by the ultimate intelligence, and knowing that is all we need to know. Oh, and do not be afraid.
