Post by Cindy on Jun 4, 2023 8:26:43 GMT -5
Artificial Intelligence
For several years now, some of the world’s greatest minds have been warning us about the dangers of artificial intelligence — AI. The public is largely convinced. A new Reuters poll found that 61% of Americans see AI as a threat to humanity’s future. More significantly, AI researchers tend to agree. These are the people who go to work every day and push forward the technology of artificial intelligence. A recent poll showed that half of them admit that they believe AI has at least a 10% chance of causing the extinction of the human race.
Anyone who thinks 10% is a small chance should consider his own life. Would you buy a car if you knew its brakes had a 10% chance of failure? Would you prepare a meal that stood a 10% chance of killing your children or your grandchildren? These people think that AI has a good chance of killing everyone’s children, including their own. Yet they persist in its pursuit. Why? Because they see it as inevitable. The comments I’ve read say things like, “If I don’t do it, someone else will.”
Bible prophecy does not say that artificial intelligence causes the extinction of humanity. In fact, the Bible teaches about the eternal nature of humans and the human race. But the doomsday opinions of AI researchers point to the level of momentum AI has already gained. Half the people who work in that field think it has a good chance of destroying us, yet they continue. Most of them seem to think we have already passed the point of no return.
AI’s momentum makes it impossible for human regulators to stop it. Recently, some of the world’s best-known scientists and engineers signed a letter calling for a six month pause in the “training” of high-level AI systems. There have been congressional hearings on how to regulate AI — give it “guardrails.”
Those things will come to nothing, and here’s why — China. The People’s Republic of China would see a US pause in AI training as an opportunity to get ahead in a race that will fundamentally change humanity. Can you imagine the US military willingly allowing other nations to get that far ahead? And make no mistake, six months amounts to eons of time in the development of this technology. It’s been slow going for decades, but now it’s happening fast.
Several things in Bible prophecy seem to indicate the end-times use of AI. Happily, none of them involve the extinction of the human race. But they do involve a stunning loss of human rights. For instance, Revelation 13 talks about an economic system based on the Mark of the Beast. It will require all transactions to go through the Mark system. To ensure compliance, the Antichrist’s government will have to surveil everyone, all the time. There aren’t enough people to police humanity at that level, but AI can keep constant tabs on everyone.
AI can monitor the billions of cameras, computers, satellites, cash registers, phones, and everything else connected to it. Future police vehicles will not all be manned. Robotic prowl cars and aerial drones will patrol neighborhoods and business districts. Each will be equipped to look and listen through walls, read every license plate, and use facial recognition on every face. AI will correlate and interpret that massive flow of data. It never sleeps; never takes a break.
AI-powered robots can enforce the laws. Critics of regular police accuse them of favoritism and emotion-based prejudices. But if you defund the police, you still have the problem of crime and criminals. AI robots, on the other hand, have no emotions. They treat everyone the same. They don’t require compensation. And they can be as deadly as needed.
We’re headed into a new world, and we’re not walking. We’re running — sprinting.
Starting thousands of years ago, the Bible described our time. As always, God’s prophecies are proving to be true. Instead of frightening us, these things should strengthen our confidence in all His promises. So don’t be discouraged. Instead, hold fast to the confession of your hope because He who promised is faithful. (Hebrews 10:23)
Posted with permission:
www.hallindsey.com/ww-5-21-2023/
AI – Part 2: Locked and Loaded
If you’ve played with one of the freely available artificial intelligence programs, you were probably stunned with its speed. Tell ChatGPT to write a 1,000-word essay on causes of the American Civil War, and even the free version will spew out an essay with astonishing speed. It may not be entirely accurate. It may not be as good as the one you would have written. But it will do the job in a fraction of the time.
From early on, computers amazed us with their speed. And it is speed that makes AI both dangerous and inevitable. Right now, human pilots can outfly computers. But that won’t be the case for long. Computers are faster, and as AI pilots get better, they will begin to defeat human pilots. When that happens, nations around the world will be forced to arm autonomous machines in serious numbers. Any nation refusing to use AI in its defense will be vulnerable.
The same thing will happen on the ground. Imagine an army of four-legged, dog-like robots armed with advanced weapons and artificial intelligence. At first, they will be tough for humans to beat. Then humans will stop being able to defeat them at all. This will force nations to arm autonomous machines that cannot be unplugged.
In 1940, Isaac Asimov began writing a series of stories about robots with the ability to think and reason. By 1942, he had developed what we now refer to as the “Three Laws of Robotics,” or “Asimov’s Laws.” The first is the most important. “A robot shall not harm a human, or by inaction allow a human to come to harm.”
It must have been comforting to think that if humans were ever able to create true thinking machines, we would surely have the good sense to build in some kind of safety mechanism. That thought might have been comforting, but it was also nonsense. Human beings were never going to allow potential weapons of this significance to go unbuilt or unused.
AI may never achieve actual consciousness like you have, or even like your dog has. An AI can simulate consciousness and feelings, but they are nowhere near real consciousness. And that’s not very reassuring. If anything, lack of consciousness makes these machines more dangerous. It means they will have vast ability with zero empathy.
The “First Law of Robotics” is not compatible with military applications, and militaries are spending vast amounts of money right now developing AI-based weapons systems. Such machines will both fight and kill. Police departments and even private security firms will also use armed AI-based machines — autonomous robots. Any military that does not embrace Artificial Intelligence will fall hopelessly behind. Armed forces around the world will have no choice. They will have to add AI to their weapons and weapons to their AI.
In the movies, autonomous machines often turn against humanity. Is that possible? One of AI’s pioneers, Mo Gawdat, predicts that AI will one day be able to build its own machines to carry out its own directives, bypassing people completely. He says such AI will likely think of humans as “scum.” What do you do with scum? You clean it up — get rid of it.
With enough time, Artificial Intelligence might do devastating things to the human race. And AI is only one of several extreme threats to civilization. We should respond to such threats with wise policies and thoughtful actions. We should be good citizens and good stewards. And we should pray. Washington and Lincoln led the nation in prayers of thanksgiving that included repentance. On D-Day, Franklin Roosevelt led the nation in prayer, calling on his fellow citizens to begin and end each day with “fervent” prayer. In this hour of danger, the whole world needs to humbly call on God in repentance and for help.
No matter what the world does, however, you can stand firmly in God’s grace. The Bible long ago warned about the days in which we now live. But it also tells those who are in Christ Jesus not to fear, but to walk in faith that He will care for us. So, lift up your head. Your redemption draws near!
Posted with permission:
www.hallindsey.com/ww-5-28-2023/
For several years now, some of the world’s greatest minds have been warning us about the dangers of artificial intelligence — AI. The public is largely convinced. A new Reuters poll found that 61% of Americans see AI as a threat to humanity’s future. More significantly, AI researchers tend to agree. These are the people who go to work every day and push forward the technology of artificial intelligence. A recent poll showed that half of them admit that they believe AI has at least a 10% chance of causing the extinction of the human race.
Anyone who thinks 10% is a small chance should consider his own life. Would you buy a car if you knew its brakes had a 10% chance of failure? Would you prepare a meal that stood a 10% chance of killing your children or your grandchildren? These people think that AI has a good chance of killing everyone’s children, including their own. Yet they persist in its pursuit. Why? Because they see it as inevitable. The comments I’ve read say things like, “If I don’t do it, someone else will.”
Bible prophecy does not say that artificial intelligence causes the extinction of humanity. In fact, the Bible teaches about the eternal nature of humans and the human race. But the doomsday opinions of AI researchers point to the level of momentum AI has already gained. Half the people who work in that field think it has a good chance of destroying us, yet they continue. Most of them seem to think we have already passed the point of no return.
AI’s momentum makes it impossible for human regulators to stop it. Recently, some of the world’s best-known scientists and engineers signed a letter calling for a six month pause in the “training” of high-level AI systems. There have been congressional hearings on how to regulate AI — give it “guardrails.”
Those things will come to nothing, and here’s why — China. The People’s Republic of China would see a US pause in AI training as an opportunity to get ahead in a race that will fundamentally change humanity. Can you imagine the US military willingly allowing other nations to get that far ahead? And make no mistake, six months amounts to eons of time in the development of this technology. It’s been slow going for decades, but now it’s happening fast.
Several things in Bible prophecy seem to indicate the end-times use of AI. Happily, none of them involve the extinction of the human race. But they do involve a stunning loss of human rights. For instance, Revelation 13 talks about an economic system based on the Mark of the Beast. It will require all transactions to go through the Mark system. To ensure compliance, the Antichrist’s government will have to surveil everyone, all the time. There aren’t enough people to police humanity at that level, but AI can keep constant tabs on everyone.
AI can monitor the billions of cameras, computers, satellites, cash registers, phones, and everything else connected to it. Future police vehicles will not all be manned. Robotic prowl cars and aerial drones will patrol neighborhoods and business districts. Each will be equipped to look and listen through walls, read every license plate, and use facial recognition on every face. AI will correlate and interpret that massive flow of data. It never sleeps; never takes a break.
AI-powered robots can enforce the laws. Critics of regular police accuse them of favoritism and emotion-based prejudices. But if you defund the police, you still have the problem of crime and criminals. AI robots, on the other hand, have no emotions. They treat everyone the same. They don’t require compensation. And they can be as deadly as needed.
We’re headed into a new world, and we’re not walking. We’re running — sprinting.
Starting thousands of years ago, the Bible described our time. As always, God’s prophecies are proving to be true. Instead of frightening us, these things should strengthen our confidence in all His promises. So don’t be discouraged. Instead, hold fast to the confession of your hope because He who promised is faithful. (Hebrews 10:23)
Posted with permission:
www.hallindsey.com/ww-5-21-2023/
AI – Part 2: Locked and Loaded
If you’ve played with one of the freely available artificial intelligence programs, you were probably stunned with its speed. Tell ChatGPT to write a 1,000-word essay on causes of the American Civil War, and even the free version will spew out an essay with astonishing speed. It may not be entirely accurate. It may not be as good as the one you would have written. But it will do the job in a fraction of the time.
From early on, computers amazed us with their speed. And it is speed that makes AI both dangerous and inevitable. Right now, human pilots can outfly computers. But that won’t be the case for long. Computers are faster, and as AI pilots get better, they will begin to defeat human pilots. When that happens, nations around the world will be forced to arm autonomous machines in serious numbers. Any nation refusing to use AI in its defense will be vulnerable.
The same thing will happen on the ground. Imagine an army of four-legged, dog-like robots armed with advanced weapons and artificial intelligence. At first, they will be tough for humans to beat. Then humans will stop being able to defeat them at all. This will force nations to arm autonomous machines that cannot be unplugged.
In 1940, Isaac Asimov began writing a series of stories about robots with the ability to think and reason. By 1942, he had developed what we now refer to as the “Three Laws of Robotics,” or “Asimov’s Laws.” The first is the most important. “A robot shall not harm a human, or by inaction allow a human to come to harm.”
It must have been comforting to think that if humans were ever able to create true thinking machines, we would surely have the good sense to build in some kind of safety mechanism. That thought might have been comforting, but it was also nonsense. Human beings were never going to allow potential weapons of this significance to go unbuilt or unused.
AI may never achieve actual consciousness like you have, or even like your dog has. An AI can simulate consciousness and feelings, but they are nowhere near real consciousness. And that’s not very reassuring. If anything, lack of consciousness makes these machines more dangerous. It means they will have vast ability with zero empathy.
The “First Law of Robotics” is not compatible with military applications, and militaries are spending vast amounts of money right now developing AI-based weapons systems. Such machines will both fight and kill. Police departments and even private security firms will also use armed AI-based machines — autonomous robots. Any military that does not embrace Artificial Intelligence will fall hopelessly behind. Armed forces around the world will have no choice. They will have to add AI to their weapons and weapons to their AI.
In the movies, autonomous machines often turn against humanity. Is that possible? One of AI’s pioneers, Mo Gawdat, predicts that AI will one day be able to build its own machines to carry out its own directives, bypassing people completely. He says such AI will likely think of humans as “scum.” What do you do with scum? You clean it up — get rid of it.
With enough time, Artificial Intelligence might do devastating things to the human race. And AI is only one of several extreme threats to civilization. We should respond to such threats with wise policies and thoughtful actions. We should be good citizens and good stewards. And we should pray. Washington and Lincoln led the nation in prayers of thanksgiving that included repentance. On D-Day, Franklin Roosevelt led the nation in prayer, calling on his fellow citizens to begin and end each day with “fervent” prayer. In this hour of danger, the whole world needs to humbly call on God in repentance and for help.
No matter what the world does, however, you can stand firmly in God’s grace. The Bible long ago warned about the days in which we now live. But it also tells those who are in Christ Jesus not to fear, but to walk in faith that He will care for us. So, lift up your head. Your redemption draws near!
Posted with permission:
www.hallindsey.com/ww-5-28-2023/