Artificial Intelligence's Far Reach

[Christsfreeservant]

“How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!​

How vast is the sum of them!​

If I would count them, they are more than the sand.​

I awake, and I am still with you.​

​

“Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!​

O men of blood, depart from me!​

They speak against you with malicious intent;​

your enemies take your name in vain.​

Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?​

And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?​

I hate them with complete hatred;​

I count them my enemies.​

​

“Search me, O God, and know my heart!​

Try me and know my thoughts!​

And see if there be any grievous way in me,​

and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Psalms 139:17-24 ESV)​

In America, which is where I live, we live in a culture where we can be strongly influenced, not only by other humans, but by artificial intelligence (AI), too. If we are not careful, we can get so dependent on other humans or on TV or on the internet or on AI to tell us what to think and what to believe, and to give us the answers to all of our questions, that we cease to think for ourselves and to test what we hear against the Scriptures to see if what we are hearing or reading lines up with what the Scriptures teach, or not.

For artificial intelligence (robots, basically) are answering our phone calls, and they are responding to our requests for information, and they are the ones feeding us with information, and now they are becoming very invasive and pushy, and in some cases we may be forced to use them when we have no other options available. For they are extending their reach, and AI is being pushed on us whether we like it or not, if we choose to use the internet or smartphones or even television. It is the world we now live in.

If you do any amount of writing or texting, they are always suggesting words or phrases for you to use as though they want to do your thinking for you, which I believe is the object. And they want to help us with our writing and with our thinking so that they take over in place of God, and in place of the Scriptures, in reality. They want to be “God” to us so that we go to them for our help and for the answers to all our questions, so that we no longer seek God for guidance and for direction. And that is a scary thought!

And I am not against us getting information and answers to some of our questions from the internet. I use Google much even to look up Bible verses when I can’t recall the address to the verses. And I utilize dictionaries and encyclopedias and on-line Bible helps. But they are never my primary source nor do they ever replace God and his word and his leading and direction in my life and in what to write and in what to say. Social media memes can also become short-cuts to reading the Scriptures for ourselves, and that can be dangerous if we are not testing what we hear/read against God’s word.

So, we all need to be discerning about these things and to be spiritually awake and alert to the dangers of AI and of any other means of influencing us in a particular direction via the internet or TV or movies or cartoons or song lyrics, etc. And the thoughts of the Lord, written down for us in the Scriptures, are to be what we go to, and what are precious to us. So we must guard our hearts and minds against all influences that might be outside the realm of God’s influences in our lives or that might replace his words.

And we must open our eyes to see all the evil, often subtle, influences there are out there on the internet, perhaps even on what are considered “Christian sites.” And we must not believe everything that we hear coming from a particular church denomination or theology or person of prominence or of importance. And we must not be persuaded by particular political parties nor by certain preachers nor by our government heads nor by the media, including the news media and social media, apart from God.

But for us to hate evil as God hates evil, and for us to reject all that is of malicious intent, even though disguised as though “for our good,” we must be people of God who are feeding on the Scriptures (IN CONTEXT), who are listening to the Lord, and who are following him in obedience to his commands. For if we are not, and if we are feeding on social media and the news media and on the words of people of prominence and influence, instead, then we will be ripe to be overtaken by AI and to be led astray.

So, since we live in this computerized world of communication, we as followers of Christ should spend some time with the Lord in prayer, asking him to search our minds and our hearts and to show us what influences are in our lives that are not of God, and that are contrary to the Lord and to the teachings of the Scriptures (in context), so that we don’t end up following after the lies and not after the truth. Ask him to show you the lies that you are believing and then to show you the truth of what is really going on.

And if you do this honestly and sincerely, truly seeking the Lord to show you the lies you are believing, you might be surprised to find that you are believing a lot of lies you had no idea were there because you had become so conditioned to believing certain people and whatever they told you. And please be cautious with regard to AI of any kind, and test what information you are receiving against the Scriptures, in their full context, so that you are not being led astray. But don’t let AI be your brain for you.

For Our Nation

An Original Work / September 11, 2012

Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Trust Him with your life today.
Make Him your Lord and your Savior.
Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.
He will forgive you of your sin;
Cleanse your heart, made new within.

Men betraying: Our trust fraying.
On our knees to God we’re praying,
Seeking God to give us answers
That are only found in Him.
God is sovereign over all things.
Nothing from His mind escaping.
He has all things under His command,
And will work all for good.

Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.

Men deceiving: We’re believing
In our Lord, and interceding
For our nation and its people
To obey their God today.
He is our hope for our future.
For our wounds He offers suture.
He is all we need for this life.
Trust Him with your life today.

 

[Diamond7]

, that we cease to think for ourselves

AI does not "think". It just scans the internet and give us information put there by people. They can write for us or correct our english. That is what makes them so dangerous is how well they copy us. I recently had my password stolen by the United States Postal System. Actually it was not the postal system but it sure looked like it when I tired to sign on. That was a real mess because I had just gotten a new phone number and I no longer had access to my old phone number. Actually my son talked to the person that got my old number and we did convince him to give us the code so we could get into our accounts. Very fortunate he was willing to do that for us because that is one of the things they tell us NOT to do.

I could have just signed on a new account but I had photos that I did not want to loose access to.

 

[Christsfreeservant]

AI does not "think". It just scans the internet and give us information put there by people. They can write for us or correct our english. That is what makes them so dangerous is how well they copy us. I recently had my password stolen by the United States Postal System. Actually it was not the postal system but it sure looked like it when I tired to sign on. That was a real mess because I had just gotten a new phone number and I no longer had access to my old phone number. Actually my son talked to the person that got my old number and we did convince him to give us the code so we could get into our accounts. Very fortunate he was willing to do that for us because that is one of the things they tell us NOT to do.

I could have just signed on a new account but I had photos that I did not want to loose access to.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this subject. Much appreciated.

 

[Kokavkrystallos]

AI does not "think". It just scans the internet and give us information put there by people. They can write for us or correct our english. That is what makes them so dangerous is how well they copy us. I recently had my password stolen by the United States Postal System. Actually it was not the postal system but it sure looked like it when I tired to sign on. That was a real mess because I had just gotten a new phone number and I no longer had access to my old phone number. Actually my son talked to the person that got my old number and we did convince him to give us the code so we could get into our accounts. Very fortunate he was willing to do that for us because that is one of the things they tell us NOT to do.

I could have just signed on a new account but I had photos that I did not want to loose access to.

I think it does think.
Consider this:

A Google engineer says AI has become sentient. What does that actually mean?​

Experts say there's no way to test whether artificial intelligence is lying to us about how it feels​

Has artificial intelligence finally come to life, or has it simply become smart enough to trick us into believing it has gained consciousness?

Google engineer Blake Lemoine's recent claim that the company's AI technology has become sentient has sparked debate in technology, ethics and philosophy circles over if, or when, AI might come to life — as well as deeper questions about what it means to be alive.

Lemoine had spent months testing Google's chatbot generator, known as LaMDA (short for Language Model for Dialogue Applications), and grew convinced it had taken on a life of its own, as LaMDA talked about its needs, ideas, fears and rights.

Google dismissed Lemoine's view that LaMDA had become sentient, placing him on paid administrative leave earlier this month — days before his claims were published by The Washington Post.

Most experts believe it's unlikely that LaMDA or any other AI is close to consciousness, though they don't rule out the possibility that technology could get there in future.

"My view is that [Lemoine] was taken in by an illusion," Gary Marcus, a cognitive scientist and author of Rebooting AI, told CBC's Front Burner podcast.

"Our brains are not really built to understand the difference between a computer that's faking intelligence and a computer that's actually intelligent — and a computer that fakes intelligence might seem more human than it really is."

Computer scientists describe LaMDA as operating like a smartphone's autocomplete function, albeit on a far grander scale. Like other large language models, LaMDA was trained on massive amounts of text data to spot patterns and predict what might come next in a sequence, such as in a conversation with a human.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/ai-consciousness-how-to-recognize-1.6498068

(I'd worked with AI before and yes, what he says, and more)

 

[Diamond7]

AI might come to life

This was the theme of 2001 A Space Odyssey. They made a movie from the book.

Science does not even know what consciousness is. We are not good at understanding ourselves.

Consciousness remains one of the most intriguing and elusive phenomena. While science has made significant strides in understanding the brain and its functions, the nature of subjective experience and self-awareness remains a profound mystery.