Bishop Steven gave his Thought for the Day on Saturday 30th December 2017 during a programme edited by Artificial Intelligence (AI).
“How are you feeling?”
“What’s your energy like today?”
Imagine being asked the same questions every day not by a person but by a machine.
My eye was drawn earlier this year to the launch of the Woebot—a charming robot friend, able to listen 24-7 through your phone or computer.
The Woebot (that’s WOE) is a Fully Automated Conversational Agent, a chatbot therapist powered by artificial intelligence and the principles of cognitive behavioural therapy. It aims to help young adults cope better with life.
That has to be a good thing, although it says as much about our culture as it does about AI.
As Crocodile Dundee might have said, “Haven’t you got any mates?” The truth is, we don’t, or not enough.
AI is beginning to be everywhere. It helps us do things we couldn’t do before. As we’ve been hearing this morning, AI raises many deep questions about the future of work, proper boundaries, weaponisation, the right use of data, and teaching children and adults to look after themselves in a digital world. Most lead back to the same core issue. What does it mean to be human? This is a question that has never been more important.
For a Christian, the foundation of being human is that we are part of God’s creation but with this wonderful power to create.
Psalm 139 evokes wonder and mystery:
“For it was you, o God, who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made”.
Every advance in AI shows me what a profound and wonderful thing it is to be alive—to be human.
AI can do really interesting things. But, as yet Artificial Intelligence isn’t a patch on the real thing: human intelligence and human learning and human identity. We have a mind and memories, conscience and consciousness, the capacity to reason, to love and to weep, to hold a child or the hand of an old person, to breathe deep in the early morning, or to talk with God in the cool of the evening.
In this Christmas season especially, I remember that being human is God’s special subject. Humanity is the pinnacle of creation, flawed and imperfect though we are. Christians believe that God’s reason and ingenuity and love took flesh and God was born a child and came to bring hope and purpose and healing to the earth.
Artificial Intelligence is amazing, though we need to use it well and be alert to its dangers. Human consciousness is even more remarkable, for me: a God-given mystery.
We are more than the sum of our parts. The moment we begin to lose sight of the fact that humankind is truly unique is the moment we fail to recognise the amazing gift life in all its glory.
With that in mind…
How are you feeling today?