{"id":126553,"date":"2024-02-01T08:00:25","date_gmt":"2024-02-01T13:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=126553"},"modified":"2024-02-01T08:36:25","modified_gmt":"2024-02-01T13:36:25","slug":"cc-editorial-artificial-intelligence-needs-theology-what-exactly-is-an-evil-robot-who-gets-to-define-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=126553","title":{"rendered":"(CC Editorial) Artificial intelligence needs theology&#8211;What exactly is an \u201cevil robot\u201d? Who gets to define it?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p3\">In this issue of\u00a0<em>The C<span class=\"s3\">entury<\/span><\/em>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.christiancentury.org\/features\/what-humanities-can-offer-technological-moment\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">theologian Katherine Schmidt writes about the role of the humanities in a world where AI is becoming increasingly powerful, generative, and autonomous<\/a>. As corporations and policymakers grapple with the blurring lines between human agency and computer-generated agency, Schmidt argues that \u201cethical theory and ethics education\u201d are vital. Further, she points out that theologians and philosophers are \u201cuniquely qualified\u201d to weigh in on the conversation, since they are skilled at addressing basic questions about truth, meaning, and agency.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Madry\u2019s characterization of a bad actor in the AI world as someone who asks, \u201cHow can I be most ingenious in my evilness?\u201d supports Schmidt\u2019s argument. It\u2019s one thing to have a team of technology experts devoted to squelching the plans of folks who deliberately deploy their evilness in ingenious ways. It\u2019s another thing for the developers and disseminators of AI technology to consider the questions behind Madry\u2019s hypothetical question. What exactly is \u201cevilness\u201d? Who gets to define it? Where does it come from? How intrinsic is it to human nature? Is it even possible to recognize it in ourselves? Can it spread from one person to another or multiply within a group of people? How can it be measured, and who does that measuring? To what extent might it be foiled by human effort?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.christiancentury.org\/editors\/artificial-intelligence-needs-theology\">Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\u201cIt\u2019s not unreasonable to believe that AI experts will be better equipped to prevent catastrophes if they\u2019ve spent some time considering theological questions\u2014whether about evil, creation, incarnation, or agency.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 the Christian Century editors<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/R4r9LuWUB4\">https:\/\/t.co\/R4r9LuWUB4<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; theChristianCentury (@ChristianCent) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ChristianCent\/status\/1750897632963166281?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 26, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this issue of\u00a0The Century,\u00a0theologian Katherine Schmidt writes about the role of the humanities in a world where AI is becoming increasingly powerful, generative, and autonomous. As corporations and policymakers grapple with the blurring lines between human agency and computer-generated<span class=\"ellipsis\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=126553\">Read more &#8250;<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":794,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,168,108,95,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anthropology","category-ethics-moral-theology","category-religion-culture","category-science-technology","category-theology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/794"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=126553"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126555,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126553\/revisions\/126555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=126553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=126553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=126553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}