Several prominent people, including SpaceX founder Elon Musk, have called for a pause on artificial intelligence (AI) technologies due to the potential danger it could have on society.
Musk, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and other prominent names signed an open letter from the Future of Life Institute urging AI companies to “pause giant AI experiments” for six months in order to implement safety protocols.
“AI systems with human-competitive intelligence can pose profound risks to society and humanity, as shown by extensive research and acknowledged by top AI labs,” the letter reads.
“Contemporary AI systems are now becoming human-competitive at general tasks, and we must ask ourselves: Should we let machines flood our information channels with propaganda and untruth? Should we automate away all the jobs, including the fulfilling ones? Should we develop nonhuman minds that might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete, and replace us? Should we risk loss of control of our civilization?”
During an interview with CBN’s Faithwire, the Rev. Johnnie Moore stressed that the public should be aware when people like Musk call for a pause.
“I think we ought to pause, and I’m not sure that the general public yet really understands how all of their lives will change, and could potentially change, because of this new technology,” Moore said, CBN News.
“If we’re not careful, we could unleash a beast,” he warned. “Imagine governments in a race towards autonomous weapons. … We could be moving into a world where the machines make the decisions for themselves.”
In the case of war, Moore cautioned on the ramifications that could take place should AI technologies fall into the wrong hands.
“What if you’re North Korea and what if you decide either by theft or by your own innovation that now is the time to do what you’ve been threatening to do forever,” he said. “That’s the catastrophic scenario. That’s the apocalypse.”
Another issue that AI poses is the likelihood of mass unemployment.
The reverend also stressed that religious leaders and people of faith should also be included in these conversations.
“For too long, faith has been a blind spot in Silicon Valley,” Moore told Faithwire.
“I’m calling on religious leaders … this is not a ‘boycott AI conversation,'” he added. “I’m joining my voice with Elon Musk, I’m joining my voice with those 1,000 scientists, and I’m asking religious leaders and ethicists all around the country … let’s all say now is the time to get together and to ask the preemptive questions.”
Photo courtesy: ©Gerd Altmann/Pixabay
Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for Christian Headlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.
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