“Artificial Intelligence Will Cause Humans to Think in New Ways” is the title of a recent, thought-provoking article in the Wall Street Journal co-authored by Henry Kissinger, Eric Schmidt and Daniel Huttenlocher. The writers expound on the risks , benefits and unprecedented challenges of Artificial Intelligence and issue a sobering warning to which the world should pay attention:
“A reinvigorated moral and strategic leadership will be essential. Without guiding principles, humanity runs the risk of domination or anarchy, unconstrained authority or nihilistic freedom The need for relating major societal change to ethical justifications and novel visions for the future will appear in a new form…Without proper moral and intellectual underpinnings, machines used in governance could control rather than amplify our humanity and trap us forever…..This imposes certain necessities for mastering our imminent future”.
The article ends with: “For now, we have a novel and spectacular achievement that stands as a glory to the human mind as AI. We have not yet evolved a destination for it. As we become ‘Homo-technicus”, we hold an imperative to define the purpose of our species. It is up to us to provide the real answers”.
In the same vein, in his January 2020 remarks to the XXVI General Assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Pope Francis also called for our response to the challenges Artificial Intelligence:
“Our task is rather one of walking alongside others, listening attentively and seeking to link experience and reflection. As believers, we ought to allow ourselves to be challenged, so that the word of God and our faith tradition can help us interpret the phenomena of our world and identify paths of humanization, and thus of loving evangelization, that we can travel together. In this way we will be able to dialogue fruitfully with all those committed to human development, while keeping at the center of knowledge and social praxis the human person in all his or her dimensions, including the spiritual. We are faced with the task of involving the human family as a whole.
“We are beginning to glimpse a new discipline that we might call ‘the ethical development of algorithms’ or more simply ‘algor-ethics’…..This would have as its aim ensuring a competent and shared review of the processes by which we integrate relationship between human beings and today’s technology. In our common pursuit of these goals, a critical contribution can be made by the principles of the Church’s social teaching; the dignity of the person, justice, subsidiarity and solidarity…”.
Two phrases from these citations quoted above inter-relate: ‘the dignity of the person’ and ‘the purpose of our species’. Dignity results from right purpose. Our right purpose arises from our proper response to the shared ‘imago dei’ in which we were created. If we respond positively to ‘that of God within us’ we will find and embrace the purpose which dignifies our lives. But, discerning the right response requires wisdom, and, as Scripture instructs us in so many ways, ‘fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’.
Accordingly, let us be wise. Let us pursue ‘algorethics’ and rise to the intimidating, yet promising, challenges of artificial intelligence. In doing so, let us not abandon our nobility as ‘homo-sapiens’ nor succumb to the servitude of the ‘homo-technicus’.