Wellington University professor of computer graphics Neil Dodgson has delivered a sobering message about the capabilities of artificial intelligence and how Christians should respond to the emerging technology at the Brisbane Catholic Professionals lunch. Source: The Catholic Leader.
Professor Dodgson walked the group through an explanation of the history of AI, which stretched back much further than the advent of ChatGPT in 2023, to the origins of modern computers.
The early computers, he said, focused their computations on simple logic – adding, subtracting, multiplication and division.
The discovery that enabled deep learning AI was using probabilistic functions.
Professor Dodgson said that chatbots like ChatGPT were just complex probability machines.
He said when a person inputted a question to a chatbot, the chatbot was not thinking about an answer to the question, but deciding on what an answer to the question would sound like and replying with it.
Professor Dodgson said Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas provided good insights into how Christians should respond.
He said the encyclical was not the Church’s first foray into AI ethics. Professor Dodgson pointed back to 2020, a time before ChatGPT and the explosive demand in other AI models, when the Pontifical Academy for Life, Microsoft, IBM, FAO, the Italian Ministry of Innovation (part of the Italian Government) signed the “Call for an AI Ethics”.
He said the document provided six clear guidelines for safeguarding AI – transparency, inclusion, accountability, impartiality, reliability and security and privacy.
These guidelines were reiterated in Magnifica Humanitas, in which Pope Leo applied them to the emerging technologies.
Professor Dodgson said despite what AI corporations reported, there was not yet an AI capable of artificial general intelligence as the current available bots failed to meet the criteria.
But that did not mean the economy and society would be spared from upheaval, particularly in terms of employment.
Professor Dodgson also laid out scenarios where AI could be used to enhance society immensely, including personalised tutors to help every student reach their full potential.
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AI front of mind for Catholic professionals at Brisbane lunch (By Joe Higgins, The Catholic Leader)
