Pope Leo, AI, & the Tower of Babel

 

INTRODUCTION 

1. Humanity, created by God in all its grandeur, is today facing a pivotal choice: either to construct a new Tower of Babel or to build the city in which God and humanity dwell together. Each generation inherits the task of shaping its own era, of guiding history to become a place where the dignity of every person is safeguarded, justice is promoted and fraternity is made possible. Yet every era also runs the risk of creating an inhumane and more unjust world. 

Whenever humanity is in danger of marring its true identity, we Christians lift our eyes to the Incarnate God, knowing that it is “only in the mystery of the Word made flesh that the mystery of humanity truly becomes clear.” [1] In Jesus Christ, this humanity in its grandeur becomes the Way, the Truth and the Life, opening the path for each of us to grow toward fullness.

I've had serious misgivings about Artificial Intelligence (AI) for some time now, for a number of reasons including the erosion of human creativity as algorithms lead us to the mushy middle. Yet when I do a search for different reasons, including information for this blog, it is AI that leads the way in response, often with helpful information.

On Monday Pope Leo issued the first encyclical of his pontificate and he didn't mess around. It is titled MAGNIFICA HUMANITAS: ON SAFEGUARDING THE HUMAN PERSON IN THE TIME OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. Thank God that in this age of Christian communities on the decline and increasingly voiceless, along wihthe disturbing movement toward toxic religious individualism, someone such as Pope Leo and the Roman Catholic church are willing to address the implications of a runaway-train technology that seems to have no limits or guardrails.  The Pentagon is considering using AI guided autonomous weapons which will make the decision to deploy without human involvement. This is morally wrong and even evil --them's 'ligious words!

This encyclical, essentially a theological position paper, was released with a Canadian, Christopher Olah, at Leo's side. Olah is a co-founder of AI giant Anthropic and in the presentation he said that the development of artificial intelligence cannot be ‌left solely to technology companies, urging greater oversight from religious leaders, governments and civil society. This is a striking observation from someone who has overseen the development of AI. 

Will I read this encyclical the way I did with Laudato Si, Pope Francis' magnificent encyclical regarding the environment and what we call Creation? Maybe not. but I do look forward to the summaries and analyses which will some be available. Here is a thoughtful take from a Jewish writer. https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/idols-of-the-valley

                                            Tower of Babel -- Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1561

The Tower of Babel

 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as they migrated from the east,[a] they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and fire them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar. 

4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” 5 The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. 

6 And the Lord said, “Look, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” 

8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore it was called Babel,[b] because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth, and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

Genesis 11: 1-9 NRSVue