Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Personality – Article Review

This article on Christ Over All, written by Jared Bridges, is worth reading. It’s short, and identifies a key problem when it comes to Artificial Intelligence: the problem of personality.

Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Personality

Bridges picks up on themes of idolatry, introspection, how we ascribe personality and why, and presents valuable insights throughout this concise article.

Overall, this article serves as a good reminder to carefully consider what we personify, and why.

Below are some of my highlights from the article:

…not only are we having words with these silicon wonders—the silicon wonders are talking back. We ask questions, directions, and give orders to these bricks, and the bricks reciprocate. We form relationships of a sort, we make conversation, and increasingly trust what they tell us.

We can tell Lassie to sit, and then reward her with a “Good dog!” without betraying the natural order of dominion.

[AI] is not a machine in the way a bicycle is a machine, nor is it even in the same vein as a calculator. A person inputs manual instruction to a bicycle, and the bicycle predictably moves through space and time. A person inputs numbers and commands into a calculator, and the calculator outputs a predictable result. The AI large-language models of today certainly receive input, but the output AI generates using the infinite possibilities of language is far from predictable.

The increased comfort with living virtually has opened wide the door for people to replace personalities they find less interesting with artificial ones who conform to their desires. The advent of physical artificial intelligence—the pending rise of the robots—will only deepen the dependence upon personality for human interaction with AI.

Humans tend to personify that which they deem intelligent [as in Psalm 135:15-18].

Today’s artificial intelligences aren’t silver and gold—they’re silicon and copper. They don’t have mouths, but they speak. They don’t have eyes, but they see. They don’t have ears, but they hear everything.

…This is not to say that all artificial intelligence is idolatry. It is not. But when we begin to interact with AI as we would another person—when we attribute personality to that which isn’t a person—we bring ourselves dangerously close to an ancient folly wrapped in a modern setting.

We won’t find the answers to the universe in AI, because in the end, we’re simply talking to—and answering—ourselves.

For more in this theme, visit this page.