"The killer in me is the killer in you," sang The Smashing Pumpkins in "Disarm," and "disarm" is Pope Leo's key word in his new encyclical about A.I.
The Vatican News reports, in "Pope Leo’s ‘Magnifica humanitas’: AI must serve humanity not concentrate power":
Above all, Pope Leo calls for an ethical code subject to shared standards of social justice... AI must be “disarmed,” Pope Leo XIV continues, in order to free it from the mentality of military, economic, and cognitive competition. “To disarm means discrediting the assumption that technical power automatically confers the right to govern,” he says.
“To disarm does not mean rejecting technology, but preventing it from dominating humanity.” He devotes ample space to a critique of transhumanism and posthumanism, which interpret progress as the overcoming of human limits. Instead, limitations are not defects to be eliminated, but a constitutive dimension of the human person, because it is in fragility and finitude that relationship and openness to God and to others mature. He says we must remember that “humanity flourishes not despite limitations, but often through them.”
ADDED: "Disarm" is a metaphor. I picture X pulling a gun on Y and Y somehow gets the gun out of X's hand. I wouldn't think X had disarmed Y if all X did was discredit the assumption that the gun gave Y the right to use that gun against X. In fact, everyone would already know X didn't have that right and it would be radically silly to spend any time discrediting an assumption that didn't exist in the first place. What's up with the Pope using such a weird word? Does he only want us to contemplate right and wrong and accept the world as it is? Is that how we "flourish" within our "limitations"?
AND: I asked A.I. to find me a quick clip on YouTube showing one movie character disarming another and instantly got this:
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62 comments:
How does he think we can do that,
As he is blithely indifferent to islamist supremacists or marxists
Who is it that believes that assumption? Technology has always been about “the overcoming of human limits.” That’s why the claw hammer was invented.
He touts the climate where they murdered missionaries in recent memory
Yes we dont want a class of eloi see asimovs daniel oliwaw seeies
Old man yelling nonsense about new tech.
Or elijah bailey
Abortive Ideation (AI)? Maybe, baby. Everything is dual-use.
Anytime I see the phrase "social justice", I check my wallet.
I'm still waiting for the encyclical about asserted religions that compel their followers to lie and to subjugate or kill all nonbelievers. That should be a doozy.
Also should be cause for an automatic rejection for constitutional protection here, due to failure to meet a reasonable test of what constitutes a legitimate religion.
Shockingly, the institutions that currently dominate humanity disapprove of a competitor.
That ones in rewrite mode
wealth transfer is a vice not a virtue
The Pope is worried AI technology will replace him as the one and only door-to-door encyclical salesman.
Yeah, an ethical code. Like I dunno international law or conventions against war crimes. Maybe that'll work. It's certainly stopped Israel.
We certainly don't want AI to engage in a lot of creative destruction that benefits no one except a few coupon clippers and billionaires. But somehow I don't think some feeble finger wagging from the Pope will accomplish that.
To serve humanity is imbued with Abortive Innuendo (AI).
Meh he just doesnt reach the level of john paul or benedicy
The Pope fears an ethical progression, where people entertain Hamasidol beliefs from the river to the sea. Take a knee.
Guess he decided to hold onto that mic for next time.
The Papacy has little credibility on social and technology issues having blown it with the inane document about climate change.
AI must be “disarmed"
Do not put AI in charge of the nukes.
Never, ever put AI in charge of the nukes.
When I want to figure out my place in the universe and how I should think about God, I'll contact the Pope. When I want to see the world's greatest collection of art, I'll reach out to His Holiness.
When I want the world to consider how it works with technology, I prefer to listen to or read thoughts from the world's greatest tech minds- those who have spent a lifetime doing that work. The Pope is just another random opinion from an unknowledgeable member of the masses. He's like me. And I don't think my opinion of how to proceed with AI should be something for the world to consider.
The Pope has evolved. It has been literally centuries since he declared a Crusade against the non-believers who defile our sacred places. The Mullahs not so much. Maybe he should issue an encyclical against Holy Wars........Net-net, I think nuclear weapons might have diminished wars or certainly total wars since their inception. Maybe AI will have the same unexpected consequences--or maybe not. We'll see how it goes. It's all part of God's plan, right.......There's that scene in the movie 2001 where the monkey realizes that the long bone makes a terrific weapon and man's long ascent into civilization begins. Is AI another step in that progress or the period, full stop. The record shows that religious figures have predicted ten of the last zero apocalypses, but maybe this time they're on to something.
Men kill men. We've spent millenia perfecting art. It's what we do best.
Guess he decided to hold onto that mic for next time.
To drop the mic is to disarm yourself.
When he sees common good i get twitchy
He sees no difference between oppressors and liberating force defense and offense
He’s worried AI will bugger the boys. CC, JSM
The Pope: "AI must be disarmed."
AI: "Molon labe."
Essentially, the Pope is comparing AI to colonization. It isn't a national or imperial colonization but a colonization by faceless technocrats or the leaders of technocratic companies. It's somewhat like a Martian invasion as envisioned by early SciFi. Somewhat like the Klingons. It isn't the Luddite or anarchist argument. It's Captain Kirk debating Spock. But it is on a higher level and using the settler/ colonialist-type arguments, if we are tracing intellectual roots.
At the moment, I see AI as getting rid of HR departments and their kind and I can't see that getting rid of HR departments is the same as colonialism. My uncle who fought in the Pacific in WW II used to say, "the side that runs out of paper first will win the war." AI is getting rid of a lot of paper.
I'd have to read the actual text to see how this is all based in Catholic theology. I'm going by social media.
An interesting bit from the Pope’s encyclical on AI:
“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.”
I’ve been looking at the Ray-Ban Meta VR glasses. They do simultaneous translation. You can actually speak face to face with a Frenchman, and the glasses will translate his French into English thru the speakers in the arms of the glasses positioned over your ears. Exactly the opposite of the Pope’s fears, that humanity will be riven into language groups that cannot understand one another, is happening. Incomprehension and division because of differences in language is being overcome by tech.
By paper, I mean, of course, digitized paper - committee reports, UN investigations and such vs. White House generated memes, Spencer Pratt vidoes, Nick Shirley, etc.
I’m sure the recent convert to Catholicism, JD Vance will offer a rebuttal on behalf of his benefactors
A very thoughtful letter from the Pope, which appears to suggest that the Church’s position on non-human agents is that they are simply not moral agents, and therefore must not be left to make autonomous decisions, without fully transparent human oversight. It’s a very clear answer to the question “is a murder organized and committed by a non-human agent morally different to one organized and committed by a human?”.
The logic is relatively clear, but will surely by challenged by many technologists who argue that our understanding of what constitutes a moral agent simply has to change in the face of rapid AI development, the prospect of imminent AGI, and future realizations of what’s commonly termed “the singularity”.
This debate has only just started, and will likely be the fundamental moral debate for the remainder of the century.
“"Disarm" is a metaphor. I picture X pulling a gun on Y and Y somehow gets the gun out of X's hand. I wouldn't think X had disarmed Y if all X did was discredit the assumption that the gun gave Y the right to use that gun against X.”
Tsk, tsk… such violent imagery. I picture the way I disarm women with just a smile.
“I’m sure the recent convert to Catholicism, JD Vance will offer a rebuttal on behalf of his benefactors.”
Or, alternatively, JD Vance will probably stated his own opinion.
There you go with the mind reading again. Every post. He’s Vice President. He needs benefactors?
Narciso, it's R. Daneel Olivaw, as I'm sure you know.
His voice voice ... screech .
AI is trans? #NoJudgment #NoLabels #LustWins
did he have another meeting with Obama and Axelrod?
The central insight of the encyclical is a contrast between the story of the Tower of Babel and the story of Nehemiah. Nehemiah, who rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem. Here are the central quotes which I don't think you'll find as quickly on your own.
""In order to ... discern how to navigate responsibly the era of AI, I would like to bring to mind two scenes from the Bible: the construction of the Tower of Babel (cf. Gen 11:1-9) and the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem (cf. Neh 2–6).
...
The story of the Tower of Babel "... After settling in a plain in the land of Shinar, the people decided to build a city and a tower “with its top in the heavens” (Gen 11:4). Fearing being scattered across the earth, they sought to guarantee stability and power for themselves, and above all to “make a name” for themselves. It was an impressive feat: a single language, a single technology, a single direction. However, the project concealed a profound danger. It was a project conceived without reference to God, supported by a uniformity that eliminated diversity and that chose homogenization over communion. [The moral is that] When a city is built on pride and the claim to self-sufficiency, communication breaks down, languages are confused and people no longer understand each other."
[As opposed to the story Tower of Babel we have the story of Nehemiah and the walls of Jerusalem.]
...
"After the Babylonian exile, a portion of the people returned to Jerusalem, but the city was still in ruins, the walls collapsed and the gates burned (cf. Neh 1–2). Nehemiah, a Jew ... fasted, prayed and interceded for the people. He then asked the king for permission to return to Jerusalem and, upon arriving, examined the destroyed areas in silence. He did not impose solutions from above ... The narrative shows how the city is reborn, not through the initiative of one man, but through the shared responsibility of all: men, women, priests, artisans, heads of households and young people all play a part. It is an undertaking with God at the center, which rebuilds relationships before rebuilding with stones. Thus, ancient Jerusalem rediscovers a common language.
...
"In this era of digital transformation, I see in [Nehemiah] a striking parable of our own vocation..."
AI is an arms race. Personally, I don't want to be dominated by a Chinese AI Big Brother.
I think the image of Nehemiah is very good. We do have to rebuild. There's going to be trouble over the question of rebuilding "walls" in relation to "a common language." But the text is quite definite that the rebuilding requires free speech among a free people as the path to a common language. It isn't a hymn either to socialism or to AI as a centralizing force. It'll take me quite awhile to work through the rest of the text which may contradict the Lincolnesque central theme - walking with God, free thought, free speech - laid out by an American Pope.
Weird... people want to disarm those with guns... but it takes guns to disarm them. Those that want to disarm those with nukes would need nukes to disarm them. And those that want to disarm AI will need... you do see where we are going with this, right?
Before WW2 Germany was not supposed to have tanks or planes.. but in secret they designed and trained with them. Does anyone really think everyone is going to 'disarm'???
"Jerusalem" is not just any city, not even the historic one, and I guess we should be sure we are rebuilding "the walls of Jerusalem," preparatory to rebuilding the true Temple; not the walls of Babel , preparatory to rebuilding the Tower.
Followed by the endlessly repeated outcome:
The good guys (that's US I'm sorry to have to tell some of you) would unilaterally disarm (AI and otherwise) hoping/assuming the other side would comply.
The not-so-good guys would proceed apace, sometimes behind closed doors, sometimes openly.
The bad guys gain an advantage.
The good guys (US....) find themselves playing catch-up.
Nehemiah did not disarm. His people worked with a shovel in one hand and a sword in the other.
Nehemiah Chapter 4
" When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed. He ridiculed the Jews, 2 and in the presence of his associates and the army of Samaria, he said, “What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble—burned as they are?”
3 Tobiah the Ammonite, who was at his side, said, “What they are building—even a fox climbing up on it would break down their wall of stones!”
4 Hear us, our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity. 5 Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins from your sight, for they have thrown insults in the face of the builders.
6 So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart.
7 But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the people of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem’s walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry. 8 They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it. 9 But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat.
10 Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, “The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall.”
11 Also our enemies said, “Before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them and will kill them and put an end to the work.”
12 Then the Jews who lived near them came and told us ten times over, “Wherever you turn, they will attack us.”
13 Therefore I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places, posting them by families, with their swords, spears and bows. 14 After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.”
15 When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to our own work.
16 From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor. The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah 17 who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, 18 and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked. But the man who sounded the trumpet stayed with me.
19 Then I said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “The work is extensive and spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall. 20 Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there. Our God will fight for us!”
21 So we continued the work with half the men holding spears, from the first light of dawn till the stars came out. 22 At that time I also said to the people, “Have every man and his helper stay inside Jerusalem at night, so they can serve us as guards by night and as workers by day.” 23 Neither I nor my brothers nor my men nor the guards with me took off our clothes; each had his weapon, even when he went for water.[c]"
So far we have survived the development of nuclear weapons, and biological weapons - the only two opportunities for the destruction of civilization. AI will be the third. Controlling these threats seems like more of a case of luck than design, with self-preservation providing the incentive. AI is the only one developed with the cover of being beneficial to mankind. That may be a dangerous difference.
It's just like gun control. It only disarms the good guys. Accepting human nature for what it is always escapes us until we get a new lesson good and hard.
Can auto-correct write your messages - or even spell them correctly if you have novel words or thought? AI is the son of autocorrect with the family failings. It can do many things we can do and do them faster. But it doesn't even pretend to reason - it predicts based on its ability to assemble data rapidly. We may have few bumps as we realize it's better at assembling data and making predictions. But it won't assemble data it wasn't asked to assemble or build the unpredictable. It can't really absorb all info; it is just a big parking garage for it. We still have to get in a car for the info to have a destination or a meaning.
Automaton Intelligence is a basket of correlations with anthropogenic primitives to interface with human operators, is neither discerning nor creative. A Large Basket Model.
Automaton Intelligence is a basket of correlations with anthropogenic primitives to interface with human operators, is neither discerning nor creative. A Large Basket Model.
When did Popes become such wusses? They used to raise armies to drive back the infidels, and maintained a staff of skilled torturers to deal with heretics. Now the heathens are everywhere, taking over everything.
But maybe Trump will lead a new Crusade—he seems up for the job!
What makes AI a threat to human civilization?
"What makes AI a threat to human civilization?"
First, it's SciFi writers; later, it's the denial of the threat. Like in "To Serve Man", it's the promise of good things, like bait on a hook.
I don't know exactly how, but if this tech is as powerful as expected, why wouldn't human beings use it for war? We already do, and it's just in its infancy. Unlike nuclear weapons, it will be available to all kinds of people with all kinds of motives.
The problem I see is we don't have a way of controlling it, and may never have one. The only way would be though agreed upon rules like "murder is wrong". Not real encouraging.
If Prevost is that concerned, he should get with the other religious leaders and declare the Butlerian Jihad. CC, JSM
Are there enough mentats
No, but way too many mentals! CC, JSM
Utopian wishful thinking. At best humanity will settle into a protracted stalemate of Mutually Assured Destruction with AI. At worst, a blitzkrieg global tech war will make all the 20th century war deaths look like child's play.
Humans invented guns. We didn't disarm.
Humans invented nukes. We didn't disarm.
Humans invented bio weapons. Many lied, bullied, and played shell games. We kept them too.
Humans are working on AI as a tool and weapon. And a weapon is a tool.
The noting of disarming in a competitive world is quaint and hopeful and not worth bucket of warm spit.
The notion of gun control is quaint in a world of payload drones coupled with bio weapons coupled with AI and satellite cameras.
"Unlike nuclear weapons, it will be available to all kinds of people with all kinds of motives."
Okay. Still not seeing the danger.
Nuclear bombs = catastrophic destruction of cities
AI = YouTube videos in which pets act like humans and women with enormous boobs do one-arm handstands.
If the fear is some terrorist is going to be able to launch another country's nukes, that fear and response has been in play at least since War Games, 1983.
It's not as if things like Stuxnet and malware are unknown.
So far as I've seen, the only practical applications for AI have been very advantageous to business owners large and small, historians and researchers, and independent creatives who can make entertaining movies and film clips for very little money.
The Empire only has transistors no semi conductors?
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