Generative AI

Second Contact, avoiding the fate of Nokia, hacking the human operating system, and the resilience of Western democracy

A new kind of artificial intelligence software has swept through the internet over the last year. Many are thrilled by the potential and power of AI which can generate by itself impressively creative text, images, sound and video. But others are sounding the alarm. Does this new generation of generative AI really pose a dire threat to humankind? What are the commercial and political pressures forcing tech firms to keep rolling out this unpredictable yet powerful software at breakneck speed? Will the Church’s role solely be to pick up the pieces of our broken public square and broken lives, or can we get ahead of the curve for once? And is all this not just a huge over-reaction to a flashy but relatively insignificant computing breakthrough?

The Centre for Humane Technology’s video on generative AI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhYw-VlkXTU

Listen to other episodes of Matters of Life and Death or find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Google Podcasts, Podcast Addict, Castbox or whatever app you use to subscribe and receive new episodes sent straight to your device.

Tags
Most read posts
What can we learn from how the early church lived out their faith during their own pandemics?
Navigating the transitions of later life
How are young people different to those who came before, and what can we learn from them?
Living faithfully as we approach retirement, dependence, dementia and death
Investing in the next generation - Lessons from John Stott and others
Recent posts
There may be no straightforward way to turn around a struggling health service
Assisted suicide: Euthanasia tourism takes off in the US amid fresh push to change law in Britain
Innocence and guilt, partial evidence, and living with unknowns
Capacities, calling, relationships - disentangling this foundational theological tenet
The long and sad history of medical trial scandals gains another sobering chapter