AI will dethrone pride, magic, and mammon. (3MN)

June 20, 2024

Happy Thursday!

In the next 3 minutes:

  1. Can AI technology be harnessed for good?

  2. How to harness AI and withhold human dignity.

  3. Six redemptive directions for AI.

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Minute 1 - Can AI be harnessed for good?

AI isn’t going anywhere. It is as consequential a development as agriculture, electricity, or the Internet.

Can AI, like those developments, be harnessed for good? This question requires a few deep breaths to keep fools from rushing in.

However, with ample caution in place and from the foundation of a Christian understanding of human beings as image-bearers of God, captive to deception yet living in a very good and very distorted world, we can explore the potential of AI thoughtfully and responsibly.

🛑 The paragraphs above were written entirely by an AI engine (ChatGPT) and give you an idea of how advanced this technology has become in such a short amount of time.

You could avoid it.

You could fear it.

You could embrace it.

Regardless, it's not going anywhere.

Minute 2 - Ways that dethrone pride, magic, and mammon.

Leading tech author Andy Crouch jumps in:

Like the Internet, electricity, and agriculture, AI is a general-purpose technology that can be harnessed to many ends. Redemptive entrepreneurs can lead the way in demonstrating that AI can be deployed—in fact, is best deployed—in ways that dethrone pride, magic, and Mammon and that elevate the dignity of human beings and their capacity to flourish as image bearers in the world.

Andy Crouch is partner for theology and culture at Praxis, a venture-building ecosystem advancing redemptive entrepreneurship. His writing explores faith, culture, and the image of God in the domains of technology, power, leadership, and the arts.

Minute 3 -  Six redemptive directions for AI.

What might this look like? Crouch provides six “redemptive directions” for the technology, with examples for each:

  1. Redemptive AI will inform but not replace human agency.

  2. Redemptive AI will develop rather than diminish human cognitive capacity and extend rather than replace education.

  3. Redemptive AI will respect and advance human embodiment.

  4. Redemptive AI will serve personal relationships rather than replace them.

  5. Redemptive AI will restore trust in human institutions by protecting privacy and advancing transparency.

  6. Redemptive AI will benefit the global majority rather than enrich and entrench a narrow minority.

Read A Redemptive Thesis for Artificial Intelligence over at Praxis. For more from Andy Crouch, check out his brilliant book, The Life We’re Looking For.

VERSE OF THE WEEK

But in our time something new has been added. What Moses and the prophets witnessed to all those years has happened. The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in him. For there is no difference between us and them in this. Romans 3:21-23 MSG

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