Nehaveigur

Wolf Tivy on Palladium explores the risk of a single artificial intelligence, through recursive self-improvement, taking over the world. This hypothetical event has been termed the Singularity and has been discussed in depth by Nick Bostrom and others. For a current perspective on AI risk, I recommend Jim Rutt’s podcast.

Tivy agrees with the singularity being detrimental to humanity’s prospects, but he doesn’t think that the AI in the aftermath would be able to establish any kind of stable order, since any sufficiently capable intelligence could not be sufficiently self-coherent. He lists the supporting evidence, which I don’t feel qualified to judge.

It’s one of Tivy’s other arguments that I’d like elaborate on. He appeals to our traditional theological concepts as the best vocabulary to make sense of the risks associated with AI.

I think he has it the wrong way round: Using the language and framing of AI research is a great way to make sense of theology. To me, theological texts have always been hard to penetrate. This is partly because theology, even more so than other disciplines, has its jargon, and partly because of the mindset of those who write theological texts. I tried to understand Teilhard de Chardin sharing his thoughts on singularities, I really did. After two hours I gave up and poured myself a stiff drink. As someone devoid of religious or spiritual inclinations, theological enquiry, as done by theologians, is alien to me, as it likely is for many others.

That’s why I found Tivy’s article illuminating. It frames theological questions in a new way, considering them from the perspective of AI research. This framing, in combination with his choice of terminology, opened up a vista I had rarely contemplated before. Only Bostrom’s Superintelligence has had a similar effect.

Perhaps religious thinkers who wish to address readers like me, unaccustomed to the language of theology or religious concepts, could expand their reach by framing their thoughts the same way.

I have updated this post on 2024-04-13 to take into account a comment by Wolf Tivy.