Being Human in the World of AI

What makes us human? The question is, of course, not a new one, but it has taken on new urgency in light of the rapid speed at which artifiltch- artificial intelligence has developed.

And even if the doomsday scenarios don't come to fruition, as applications of artificial intelligence are becoming more and more ubiquitous, and our use of the technology expands further and further, we must return to this question, not just in order to evaluate whether a machine could ever truly replace us, but also so that we might understand what we actually value in one another.

As I was preparing for this sermon, my Substack algorithm, AI in action, decided to highlight a poem for me which captured some of the unease that I feel whenever I use AI.

Let me quote just a short passage, and I'll make the link to the full poem available in the written text of the sermon.

It begins, "Be sure to use AI when making your next, I don't know, meal plan, for example.

Definitely do not call your friend who loves to cook and ask her for her favorite recipes or tips or ways to save time making meals, because you will end up taking far longer than you had hoped, hearing perhaps about her father's cancer diagnosis, or how lonely she's been, or even what she's planted in her spring garden and then lost with the early frost.

Be sure to use AI." What I love about this short passage is that it captures so perfectly the reality in which we live.

It doesn't claim that there is anything in principle wrong about using AI to make a meal plan, but invites us to reflect on what we get and don't get from a machine.

Yes, the machine will give us what we asked for.

The conversation with our friend might achieve the same goal, but it al- has, also has the potential for so much more, to give us things we never even thought to ask for.