Elias Kruger, Author at AI Theology

What Would Open AI Look Like?

In a previous blog I talked about how big government and big business were racing to get a piece of the AI revolution. In this blog, I want to explore the parallel grass-roots movement of open AI and its possibilities.

Open-Source Movement: The Democratization of Technology

There was a time in which to compete with technology required a hefty upfront investment. This is no longer the case. For one, consumers and businesses have now the ability to buy hardware as a service which greatly diminishes initial costs. Along with that, most expensive softwares have now an open-source version available for free. So today, open source solutions and hardware services like the cloud allows for even small players to compete alongside Fortune 500 companies.

I can speak from experience. When I entered the field of data science eight years ago, I remember wondering what would it take for me to do the things I did in my corporate job at home. First, I would have to purchase a server to get computing power. Then I would have to buy very expensive software to run the algorithms. At that point, open-source options were emerging in academic circles but service like the cloud did not exist. Today, the scenario could not be different. I can now perform the same tasks by downloading open-source software to my laptop and if necessary rent some space in the cloud for more computing power. Needless to say, the environment is ripe for start-ups to flourish as the barriers of entry are low. The main barrier of entry now is not technology but humans with the know-how to run these widely available tools.

This democratization trend is not limited to technology-related fields but is disrupting other industries like web development, education and the non-profit sector. Web development can now be accomplished through open-source web services like “WordPress” (which I use for this blog). Large Universities are offering online open courses to students all-over the world promising the same level of quality of their on-campus classes. Social entrepreneurs can now raise funds through crowdsourcing, greatly expanding their donor base. The “open” phenomenon is obliterating set up costs empowering individuals and small organizations to do more with less.

What About Open AI?

Because the barriers of entry are low for data science, I don’t see why we should not see a vigorous grass-roots movement to democratize AI. The hardware and software is available and affordable. The biggest challenge is one of skills and know-how. The skills required for running and understanding AI algorithms are very scarce at the moment. Only a small group of professionals and academics have experience working with the advanced algorithms needed to develop AI applications.

Yet, even this current bottleneck is not bound to last long. Numerous coding schools start-ups are offering data science camps enabling data veterans and even new entrants to learn how these algorithms work. Moreover, soon enough entrepreneurs will develop solutions that enable AI development without having to code. Of course, AI is not limited just to machine learning but encompasses robotics and engineering among other technical fields. While I cannot speak from experience in these areas, the rise in high-school robotics competitions and engineering camps for kids tells me that efforts already exist to democratize these skills as well.

Clearly the seeds are in place for an open AI movement to flourish. It is in this context that I plan to invest my time and creative energies in the next few years. As I mentioned in the previous blog, preparing the next generation for an AI future is not about training them for jobs but empowering with tools that can harness their creativity. What would happen if at-risk children today could have a place to learn and “do” AI? What if the unemployed and young adults could become part of learning communities that are experimenting with the latest machine learning technologies?

What kind of problems would they solve and what kind of world would they build?

How Do We Prepare the Next Generation For An AI Future?

In a previous blog, I described the trends that led to the current AI renaissance. In this blog, I want to talk about where AI is going and how we can prepare children and young adults to seize on the opportunities emerging from it.

The Global Race For AI Innovation

AI startups are popping up everywhere, not only in the United States but in many places in the world. Canada just announced an investment of $93 Million for AI hubs in its largest cities. China may now be surpassing the US in government funding of AI initiatives as it leads deep learning (a subset AI technology) research along with its booming tech sector led by Baidu. Japan is also investing heavily on the area as a way to foster economic growth with an ageing population. Developing countries are also entering the race as African AI startups emerge and as Brazil hosts the first AI startup battle in Latin American soil. Everybody wants a piece of the AI revolution.

Even so, AI innovation is most likely to come from leading tech giants: Google, Amazon and Facebook. Google, through bold mergers and research investment, is aiming to become an AI-driven company. Amazon, who already leads the digital assistant market and the cloud business, is set to incorporate AI into all its core operations. Facebook is investing heavily in AI to better manage and customize content for 1.4 Billion users. These are just a few examples of how AI is shaping the future of the Tech industry. The company who can turn AI into viable commercial solutions will become the market leader of the future. The company that lags behind will most likely face obsolescence.

What Can We Do To Prepare?

How will this current race impact our future? AI will certainly eliminate jobs, but also create new opportunities. I want to focus on the latter part for now. Complete new industries will emerge as these technologies become widespread in business and government all over the world. Therefore, we need to prepare our kids and young adults so they can fill these new jobs. Hear me out, not every kid will grow up to become a data scientist, robotics engineer or software developer. Yet, as AI permeates different systems, there are some basic skills that the future worker and entrepreneur must be proficient at.

Math is a good example. Developing a strong foundation on math concepts will be crucial. That does not mean every kid must master Calculus by High School. However, we need to debunk the myth that math is only suitable for a minority of very intelligent people. There is no such thing, math is a language that all can learn. For that to happen, we must also change how we teach math. Common Core is an encouraging step in the right direction but much more needs to be done. Math needs to become more visual and more relevant to day-to-day problems.

Another skill is programming. Learning to code should become as important as learning to read. Not all kids turn into voracious readers as adults most know enough to be functional and informed citizens in their communities. Similarly, not all kids that learn coding will become developers but they should have sufficient knowledge to navigate the technological change that is ahead of us.

While technical skills are important, we cannot neglect critical thinking skills. Here is where I believe disciplines like theology and philosophy have a place. Because these technologies will become more and more interwoven with our humanity, we cannot afford to overemphasize the “how” at the cost of asking the “why” and the “what for”. In other words, we need to be constantly asking: “What does it mean to be human in an AI world?”. This will not come naturally in math and coding classes that focus only on skills.

The goal is not only to prepare future workers but empower them to become AI social entrepreneurs, ready to address problems untouched by big business or big government.

I propose an inter-disciplinary approach that teaches both technical skills along with critical thinking. Students should ask the questions of “why” and “what for” right when they learn the “how”.The goal is not only to prepare future workers but empower them to become AI social entrepreneurs, ready to address problems untouched by big business or big government. In the next blog, I’ll be discussing how a grassroots open-source AI movement could work parallel to the one already happening in the business and government sector.

That is when things get interesting.

Why Is Artificial Intelligence All Over The News Lately?

AI hype has come and gone in the past. Why is back on the spotlight now? I will answer this question by describing the three main trends that are driving the AI revolution.

Artificial Intelligence has been around since the 1950’s. Yet after much promise and fanfare, AI entered a winter period in the 80’s where investment, attention and enthusiasm greatly diminished. Why has this technology re-emerged in the last few years? What has changed? In this blog, I will answer this question by describing the three main trends that are driving the AI revolution: breakthroughs in computing power, the emergence of big data and advances in machine learning algorithms. These three trends converged to catapult AI to the spotlight.

Computing Power Multiplies

When neural networks (the first algorithm to be considered Artificial Intelligence) were theorized and developed, the computers of the time did not have the processing power to effectively run them. The science was far ahead of the technology, therefore delaying its testing and improvement for later years.

Thanks to Moore’s law, we are now in a place where computing power is affordable, available and effective enough for some of these algorithms to be tested. My first computer in the early 90’s had 128K of RAM memory. Today, we have thumb drives with 100,000 the size of this memory! Even so, there are still ways to go as these algorithms can still be resource-expensive with existing hardware. Yet, as system architects leverage distributed computing and chip manufacturers experiment with quantum computing, AI will become even more viable. The main point is that some of these algorithms can now be tested even if it takes hours or days when before that was inconceivable.

Data Gets Big

With smartphones, tablets and digital sensors becoming common in our lives, the amount of data available has grown exponentially. Just think about how much data you generate in one day anytime you use your phone, computer and/or enter retail stores. This is just a few examples of data being collected on an individual. For another example, consider the amount of data collected and stored by large corporations on customers’ transactions on a daily basis.

Why is this relevant? The AI is only as good as the data fed into it for learning. A great example is the data available for Google in searches and catalogued websites. That is why Google can use Artificial Intelligence to translate texts. It does that by simply comparing translation of large bodies of texts. This way, it can transcend a word-by-word translation rules to understand colloquialism and probable meaning of words based on context. It is not as good as human translation but fast becoming comparable with it.

There is more. Big data is about to get bigger because of the Internet of Things (IoT). This new technology expands data capture beyond phones and tablets to all types of appliances. Think about a fridge that tells you when the milk is about to expire. As sensors and processors spread to all electronics, the amount of data available for AI applications will grow exponentially.

Machine Learning Comes of Age

The third trend comes from recent breakthroughs proving the effectiveness of Machine Learning algorithms. This is the very foundation of AI Technology because it enables computers to detect patterns from data without being programmed to do so. Even as computing power improved and data became abundant, the technology was mostly untested in real-life examples breeding skepticism from scientists and investors. In 2012, a computer was able to identify cats accurately from watching YouTube videos using deep learning algorithms. The experiment was hailed as a major breakthrough for computer vision. Success stories like this and others like it brought machine learning to the spotlight. These algorithms started getting attention not just from the academic community but also from investors and CEO’s. Investment in Artificial Intelligence has significantly increased since then and is now projected to reach $47 Billion by 2020. Now there was both abundance of data and enough computing power to process it, machine learning could finally be effectively used. These trends paved the way for Artificial Intelligence to become a viable possibility again.

Pulling All Together

These trends have turned Artificial Intelligence from a fixture of science fiction to a present reality we must contend with. This has not happened overnight but emerged through a convergence of technological advances that created a ripe environment for AI to flourish. As they came together, the media, politicians and industry titans started to notice. Hence, that’s why your Twitter feed is exploding with AI-related articles.

Because the trends leading the emergence of AI show no sign of slowing down, this is probably only the beginning of an AI springtime. While there are events that could derail this virtuous cycle, the forecast is for continuous advancement in the years and possibly decades to come. So, for now, the attention and enthusiasm is bound to stay steady for the foreseeable future.

As AI applications are being tested by large companies and start-ups alike, this is the time to start asking the right questions about how it will impact our future. The good news is that there is still time to steer the advance of AI towards human flourishing. Hence, let the conversation around it continue. I hope the attention engendered by the media will keep us engaged, active and curious on this topic.

How Can Humans Flourish?

In previous blogs, I often used the phrase “AI for human flourishing.” In this blog, I want to explore what human flourishing is.

What is Human Flourishing?

I learned of this concept still in seminary when taking classes on ethics, mission and ministry. It is a new term that encompasses three levels of well-being: emotional, psychological and social. It connotes a state in which people are thriving. This may or may not be accompanied by material wealth but it is broader to include less tangible factors such as joy, connection to others and personal growth.

This concept initiated a shift in my thinking away from concrete measures like getting a job, financial compensation, church numerical growth and decisions for Christ (a favorite in evangelical circles) to broader measures of impact. One can be thriving even while staying in the same place or job. One can be maturing even through hardships. One can become more loving even when circumstances worsen.

Human Flourishing and Spiritual Growth

From a Christian perspective, human flourishing is analogous to spiritual growth. While the first focus on good emotions, the latter focus on virtue. Yet, there is no reason to believe one is opposed to the other. In fact, I would venture to guess that true spiritual health should lead to overall well-being even if that is not the case at first. Take the case of the virtue of forgiveness for example, which now has proven to be beneficial to one’s health. This is just one example as how spiritual growth correlates with human flourishing.

I also like how the idea of flourishing points to the image of a garden. Plants in a garden do not only grow in size, they also produce fruits. In the same way, spiritual growth manifests itself in the fruits of human flourishing. The well-being translates into personal and social thriving. It manifests itself in healthy relationships, greater personal focus, mastery of new skills, perseverance to complete difficult problems and overcome the daily challenges of life and work. The individual that flourishes will inspire flourishing in others as this virtuous cycle spills over to those around her.

The main point here is that those concepts are interconnected. To focus on spiritual growth without seeing it reflected in human flourishing makes the first incomplete. In fact, the connection between spiritual growth and human flourishing reflects Jesus’ insistence that we would know a tree by its fruits. That is, It cannot be an internal change if it does not translate into visible change.

A Picture of Human Flourishing

As I try to describe it, I ponder on the gift and privilege of being a parent. Seeing my children grow gives me most vivid picture of human flourishing. I see them growing in knowledge, character and skill in many areas. I celebrate with them, every milestone from mastering the basic skills of speaking, reading and learning to be kind. Slowly I realize how fast they are growing, how beautifully they are flourishing. They are not following the same path or becoming the same person. Yet, each one of them is reflecting their own flourishing in becoming more like their own selves.

My dream for AI theology is that we do not stay in the realm of the abstract but that this conversation translates into concrete human flourishing. It is not just about a transfer of knowledge but an unlocking of potential that bears fruit. That’s why I am interested in innovative forms of education that harness the possibilities of technology as a tool for human flourishing. As a tool, technology gives us the “know-how” to take the raw material we have to use it to solve problems. I would love to see many empowered with the knowledge to build AI solutions that solve social problems.

Let us keep dreaming.

Are You Ready for Sexbots? How AI is Changing Intimacy

Very rarely do the words sex and theology appear in the same blog title. Yet, here we are.

Sexbots: The Final Step in Human Machine Relationships

In a previous blog I discussed how Intelligent Agents could eventually develop romantic relationships with humans. Yet, these relationships were mostly platonic imaginations. Sexbots are the next level, where robots can actually relate to humans in physical ways, including intimacy. How close are we from this reality? An expert from the Pew research predicted that robot relationships would be common by 2025. David Levy predicts that by 2050 marriage to robots will be legal. Mind blowing, indeed! Note that these predictions don’t just point to an outlier market of men seeking pleasure with robots as they are unable to do so with women. Instead, it foresees a world in which these relationships will become common place.

What are these sexbots? They started as hyper-realist dolls fabricated primarily for men. Now, as AI technologies advance, they are adding an interface in the head that can speak and learn his human companion’s desires. They are also starting to develop the outlines of a personality intended to create an emotional bond with the human companion. Yet, all this integration is in its very early stages. At this point, some of these dolls send me right into the uncanny valley, that point in which robots are human enough to catch your attention but still robotic enough to be creepy.

As these issues still need to be worked out, it is not too early to start considering a future in which some of us engage in romantic relationships with robots. In this scenario, we have left the world of Her to enter the badlands of Westworld.

Is This For Real?

My first reaction to this trend was to dismiss it as an abnormality. Surely, only a small group of lonely men would even consider such possibility. Who would exchange a real human with a heartless machine? As discussed before, the level of AI available is no where close to human (or live) intelligence but only a highly mimicked form of it. Yet, the more I thought about it, the more I understood the appeal of it.

The state of human marriage is in disarray to say the least. Moreover, in most Western societies, livelihood is secure and procreation is no longer a necessity. Individuals are free to pursue personal goals and meet every other need without another human being. Fantasy is available in a click of a mouse, a screen of a device or even surreal glasses. In these societies, whole industries have emerged to meet individual needs that relationships have become more of an option than a necessity.

We been in this road for a while, the road towards total independence, where sexbots are not even a destination but only another milestone in this journey toward hyper-isolation.

How Do We Respond?

I started this blog series as a follow up to a call for Christian leaders to enter the AI conversation. In this context, maybe sexbots are less of an absurdity but more of a cry for help. If this is where we are going, maybe it is time to stop this ship and re-think our trajectory. The point here is not to scream loud about the immorality of sexbots when most of Christian men already struggle with two-dimensional pornography. Yes, this is a sin issue but maybe there is a deeper wound to be addressed. A cry for true relationship sorely missing in our families and churches. Maybe the biggest gift technology can give in this junction is to expose the height from which we have fallen.

It is time to offer alternatives through healthy long-lasting relationships. This does not only apply to marriages, but also friendships and above all Christian fellowship. May we never have to resort to any sort of artificial relationship. My hope is that human relationships in our lives will always be enough. God did not create men and women to be alone. As Christians, we believe the very being of God is a community in the Trinity. We are called to love each other and to invite all into redemptive community.

We can never afford to outsource this job to a machine.

I pray we never will.

Chatbots: How AI is Changing Relationships

In my previous blog, I discussed how algorithmic matchmaking was changing how people choose their spouse. In this blog, I want to explore how AI is actually displacing human relationships. While the first example shows some evidence of improving the quality of marriages, the examples in this part are more worrisome. Chatbots are slowly taking on human-like functions in a speed that is alarming. In the near future, they could not only displace human relations but also deteriorate existing ones.

In need of conversation, how about chatting with a bot?

Chat bots and intelligent agents are the first level where this type of displacement is happening. The idea here is a computer interface that responds to us in human-like form. Chatbots for example are increasingly being used by companies to address customer service needs. Instead of talking to a real person, you can interact with an intelligent application that responds to your needs and answers your questions. While this can be an effective way to solve customer problems, this introduces a new paradigm into human-machine relationships. Our interaction with machines have been limited to very narrow band of actions in which we often have to structure our communication to machine-specified parameters. That is, we had to learn the code language or press the right button to get a response from the computer. Intelligent chat-bots do that work for us. We speak/type our problem and they reason its way into a solution.

Siri is the most popular examples of these intelligent agent. Yet the video below shows how Luna is much smarter than Siri spelling the future of what chat bots will be like in a few years.

Luna is a non-profit AI aimed at solving world problems like teaching math in rural areas and other humanitarian projects. This project deserves a blog on its own. For now, I will leave you with the link to the robot without borders organization and Luna’s creator if you want to learn more.

Intelligent agents like Luna go beyond fulfilling mundane needs, being able to engage in deep conversations about Philosophy, Religion, Metaphysics and even Theology. The computer goes from being technological slave to becoming a conversation partner. One that is able to dive into the complexities of the human experience. In this way, it is not far-fetched to foresee humans developing deep emotional bonds to these machines, even stronger than those we have with animals today. The movie Her depicts a future scenario in which humans have romantic relationships with these intelligent agents. Are we ready for this scenario?

Can chatbots make us less lonely?

As chatbots become more advanced as in the case of Luna, people will start seeking them for higher needs of companionship and affection. This trend in itself is concerning. A programmed companion made to cater to all our needs it is the antithesis of a healthy human relationship of give-and-take. My suspicion is that this could eventually shape our relationship with other humans by fostering unrealistic relational demands from each other. It could also lead to some to greater isolation as his or her emotional needs are increasingly met by artificially intelligent machines. Not all would be negative, as these applications could provide much-needed support for those who struggle with depression and other mental illness. It will all depend on how we use these technologies. As long as we keep on asking the question: How can this technology foster human flourishing? This should keep us as a guide for future un-foreseen scenarios.

What’s next?

What about physical needs? All examples above represent a disembodied interaction. What if there was a body involved? What if you could have sex with a machine? Well, sexbots are now being developed. This is a concerning trend that I will grapple with on my next blog.

AIgorithmic Matchmaking: How AI is Changing Marriage

In a previous post, I mentioned that AI was changing relationships. In this multi-part blog, I want to delve further on this topic to describe how AI is changing marriages. I will focus on algorithmic matchmaking which is present in dating sites like e-Harmony. Because these online dating sites have been around for a while, the idea of using technology for matchmaking has gained some social acceptance. However, from a historic perspective, this is nothing short of revolutionary. For centuries we have resorted to family members, traditions and even our own whims for finding our mate. Now this is being done through Artificial Intelligence. While e-Harmony arranged marriages account for a small portion of marriages (only about 4% at the moment), given our dismal record on divorces, I see adoption of this method to continue to grow in the coming years.

Before criticizing this trend as another example of technological over-reach, it is important to understand how these applications work. To enter the company’s database, the spouse-to-be needs to answer over 150 questions about themselves. This includes personal preferences, demographic (gender, age, place or residence), and behavioral data based on website click-data. This data is then aggregated with other users and historical data. The data is fed into machine learning algorithm that then assign different weights to each factors making it possible to quantify how compatible two users are to each other. So for example, if the historical data shows that male Nascar fans tend to stay together with females that like Harley-Davidson bikes, then users with these traits score higher in compatibility and are more likely to be paired together. The model analyzes hundreds of traits in this manner producing a final compatibility score between pairs of users.

What is different about e-Harmony is that they actually track their relationships success and are able to feed that knowledge into their models. In other words, they are able to match people based on how successful marriages were for similar past versions of these new users. With 16 years of data, the models should have a solid baseline for compatibility. Also, unlike other dating sites, e-Harmony does not allow the user to look for dates. They are limited to the matched produced by the algorithm. That is, they trust that their model is better than the user him/herself in looking for long-lasting relationships. If their numbers are to be believed, divorce rate of e-Harmony couples is around 3.8%. Now, I would sure love to see whether these numbers hold out over a period of decades.

While I am not privy to all the variables and methodology used by the site, their approach seems sound. They are basically quantifying data available from both their user base and psychological research on the topic and making that wisdom available to relationship seekers. It is as if you could evaluate a large number of marriages at once to try to figure out what works and what doesn’t. Certainly, a computer would do that job better than just relying on one person’s experience. While we are limited to our own experience and others around it, models can aggregate results from thousands of people. I see this approach expanding beyond dating site to becoming an enhancement for matchmaking in the offline world.

This does not mean all marriage partners should be chosen through this process. The model’s foundational idea is that marriages live or die because of compatibility. That may not be the deciding factor for all marriages. Also, people change in ways that questionnaires cannot capture. Moreover, even if the approach proves out effective over-time, I don’t see entire societies changing century-old traditions to adopt this new way of choosing mates. Technology changes fast, people not so much.

This is the first part of this blog where we explore how AI is impacting relationships. In this case, we have an example of AI altering relationship between humans. The next level of impact is how AI is reinventing machines interfaces in a way that may displace human relationships. This is AI not enhancing but actually replacing human interaction.

This is when things get complicated.

Kasparov, Wall-E and AI Hope

The first man to be beaten by a machine is now optimistic about AI.

Gary Kasparov, Russian chess champion, also holds the title of being the first human beaten by a machine. The momentous occasion happened in 1997. He reportedly did not react well to his defeat, once accusing IBM of cheating by using a humans to improve the computer’s gaming strategy. He would later become one of the first voices to warn about the danger of AI. So, it is with great surprise that I read last week his turn-of-heart article where he encourage readers to embrace the AI revolution.

He is describing what I talked about in the blog about augmentation – machines taking over menial tasks leaving us free to pursue occupations that require creativity. That is, since machines are well suited for performing repetitive endeavors with precision, humans are then free to create new products, improve on existing systems and care for each other.

Wall-E: the adorable truth-speaking robot

On Saturday, for our family movie night, we sat down to watch Wall-E. I was excited about the choice and the break from the usual tales of fair princesses. Indeed, I had forgotten how much I enjoyed this animated movie. The robot characters and their romance are as endearing as it could get. It is funny, adorable and in some ways prophetic. Sophia, my seven year-old, turned to me at the end of the movie to inform me that the movie teaches a lesson on how to care of our earth. Even kids get it!

If you have not watched it, please do so in the next few days. Without giving much of the story away, the movie paints a bleak future of an Earth abandoned and trashed. The only remaining survivors are a cute clean-up robot called Wall-E and his companion cockroach. He toils away day after day compacting and piling up trash. Yet, in his spare time he watches old musicals in an old TV set. His world changes when EVE, an adorable female robot, arrives on earth in search for life.

The movie centers on their budding relationship in which humans play only a secondary part. In the movie, people live in a cruise-like spaceship designed by a large multi-national corporation to keep them in space until the clean up effort on Earth was complete. Except, the clean up effort failed and humanity was stuck in this ship where robots catered to all their needs. So much so, that most did not even walk developing morbidly obese bodies. Sounds eerily familiar? Well, it should.

Now what these two stories have in common?

I see the Wall-E modern parable as a cautionary tale of a Kasparov’s vision going terribly wrong. By replacing all labor with robots , humans would be doomed to entertain themselves to death. It raises questions about the recent discussions on technology replacing human employment with basic guaranteed income. The irony of the movie was that while the robots were there to serve humans, humans had actually become enslaved to the machines.

They had built the the perfect convenient life that they lost themselves in the machines meant to make their lives better.

They never pursued the higher endeavors of creativity, art and building new worlds. Their desire atrophied, their vision darkened and their lives became a meaningless distraction from the real work waiting for them on earth.

What then is AI hope?

Kasparov’s point is still well-taken, as long as we balance it with the lessons from Wall-E. Technology created to set us free had many times enslaved to addictive entertainment. I see that in the growing popularity of video games which now is not confined to children anymore but has become a serious hobby for adults.

The future of augmentation, must be built around a telos that goes beyond the perpetual pursuit for novelty. Motherboard released an article titled “people don’t want to leave AI up to corporations“. Raising the question is a good start. Left to their own devices, corporations will continue to feed us with perpetual dreams of novelty. While progress will occur, and quality of life will improve, resources will be channeled to what is profitable not what is good.

AI hope starts by broadening the conversation. It must begin by extending the table and welcoming new stakeholders to the conversation. The purpose of human flourishing must be a guiding principle.

In a micro level, this means expanding the digital opportunities of employment to those usually shut out of them. It starts with movements to teach STEM skills in schools and homes. It begins by de-mystifying computer work from being specialized for the “geeks” to being everybody’s work, especially girls and minorities.

Towards that end, it is encouraging to see companies like Facebook and Apple offering coding camps and other resources that democratize IT knowledge. Yet, the vision of benevolent augmentation, where humanity is free from toil and directed towards creativity, will not come through technologies or even tech companies. It will come by the collective work of multiple stakeholders steering the development of technology towards equal opportunity. In short, it must be primarily concerned with human flourishing.

How can you make your voice heard in the AI conversation? How can you influence the development of technology towards human flourishing? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Our Bodies Matter to God

Because robust theology cannot be done without a strong biblical foundation, I will occasionally blog on the lectionary. For those of you not familiar with the lectionary, it is system that divides the Bible in Sunday readings so that a congregation can cycle through all of Scripture in a period of 3 years. It is a mainstay in mainline denominations but is now also becoming common in non-denomination circles.

This is not a Sunday sermon but an attempt to reflect on all passages as one unit. I will be focusing on themes that emerge from the passages read in sequence along with a picture.

The picture for this lesson comes from a Christian community in Cameroon.

Second Sunday of Easter – Year A

(Acts 2:14a, 22-32; Psalm 16; I Peter 1:3-9 and John 20:19-31)
The readings for this Sunday extend our Easter journey on its way to Pentecost. As I read the passages, body part references caught my attention:

Acts 2:26b – my tongue rejoiced; moreover my flesh will live in hope

Acts 2:31b – David spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, saying, ‘He was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh experience corruption.

Psalms 16:9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; my body also rests secure.

Psalm 16:11b – in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

John 20:20b – he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.

John 20:25 “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

John 20:28 “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side.”

The text’s corporal emphasis points us to the bodily reality of the resurrection. This is a season in the church where we are admonished to look at our earthly vessels with hope. This draws a sharp contrast in how we often perceive our bodies.

Western thought leans on a dualistic foundation that divides the self into body and soul. This duality has permeated our theology often emphasizing the importance of the soul at the expense of the body. This division is also reflected in our technology that divides computers into hardware and software. With the emergence of social media, we also experience the division between an online and an offline life.

In this environment, we often feel fragmented and internally divided. It also forces us into false choices where one area gets neglected while other becomes over-emphasized. In Christian theology, this often means a focus on spiritual things (soul) over earthly matters (body).

Therefore, it is healing to hear the Early Christians’ emphasis on a bodily resurrection. This reminds us that the transformation of Christ is not just for our souls but has ramifications to our physical bodies. Our bodies are not just shells, they are destined to be transformed in Christ’s coming. They matter to God.

May you walk into the incarnate reality of the savior.

May you experience his power in this life.

May you get a taste of heaven in this season.

Peace.

5 Things Christian Leaders Need To Know About AI

AI is fast becoming part of our lives.

So what?

While it is easy to see how this technology is relevant to IT professionals, business leaders and geeks (like myself), how does it impact those pursuing Christian ministry? In this blog, I put forth the five main reasons why I think Christian leaders should be paying attention to AI (and why I started a blog about it).

1. AI Will Directly Impact Those You Minister To

Professionals in all areas will experience some type of disruption because of the rise of AI. Drivers, accountants and loan officers may become unemployed. Lawyers will have to re-learn to practice their profession alongside digital assistants. Business leaders will face competitive pressures to adopt AI technologies or see their business become obsolete. They may not identify AI as the culprit yet they will feel the distress caused by it and will be in search for answers.

Disruption is bound to cause anxiety, confusion and fear. While the church has been in the business of comforting the afflicted for centuries, we have not always done this in an informed manner. Understanding the implications of the upcoming 4th industrial revolution to come from these technologies can help you better speak to the lives of those affected by it. Not all of it will be negative, in fact much will be positive. Yet, fast change has a way to disorient us often causing us to resist it.

2. AI is Changing How We Relate to Each Other

As computers become more human-like, relationships are taking a new dimension. In a time where isolation increases, many will be looking for virtual companionship. What one could only find through human interaction will now become possible with highly intelligent machines. This can take place in many ways such as acquiring a companion robot, finding partners or friends through AI enhanced applications to pursuing intimacy with sexbots. The movie Her depicts a world where people engage in monogamous relationships with AI applications. This will become possible in the near future.

If you think gay marriage is a challenge, try marriage with robots? Experts predict that marriage to robots will become legal by 2050. If your parishioner wants to marry his/her android, will you officiate it? While this is still far off, the transition to this reality will start now as computer interfaces become more personable.

3. AI Can be Conduit for Missions and Incarnational Ministries

While AI will eliminate jobs, it will also foster new industries that don’t exist today. As AI applications become more common, there will be a tremendous demand for people with the skills to operate, fix and create tools based on these technologies. The education for these jobs does not exist and only a handful of degrees can prepare you to thrive in these new professions. This is truly where the church has a great opportunity by moving into this area early. Some AI professionals may already sit in your pews. Maybe it is time you invite them for coffee.

This could work for Christians of all denominations. Evangelicals could enter new missionary frontiers through business as mission that introduce this technology to developing countries. Mainliners could devise vibrant incarnational ministries around AI education and social empowerment. These are just a few examples but you get the picture. If the future of opportunity is in AI, then let’s carve out a space to live out the gospel in it.

4. AI Can Take The Study of Scriptures to a Whole New Level

AI can take your Bible software to a whole new level. Through natural language processing algorithms, we will soon be able to detect sentiment, do in-depth research in large bodies of texts and even summarize the life-work of great theologians in a matter of instants. We will move away from word searches to the researching ideas or themes implicit in the text. Imagine you want to prepare a message in the theme of joy. Not only you’ll be able to find all verses that contain the word joy but also actual examples where Biblical characters felt joy even if the words themselves were not spelled out. You will also be able to find passages with joyful tones through sentiment analysis. Suddenly, you will have many new avenues to explore the biblical text which before would require painstaking work to accomplish.

The possibilities do not end in research but also extend to producing new content. While the AI preacher is still a far cry, soon you will be able to enlist AI in crafting life-changing sermons and/or analyzing past sermons in new ways. By training AI applications with past sermons, the computer could create new sermons that align with your past style and theological emphasis. It is not that you would outsource the creative process to a software but using it could enhance your ability to communicate effectively. In short, new tools will be available for those who enjoy in-depth studies or want to improve on their communication skills.

5. AI Needs Christian Voices in the Conversation

Historically, Christians have been notorious in entering social conversations late. When we do it, our response is reactive, uninformed and grossly ineffective. My hope is that we address this challenge differently. While we are firmly grounded in the past through tradition, that should not hinder us from walking boldly into the future. The emergence of AI has profound implications to our humanity. Some even believe that our identity as a species will be altered. All of this is uncharted territory fraught with obstacles and great ethical dilemmas. If we believe our faith has something to say as humanity experiments with super intelligence then we need to make our voices heard.

This blog and is here to do exactly that – empower you to engage in this topic in an informed and faithful manner. Our vision is to shorten the learning curve so people like you can enter the conversation pro-actively. Check out our resources and past blogs and feel free to share this with other leaders.

The challenge to live the Christian life in an AI world is staring at our faces. Let’s hear the voices of our cloud of witnesses beckoning us to live for Christ faithfully in this present context. This starts by entering the conversation.

Will you heed the call?

Author: Elias Kruger