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Tag: artificial intelligence

Is Theology Relevant to Artificial Intelligence?

What does Theology have to do with Artificial Intelligence? What does Jerusalem have to do with Silicon Valley? In this blog, I want to address this question head-on to show that theology is not just relevant but much needed in the current debates about AI.

If social media is any indication, not everyone sees the connection between AI and Theology. Consider a recent discussion I had in Facebook where a contributor expressed the following view:

“The more I read [your blog, the more] I feel like you have to justify to us the introduction of the subject of theology in discussions about AI because I don’t see the relevance.”

Challenge accepted! Simply put, if I can’t answer this question satisfactorily, I have no business keeping this blog.

I acknowledge that readers come to this blog from diverse backgrounds. While a good number are Christians, there are also some that are not affiliated with Christianity or any faith at all. I want to respond having the second group in mind. The question that may arise is whether Theology (especially the Christian type, which is mostly associated with the discipline) is relevant to the topic of Artificial Intelligence. Furthermore, if it is relevant, does it have anything meaningful to say that warrants a place at the table of AI debates?

The Human Connection

For starters, I would define theology (and religion) and the development of Artificial Intelligence as human endeavors. Why point that out? I want to point to the fact that both disciplines emanate from our shared human experience. What differentiates AI from other technologies is its perennial connection with human intelligence. While human intelligence is not the only intelligence as one could argue that other animals have their own unique intelligence, it is inevitably our starting point. Technology, like all other human endeavors, is a creative expression of who we are, whether we acknowledge it or not. The primary focus of AI is to mimic human intelligence, therefore establishing humanity at the center of it.

Theology, while focused on the divine, is greatly interested in humanity. The study of the divine is incomplete without a starting point that emanates from humanity. In that sense, it is similar to AI, because it uses humanity as a primary point of reference. We cannot define or speak of the divine without bringing it analogically to a human dimension. Christian theology does not speak of an abstract idea about God but one that is deeply personal.

AI as Playing God

While the human connection is important, this is not enough to explain the relevance of theology. For that we must turn to the god connection that links these two subjects. Consider the provocative statement Kevin Kelly (one of the founders of Wired magazine) made in the turn of the century:

As we attempt to create from scratch life, and other minds, and perhaps someday other universes, we need a better catalog of god-ness, and a more exact notion of what species of god is best for what kind of creation. As we become better gods we must become better theologians. It is sort of like how the Web forces everybody to be a librarian; what once was left to esoteric professionals is now everybody’s business.

When we step in the business of creating intelligent machines, we are stepping into the realm of divine. This is new territory for humanity where we must thread with caution. If AI is playing God, can Theology offer a playbook? Yet, what if developing intelligence is a step in becoming more like God? If so, we might have something to learn from a discipline that has attempted to explain the divine for centuries.

Regardless of whether you see the divine as a human construct or a real being, theology can still be relevant. If you are in the first camp, wouldn’t it be interesting to learn how our ancestors imagined God? Wouldn’t their reflection, their cautionary tales and utopias, be instructive in helping us navigate the road to an AI future?

Hope and Imagination

In a recent article, Beth Singler explored the striking similarity between the language of techno-enthusiast and religious people. She shows how the conversation around AI today connects her to concepts she had heard in Sunday School as a child. What could be the connecting thread? Hope and imagination. To talk about an AI future, forces us to imagine what we cannot see. Faith is defined as believing in things we hope for but cannot see. In the same way, Science Fiction literature express a hope for a better future or a warning to keep what is most dear to us. They may express different values, but their method is surprisingly similar.

It is hard to do justice in a 900 word blog to a topic that deserves volumes of books. Yet, I hope this writing can challenge some established mental models and crack open new horizons. I firmly believe that the conversation around AI has much to benefit from a theological perspective. I don’t claim it should be the only or even the dominant voice. Consequently, Theology has much to learn from AI as well. The challenge is whether we’ll move forward in courageous dialogue or let fear and misunderstanding keep these disciplines apart.

I certainly hope for the first option. Do you?

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 AI Theology?

My path here was certainly not intentional or carefully planned. For years, I’ve been asking ‌ how could I marry my work skills with my passion. Becoming a data scientist was not a carefully planned career. I kind of fell into it. Like many people in the workplace, my career arose out of a blend of opportunities, skill sets, curiosity and providence (a word I prefer from luck). I started working for a large bank right out of college. My initial plan was to do that for “a few years” until I would start doing what I was “called” to do. These few years turn into a decade and then more years. Throughout this time, I wondered what in the world I was doing in my job. That is also when I started pursuing a degree in Theology, in the hopes of a career change. For years, I saw these pursuits as separate endeavors, failing to see much connection between them.

As I started studying Theology while still working as a data scientist, I was constantly straddling these two worlds. They tap into different parts of our brain, requiring different skills. As a data professional, I see the world through tables organized in columns and rows. My primary function is to extract meaning out of these tables either by combining them, creating new ones or visualizing their information in clarifying ways. This can happen through summarization or modeling. At times, I am trying to answer questions while others, I am simply exploring the data.

As a Theology student, I see the world through text. We start with sacred text, written two Millennia ago in languages not spoken today. Beyond that, we work with an ungodly (no pun intended) amount of books based on reflection on the sacred text between the time the sacred texts were written and our present day. Beyond that, you reflect on the experience of the believing community and academy that enriches, confuses and at times undermines the sacred text. Yet Theology is not only about books. It is ‌about being human – how we experience the world around us and speak hope into it. Theology also informs and shapes values, morals and ideologies. That is ‌what has drawn me to it from an early age. So, even as the Sacred texts are studied and analyzed, that is a sense of gravitas often missing from most forms of knowledge.

While navigating these two world concurrently, I often saw them as incompatible. It is not that they are opposed to each other but that they seem to talk past each other. They ask different questions, seek other means to pursue answers and arrive at widely different conclusions. At its core, Theology is mostly concerned with how things should be. Data analysis strives to be a detached assessment of how things are. One example of that would be ‌global warming. Theology is mostly concerned with the moral implications of what causes global warming and how people will be affected. It then proposes an alternative way to relate to the environment, inspired by Christian revelation, that will lead to a more just future. A data analysis approach will look at past trends and then make assumptions for future forecast. Scientists gather heaps of data, develop complex models that provide benchmarks that will guide planning for the future (ie: an % increase of CO2 ‌ as the benchmark being discussed in the recent gathering of world leaders). Data analysis will also use test and control methods which determine which one has yielded the best results. A theological approach is not interested in what has worked but what is good.

As I approached the end of my theological education, I found myself longing for integration. In that pursuit, I began to ask what it would look like to interact Theology with technology. This convergence started taking shape as breakthroughs in computing power, big data and promising algorithms ushered Artificial Intelligence to the spotlight. Because data science is an essential part of AI, I saw opportunity in the horizon. As industry titans make their bet on Artificial Intelligence, data science became a promising field for employment. If these investments yield concrete applications, data science will become a regular function of organization across all industries just like finance and accounting is today.

Apart from the impact on data science, the advent of Artificial Intelligence raises profound questions. The idea that machine could act in such human-like manner that we may confuse them with people is mind-boggling. This clearly marks a new era of technological advancement requiring a  multi-disciplinary engagement. Simply put, will human-made intelligence mirror our best or our worse? In that question, I believe the Christian tradition has much to contribute.

Yet, I don’t see many voices addressing the intersection of technology and Theology effectively. At best, these topics are discussed separately as if they did not interact. This in turn becomes my personal attempt to integrate the very worlds I live in, with the hopes it may bring insight and wisdom in answering the perennial question: How shall we then live in a world where Artificial Intelligence is a reality?

Here is a list of topics I plan to address in this blog:

  • What are the ethical implications of the increasing use of AI applications in our world?
  • What would it look like to do theology with AI and vice-versa – what would a theologically-informed AI look like?
  • Can AI be used for good and what would that look like?
  • Who gets to decide how AI will affect our way of life?

These are just a few questions worthy of exploration. Let the conversation begin.