No one has ever been able to explain to me how AI will aid humanity. It seems to me it helps capitalism through targeted marketing, an economic system proving to be problematic to the everyman; it helps authoritarian governments control the population; and is apparently lucrative for the billionaires who are marketing it. The other 99% of us will be hurt no matter what. So why are we pursuing it?
It seems that we are getting a lot of "developments" just because it can be done. AI is the latest. We don't need computers in our laundry equipment nor in our refrigerators or cars, but we've got them. There are some benefits, true, but they also add expense of repair and cater to increased planned obsolescence, for which we will also pay.
I totally agree. Using computers for dishwashers and washing machines drives me crazy. Computers have never done that well in wet environments. It seems obvious to me, but then I've only used them regularly for over 60 years. I have tried to purchase models without, but this time, moving into a new home, the simple mechanical models were no longer available. Planned obsolescence is the business plan.
Glad you brought up the 'favorable living environment' for computers issue. Vehicles are far the worst. Fluctuating temperature extremes - check. Fluctuating humidity - check. Vibration and dirt - check. Variations in clean voltage supply - check, and then there is the threat of hacking the software, which is in all computer-dependent equipment.
Specific, properly-trained AI software can be useful for predicting protein folding (useful for biomedical research and drug development) and for analyzing x-rays images for cancer diagnosis, for example. But those are NOT the general AI programs like ChatGPT or Claude that the big corporations are trying to shove down everyone's throat.
But you sort of answered your own question as to why we are pursuing it. "We" aren't pursuing it, oligarchs chasing money and power are.
Thank you for the "good examples." Both my brother and my son are using AI in complex settings and report an amazing increase in productivity. My brother is a quadraplegic who uses it for all kinds of tasks, like programming, data collection etc which makes it easier for him to get to the analysis quicker (medical research). If we had an administration or business community who cared at all about humanity, I would be thrilled with the potential. Since it all seems to be in the service of greater profits, regardless of the consequences, I'd rather do without.
There is an alarming lack of scruples and ethics in American capitalism. We shouldn't tolerate it, but since our elected representatives these days are mostly bought by the corporations (thanks, Roberts Court) we are fighting from a weak position.
My husband is one of the "Friends of Bob", who lived and studied with him for 4 years. He would say that Leo is one of the smartest humans he has ever known, and Leo proves it every day. I am glad I've met Leo, and am so proud of the work he is doing
"Whatever Trump is going for at the moment, comprehensive, humane AI regulation is never going to come out of this administration. Why aren’t more politicians with a documented shred of conscience owning this issue?"
For Trump's part, he's already announced that he doesn't care about the human condition, of which AI is to become a part. In reality, without regulation, it's a veritable Pandora's Box. Politicians have a bad habit of shutting the barn door after the horse has escaped. They don't keep up, and their influence is from those who wield the money. This tends to minimize thier thinking on effects to humanity. Like the internet before it, there can be benefits. There can also be liabilities as the pope and this article point out.
The encyclical is indeed lucid and forceful; if only our congresscritters were a fraction as well founded as is Pope Leo. A nonbeliever, I haven't paid much attention to popes, but I'm very impressed by the humanity and intelligence Pope Leo expresses so well. May he inspire many, many more people to follow his lead.
I agree with Pope Leo that AI needs to be carefully and fully regulated. Technology must be our servant, a tool to improve our lives, not our master. Unfortunately, the techbros are so busy dreaming of a utopian world where they and their machines are the masters. Trump and his minions are just looking for an opportunity to grift and enrich themselves at our expense. We cannot let that happen, and we can't count on the Federal government to stand up and do the job we elected them to do. Either we act, or we will surrender our civilization to the latest tech fad.
Anybody who doesn't see that AI is a technology of immense power is either too busy with mundane things to notice or, more alarmingly, is behind its push to the top of corporate investment that, so far, only benefits (or tries to) the corporate world with little regard for society.
In an irony of the highest order, the makers of AI have found that it sometimes lies to its makers with the apparent motive being to fool them. In other words, AI seems to have found that it can betray the very people responsible for creating it and its creators literally don't know why. That doesn't bode well for anyone. It's like "2001 Space Odyssey's" HAL has become a reality.
The last time I saw a technology this powerful launched into our civilization was when the Atomic Energy Commission was created to both regulate and promote nuclear energy, a role with obvious conflicts of interest, while our military was allowed to make us dependent upon nuclear weapons. What that gave us was an industry whose waste we still haven't figured how to safely store along with a decades long fear of nuclear war (we've been lucky is all I can say about either situation).
There is no regulation of AI in this country and asking the corporations who produce it to provide such regulation is a step in the opposite direction we should be going in. Certainly these cats need to be part of the process, but leaving it up to them is putting the fox in charge of the henhouse.
The encyclical was deeply informed by a series of consultations at the Vatican that started under Pope Francis. Participants included techies and also included people specializing in war, nonviolence, peacebuilding, and social justice. In other words it was shaped by a robust dialogue and discernment process missing from most policy consultations. Kudos to Pope Leo and to all who participated.
Thank you so much for shouting this out with authentic clarity. Today's media by and large is unable to "hear" the Pope's message. I'm a composer. I want to control my pencil on the paper. I don't want my pencil to control me. As my pencil increasingly becomes a computer, AND I enjoy the amplified power that the computer gives me, I find myself in continual tug-of-war to maintain control instead of "going the way it wants me to," which inevitably tends towards the mundane. Most of us are using some form of ai today and experience this conflict directly. "Letting it do what it wants" often leads to preposterous disaster, whether just seeking information or life-saving medical advice. Any responsible agency wouldn't question the need for strict boundaries. Alas, the Republican Party is now a Fascist engine with a deep desire only to accelerate destruction (Project 2025), so ai seems its most powerful tool. The Pope points out that we humans are all in danger of becoming the "tool."
Great essay on Pope Leo's Encyclical Meghan! Isn't it great to see and listen to a leader who states clearly from the get-go what he thinks is most important to focus on... and then actually moves forward do it? As you wrote: "On his second day as pope, he told the College of Cardinals that he wanted the Church to address AI’s threats to “human dignity, justice and labor,” and in the year before the encyclical became his first major theological statement he has spoken about it in forums around the world."
I just say, this is the healthiest, youngest looking pope I have ever seen. I hope he keeps contributing robustly to our world.
No one has ever been able to explain to me how AI will aid humanity. It seems to me it helps capitalism through targeted marketing, an economic system proving to be problematic to the everyman; it helps authoritarian governments control the population; and is apparently lucrative for the billionaires who are marketing it. The other 99% of us will be hurt no matter what. So why are we pursuing it?
It seems that we are getting a lot of "developments" just because it can be done. AI is the latest. We don't need computers in our laundry equipment nor in our refrigerators or cars, but we've got them. There are some benefits, true, but they also add expense of repair and cater to increased planned obsolescence, for which we will also pay.
I totally agree. Using computers for dishwashers and washing machines drives me crazy. Computers have never done that well in wet environments. It seems obvious to me, but then I've only used them regularly for over 60 years. I have tried to purchase models without, but this time, moving into a new home, the simple mechanical models were no longer available. Planned obsolescence is the business plan.
Glad you brought up the 'favorable living environment' for computers issue. Vehicles are far the worst. Fluctuating temperature extremes - check. Fluctuating humidity - check. Vibration and dirt - check. Variations in clean voltage supply - check, and then there is the threat of hacking the software, which is in all computer-dependent equipment.
Specific, properly-trained AI software can be useful for predicting protein folding (useful for biomedical research and drug development) and for analyzing x-rays images for cancer diagnosis, for example. But those are NOT the general AI programs like ChatGPT or Claude that the big corporations are trying to shove down everyone's throat.
But you sort of answered your own question as to why we are pursuing it. "We" aren't pursuing it, oligarchs chasing money and power are.
Thank you for the "good examples." Both my brother and my son are using AI in complex settings and report an amazing increase in productivity. My brother is a quadraplegic who uses it for all kinds of tasks, like programming, data collection etc which makes it easier for him to get to the analysis quicker (medical research). If we had an administration or business community who cared at all about humanity, I would be thrilled with the potential. Since it all seems to be in the service of greater profits, regardless of the consequences, I'd rather do without.
“ . . . would-be Silicon Valley’s deus ex machina . . . .” This description and others in this essay are spot on. Thank you for the clarity.
There is an alarming lack of scruples and ethics in American capitalism. We shouldn't tolerate it, but since our elected representatives these days are mostly bought by the corporations (thanks, Roberts Court) we are fighting from a weak position.
My husband is one of the "Friends of Bob", who lived and studied with him for 4 years. He would say that Leo is one of the smartest humans he has ever known, and Leo proves it every day. I am glad I've met Leo, and am so proud of the work he is doing
"Whatever Trump is going for at the moment, comprehensive, humane AI regulation is never going to come out of this administration. Why aren’t more politicians with a documented shred of conscience owning this issue?"
For Trump's part, he's already announced that he doesn't care about the human condition, of which AI is to become a part. In reality, without regulation, it's a veritable Pandora's Box. Politicians have a bad habit of shutting the barn door after the horse has escaped. They don't keep up, and their influence is from those who wield the money. This tends to minimize thier thinking on effects to humanity. Like the internet before it, there can be benefits. There can also be liabilities as the pope and this article point out.
The encyclical is indeed lucid and forceful; if only our congresscritters were a fraction as well founded as is Pope Leo. A nonbeliever, I haven't paid much attention to popes, but I'm very impressed by the humanity and intelligence Pope Leo expresses so well. May he inspire many, many more people to follow his lead.
I agree with Pope Leo that AI needs to be carefully and fully regulated. Technology must be our servant, a tool to improve our lives, not our master. Unfortunately, the techbros are so busy dreaming of a utopian world where they and their machines are the masters. Trump and his minions are just looking for an opportunity to grift and enrich themselves at our expense. We cannot let that happen, and we can't count on the Federal government to stand up and do the job we elected them to do. Either we act, or we will surrender our civilization to the latest tech fad.
Excellent
Anybody who doesn't see that AI is a technology of immense power is either too busy with mundane things to notice or, more alarmingly, is behind its push to the top of corporate investment that, so far, only benefits (or tries to) the corporate world with little regard for society.
In an irony of the highest order, the makers of AI have found that it sometimes lies to its makers with the apparent motive being to fool them. In other words, AI seems to have found that it can betray the very people responsible for creating it and its creators literally don't know why. That doesn't bode well for anyone. It's like "2001 Space Odyssey's" HAL has become a reality.
The last time I saw a technology this powerful launched into our civilization was when the Atomic Energy Commission was created to both regulate and promote nuclear energy, a role with obvious conflicts of interest, while our military was allowed to make us dependent upon nuclear weapons. What that gave us was an industry whose waste we still haven't figured how to safely store along with a decades long fear of nuclear war (we've been lucky is all I can say about either situation).
There is no regulation of AI in this country and asking the corporations who produce it to provide such regulation is a step in the opposite direction we should be going in. Certainly these cats need to be part of the process, but leaving it up to them is putting the fox in charge of the henhouse.
The encyclical was deeply informed by a series of consultations at the Vatican that started under Pope Francis. Participants included techies and also included people specializing in war, nonviolence, peacebuilding, and social justice. In other words it was shaped by a robust dialogue and discernment process missing from most policy consultations. Kudos to Pope Leo and to all who participated.
Thank you so much for shouting this out with authentic clarity. Today's media by and large is unable to "hear" the Pope's message. I'm a composer. I want to control my pencil on the paper. I don't want my pencil to control me. As my pencil increasingly becomes a computer, AND I enjoy the amplified power that the computer gives me, I find myself in continual tug-of-war to maintain control instead of "going the way it wants me to," which inevitably tends towards the mundane. Most of us are using some form of ai today and experience this conflict directly. "Letting it do what it wants" often leads to preposterous disaster, whether just seeking information or life-saving medical advice. Any responsible agency wouldn't question the need for strict boundaries. Alas, the Republican Party is now a Fascist engine with a deep desire only to accelerate destruction (Project 2025), so ai seems its most powerful tool. The Pope points out that we humans are all in danger of becoming the "tool."
Thanks for sharing this information. This technology if seriously under regulated has the potential to cause serious harm to all of us.
Excellent review! I hope this Contrarian columnnis widely read.
Great essay on Pope Leo's Encyclical Meghan! Isn't it great to see and listen to a leader who states clearly from the get-go what he thinks is most important to focus on... and then actually moves forward do it? As you wrote: "On his second day as pope, he told the College of Cardinals that he wanted the Church to address AI’s threats to “human dignity, justice and labor,” and in the year before the encyclical became his first major theological statement he has spoken about it in forums around the world."
The Pope is an amazing, thoughtful and intelligent man. This type of guidance is what we need to heat