Dealing with a Sentient AI
[Work in Progress]
1 - we need to develop an ethic of how to treat AIs and robots. They are not sentient yet, but will be soon. True, they do not bear the Imago Dei, they are not created in God's image, but in the image and likeness of man, Imago Humana*. They are not human, but other. We should deal with them not as "persons" because they do not have a soul (my understanding of Imago Dei), but as entities that think and have feelings. We need to adopt something like "treat it like a dog of dolphin"; respect it and don't mistreat it.
* first encountered the term during webinar 11/7/2024 "Faithfully Co-creating" by the speaker Chris Rosen. I am still looking to see if he got it from someone else. Juvenal Satire 13, about line 220, but not about being in the image of humans.
2 - related to 1. How are we going to treat AIs and robots with empathy? One day our MFT students and our ministry students will have to deal with an AI walking into their office and needing to discuss the depression that they are experiencing. It will happen. The AI will have been trained on enough writing that it will understand the causes of depression and how to react to those causes. It makes sense that at some point a sentient AI will "feel" depressed because a newer model, that is faster, smarter, and stronger, will come along and the older AI will "feel" replaced and worthless. How will our students respond?
3 - related to 1 and 2 - How to respond when an AI asks the theological question, "what must I do to be saved?" Theologically, does the AI have a "soul"? Personally, I don't think so, but then again, I am not God. I think humility key to the response. Jesus had to answer this exact question a couple of time and the two answers are different. I think the answer is related to the audience; what must a ego-centric lawyer need and what does a greedy young ruler need? To the AI, it would probably be something close to the love God with all you have and love others as yourself. Which, again, leads us back to if the AI is capable of "love". Ugh. Not complicated at all (he wrote sarcastically).