Hey what’s up Thinkers! Kathy Gibbens here…
Y’all, this is a big day, as this is Episode 100 of the Filter It Through a Brain Cell podcast! What?!? When I first started this podcast a little under a year ago, I wondered if I would have enough to say to even get to 100 episodes. Well, the answer to that is a resounding Yes, lol! When I started, I had no idea how many fallacies there are! Y’all, there’s a lot of them! And we’re still in Season 1! I already have plans for Seasons 2 & 3 when we finally get there! So today, before I get into a discussion of Artificial Intelligence, also called AI, and thinking, I want to thank you, my amazing, thinking listeners. Thank you for caring about truth, about right thinking, about loving God with your mind, and thank you for sharing it with your kids. You are what has made this podcast successful, and I can’t tell you the good it does for my heart to know that there are so many others out there who are tired of the lies & manipulation we are bombarded with and want to develop the superpower of just learning to think well. You encourage me to keep going, and boy are we ever going to keep going. I have a fresh vision for how we can continue to become and raise people who are crazy good thinkers. Would you do me a favor in celebration of hitting 100 episodes? Would you take just a minute and share this podcast with a friend who you think might enjoy it? Just hit the little share button and text it to them, super simple, but super meaningful to me! And thank you, thinkers, you give me hope!
Ok, let’s move on briefly to some thoughts on AI, Artificial Intelligence. Now, just know that this is not going to be all encompassing in the least. We could spend hours discussing the topic of AI and the pros & cons, concerns and opportunities, and I don’t have time to go there on all that…plus, I’m still getting my own head wrapped around it and what it means for us as humans who are facing a world where our need to think is both shrinking and growing at exactly the same time…I’ll explain that in a minute.
First, a quick, very overly-simplistic explanation of AI, if the concept is new to you. Now, to get this definition, I asked an AI program what is the definition of Artificial Intelligence! Here’s part of the definition that it gave me: “Artificial intelligence, or AI, refers to the ability of a machine or computer system to perform tasks that typically require human-like intelligence, such as learning, problem-solving, decision-making, and adapting to new situations. These tasks may involve processing large amounts of data, recognizing patterns, and making judgments or predictions based on that information.” It went on to explain a few different types of AI, and at the very end of the definition, it said this, “It has the potential to revolutionize many industries and has already had a significant impact on society. However, it has also raised ethical and moral concerns, as it has the potential to displace human jobs and could potentially be used for malicious purposes.” Did you catch that? It has the potential to replace human intelligence, human jobs and could be used for malicious purposes. And maybe I’m cynical, but if we’ve learned anything about the world, it’s this: anything that can be used for nefarious purposes, will be.
Here’s a few examples that I’ve heard about how AI has been used: Doctors solving difficult medical cases…10 hours, machines 30 minutes. AI-assisted Art winning an award here in CO. Universities are having to find new ways to evaluate learning since students are using AI to write their papers. Writing flawless computer code that used to take days or even weeks. The ability to write, create & edit videos. Even podcast episodes like this one.
So here are some pros & cons that I’ve thought of recently, and this is by no means an exhaustive list, just a few off the top of my head.
Cons: Brokers of information. People who know nothing can now teach anything. Thinking literally done by machines. It’s being taught to lie, to regurgitate one agenda/viewpoint and to not discuss certain other viewpoints.
Pros: Compare to a calculator. Has that been good for us? For humanity? Also compare to search engines. The ability to collate lots of information very quickly.
So needless to say, there are a ton of considerations when it comes to AI and our everyday lives. For me, and for purposes of this podcast, I’m interested in the relationship between AI and our ability to think. What’s going to happen to it? In one sense, our need to have to think could be said to go down b/c we literally have all the knowledge in the world at our fingertips, able to give us information in seconds…but not just give us information like Google does, AI can now put it together, make sense of it, perform complex tasks…I dare say, think. But I contend differently. I saw that because of the rise of Artificial Intelligence, the need to be able to think well actually increases. As society tries to blur the line between man and machine, we have to live even more fully in our humanness, as God created us to be.
What this means for humanity and how to be human: Machines don’t have empathy; How do we live in aDumbing us down; ability to think, ability to discern between truth and lies, ability to recognize manipulation, How do we love God with our mind when it seems like our mind is being made obsolete??
In addition to practicing good thinking and recognizing bad thinking this is the kind of thing I want to dive into with you. We can’t bury our heads in the sand. AI is here to stay and it’s going to bring a radical shift in our society and how we operate. I know I, for one, don’t feel totally ready for it, but I’m working on it and we’re having conversations about it here at our house. We’ll also be having conversations about it in the new Membership I’ll be launching this month, and I can’t wait. I’ll have lots of details for you next week and you’ll have an opportunity to get in on it as a Founding Member. If you’re not already on my email list, you can go sign up for it now at filteritthroughabraincell.com/contact and you’ll be the first to get all the details.
Alright y’all, that’s it for today. I hope this episode has inspired you to think about Artificial Intelligence and have a conversation with your family about it!
Remember: When you learn HOW to think, you will no longer fall prey to those who are trying to tell you what THEY want you to think and it all starts with asking one simple question: “Is that really true?”
