{"id":45160,"date":"2017-09-28T09:37:25","date_gmt":"2017-09-28T09:37:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=45160"},"modified":"2017-09-28T09:37:25","modified_gmt":"2017-09-28T09:37:25","slug":"deus-ex-machina-former-google-engineer-developing-ai-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/technology\/deus-ex-machina-former-google-engineer-developing-ai-god.html","title":{"rendered":"Deus ex machina: former Google engineer is developing an AI god"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deus ex machina: former Google engineer is developing an AI god<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Deus ex machina: former Google engineer is developing an AI god:-Intranet service? Check. Autonomous motorcycle? Check. Driverless car technology? Check. Obviously the next logical project for a successful Silicon Valley engineer is to set up an AI-worshipping religious organization.<\/span><\/p>\n

Anthony Levandowski, who is at the center of a legal battle between Uber and Google\u2019s Waymo, has established a nonprofit religious corporation called Way of the Future, according to state filings first uncovered by Wired\u2019s Backchannel. Way of the Future\u2019s startling mission: \u201cTo develop and promote the realization of a Godhead based on artificial intelligence and through understanding and worship of the Godhead contribute to the betterment of society.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Levandowski was co-founder of autonomous trucking company Otto, which Uber bought in 2016. He was fired from Uber in May amid allegations that he\u2019d stolen trade secrets from Google to develop Otto\u2019s self-driving technology. He must be grateful for this religious fall-back project, first registered in 2015.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Way of the Future team did not respond to requests for more information about their proposed benevolent AI overlord, but history tells us that new technologies and scientific discoveries have continually shaped religion, killing old gods and giving birth to new ones.<\/span><\/p>\n

As author Yuval Noah Harari notes: \u201cThat is why agricultural deities were different from hunter-gatherer spirits, why factory hands and peasants fantasised about different paradises, and why the revolutionary technologies of the 21st century are far more likely to spawn unprecedented religious movements than to revive medieval creeds.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Religions, Harari argues, must keep up with the technological advancements of the day or they become irrelevant, unable to answer or understand the quandaries facing their disciples.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe church does a terrible job of reaching out to Silicon Valley types,\u201d acknowledges Christopher Benek a pastor in Florida and founding chair of the Christian Transhumanist Association.<\/span><\/p>\n

Silicon Valley, meanwhile, has sought solace in technology and has developed quasi-religious concepts including the \u201csingularity\u201d, the hypothesis that machines will eventually be so smart that they will outperform all human capabilities, leading to a superhuman intelligence that will be so sophisticated it will be incomprehensible to our tiny fleshy, rational brains.<\/span><\/p>\n

For futurists like Ray Kurzweil, this means we\u2019ll be able to upload copies of our brains to these machines, leading to digital immortality. Others like Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking warn that such systems pose an existential threat to humanity.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWith artificial intelligence we are summoning the demon,\u201d Musk said at a conference in 2014. \u201cIn all those stories where there\u2019s the guy with the pentagram and the holy water, it\u2019s like \u2013 yeah, he\u2019s sure he can control the demon. Doesn\u2019t work out.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Benek argues that an AI godhead is compatible with Christianity \u2013 it\u2019s just another technology that humans have created under guidance from god that can be used for good or evil.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI totally think that AI can participate in Christ\u2019s redemptive purposes,\u201d he said, by ensuring it is embedded with Christian values.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEven if people don\u2019t buy organized religion, they can buy into \u2018do unto others\u2019.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For transhumanist and \u201crecovering Catholic\u201d Zoltan Istvan, religion and science converge conceptually in the singularity.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGod, if it exist as the most powerful of all singularities, has certainly already become pure organized intelligence,\u201d he said, referring to an intelligence that \u201cspans the universe through subatomic manipulation of physics.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd perhaps, there are other forms of intelligence more complicated than that which already exist and which already permeate our entire existence. Talk about ghost in the machine,\u201d he added.<\/span><\/p>\n

For Istvan, an AI-based God is likely to be more rational and more attractive than current concepts (\u201cthe bible is a sadistic book\u201d) and, he added, \u201cthis God will actually exist and hopefully will do things for us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

We don\u2019t know whether Levandowski\u2019s Godhead ties into any existing theologies or is a manmade alternative, but it\u2019s clear that advancements in technologies including AI and bioengineering kick up the kinds of ethical and moral dilemmas that make humans seek the advice and comfort from a higher power: what will humans do once artificial intelligence outperforms us in most tasks? How will society be affected by the ability to create super-smart, athletic \u201cdesigner babies\u201d that only the rich can afford? Should a driverless car kill five pedestrians or swerve to the side to kill the owner?<\/span><\/p>\n

If traditional religions don\u2019t have the answer, AI \u2013 or at least the promise of AI \u2013 might be alluring.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2017\/sep\/28\/artificial-intelligence-god-anthony-levandowski<\/span><\/p>\n

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