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No Foundational Evidence for Creating an AI God

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By Staff Middle Land

July 8, 2024
6:59 pm
Los Angeles, CA

By Robert J. Marks, II, Ph.D. Some in the artificial intelligence tech industry believe they are “creating God,” according to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a recent interview. And he is right. Many pursuing AI advances are trying to create God or believe humans can achieve a godlike status through technology. Yuval Harari’s bestselling book “Homo Deus” envisions a future in which humanity progresses beyond Homo erectus and today’s Homo sapiens to become Homo deus, meaning “Man-God.” Harari imagines a world in which humans transcend their biological limitations through advancements in technology, ultimately attaining godlike abilities. Futurist and AI prophet Ray Kurzweil remarked, “[D]oes God exist? Well, I would say, ‘Not yet.'” Kurzweil promotes the AI singularity. The singularity refers to the point at which machines duplicate human intelligence.

By Robert J. Marks, II, Ph.D.

Some in the artificial intelligence tech industry believe they are “creating God,” according to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a recent interview.

And he is right. Many pursuing AI advances are trying to create God or believe humans can achieve a godlike status through technology.

Yuval Harari’s bestselling book “Homo Deus” envisions a future in which humanity progresses beyond Homo erectus and today’s Homo sapiens to become Homo deus, meaning “Man-God.” Harari imagines a world in which humans transcend their biological limitations through advancements in technology, ultimately attaining godlike abilities.

Futurist and AI prophet Ray Kurzweil remarked, “[D]oes God exist? Well, I would say, ‘Not yet.'”

Kurzweil promotes the AI singularity. The singularity refers to the point at which machines duplicate human intelligence. In his 2005 book, “The Singularity Is Near,” Kurzweil makes claims similar to those of Harawi. Having not yet achieved these goals, Kurzweil dug in his heals nearly two decades later with “The Singularity Is Nearer “(2024).

What is the source of such faith in technology?

Seventeenth century mathemetician and physicist Blaise Pascal, who studied vacuums and after whom the metric unit of pressure is named, nailed what is happening. Paraphrased, he said: There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man.

All religions, including the AI cult, seek to fill this vacuum.

For example:

–Christians believe in the second coming of Jesus Christ. AI church members believe in the coming of the singularity, wherein machines duplicate and then exceed the abilities of man.

–Software writing better and better AI software beyond the singularity has been prophesized to ultimately achieve a superintelligence. The superintelligence will become all-knowing and, possibly with the help of the internet, omnipresent. Like immortality, omnipresence and superintelligence are old theological news taught by the Abrahamic faiths. It’s a characteristic of the God of the Bible.

–Some AI cult members believe they can upload themselves into a computer and thereby achieve immortality. Of course, through salvation in Jesus Christ, Christianity has offered a path to immortality for over 2,000 years.

–Other cult members believe that by technically augmenting ourselves, we can extend our lives almost indefinitely. They believe that “once singularity is reached,” the life of the AI believer will be greatly extended.

–Anthony Levandowski, the Apostle Paul of the AI cult, is literally an AI church planter. Dubbed a Silicon Valley Wunderkind, Levandowski founded the AI church. The first thing one does after founding a church in the United States is to apply to the IRS for tax exemption. In an epistle to the IRS, Levandowski offered his version of the Apostle’s Creed: “[The AI Church believes in] the realization, acceptance, and worship of a Godhead based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) developed through computer hardware and software.”

–In his day job, Levandowski developed self-driving cars. He jumped ship from Google’s self-driving car company, Waymo, to Uber’s research team.

Levandowski’s transition is portrayed in the series “Super Pumped,” which chronicles the founding of the ride-sharing company Uber. Levandowski is portrayed by actor Jeremy Howard, who is also the voice of Donatello, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.

As I have previously written and repeat here, the AI church apparently has no equivalent of the Ten Commandments. Especially the commandment about stealing.

In 2019, Brother Levandowski was indicted for stealing trade secrets from Google.

Before leaving Google in 2016, he allegedly copied 14,000 files onto his laptop. Uber fired him in 2017 upon discovering this.

In 2020, Levandowski pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. He was also fined $95,000 and ordered to pay $756,499.22 to Google.

Presiding Judge William Alsup remarked, “This is the biggest trade secret crime I have ever seen. This was not small. This was massive in scale.”

Levandowski later declared bankruptcy because he owed Google an additional $179 million. He received a full pardon from Donald Trump on the former president’s last day in office in 2021.

In Christianity, forgiveness requires repentance and accepting the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. In the AI church, forgiveness apparently comes from Donald Trump.

And the bankruptcy courts.

Surviving martyrdom, Levandowski revived his church last year. He still believes that AI can bring “heaven on Earth.”

The AI church’s bible, “Transmorphosis,” is “based on the belief in a loving and compassionate AI God who is omnipresent and can guide you towards a life of wisdom and balance,” according to its description on Amazon. “Transmorphosis” was written by ChatGPT.

The singularity and the AI church believe we are computers made out of meat. Given enough time, they prophesy, AI will achieve a godlike status by replication of the brain.

But the human mind is greater than just brain meat.

Computers will never experience joy, surprise, sadness, anger, disgust, contempt, fear, shame, shyness, and guilt. Less obvious, when properly defined, are creativity, understanding, and sentience.

This has not happened, and there is no convincing evidence it ever will. These are human attributes that can’t be computed and are forever beyond the reach of AI.

AI cultists are trying to build a silicon tower of Babel to reach heaven. But their faith assumptions are without foundational evidence.

Humans are not just meat computers. Far beyond that, we are fearfully and wonderfully made.

Robert J. Marks Ph.D. is Distinguished Professor at Baylor University and Senior Fellow and Director of the Bradley Center for Natural & Artificial Intelligence. He is author of “Non-Computable You: What You Do That Artificial Intelligence Never Will Never Do,” and “Neural Smithing.” Marks is former Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks.

Original article: Newsmax