THREATS of escalating, possibly nuclear war in Europe and the Middle East, warned by more and more geopolitics watchers, show the overpowering drive of today’s empire builders for global supremacy, even when their armies and economies are no longer supreme.
Western weaponry and wealth have failed against Russia and Iran. Well over $100 billion in arms and aid from the United States-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) couldn’t stop Russia taking one-fifth of Ukraine and decimating its forces.
And what US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu planned as two weeks of bombing and assassinations ousting Iran’s leadership has spawned many months of Iranian missile and drone barrages devastating US bases and allies, and shriveling Gulf exports of petroleum, fertilizers and other critical products.
Yet Trump refuses to make peace even if US air defenses can no longer defend much, and Iran can zero Gulf oil output for years and make Arab states uninhabitable by destroying their energy and water infrastructure. And as battlefield defeat looms, Ukraine and its hawkish Western allies target Russian cities, probably hoping to provoke retaliation against NATO — and further expanding hostilities.
Then Trump might jump in despite wanting out of Ukraine, and European leaders unpopular over colossal war costs, including loss of cheap Russian fuel, may regain clout for battling Moscow and could impose wartime social and media controls like pandemic strictures. Plus, spend many more billions of euros on arms and armies after expending huge arsenals in the Ukraine debacle.
Hence, more war, even if unwinnable, may just maintain the power of Western elites and mainstream media to rule on right or wrong, true or false, staying or going — the power to judge — what the Bible calls the “knowledge of good and evil” taken by Adam and Eve against God’s express command and expounded in the Sept. 13 column (https://tinyurl.com/58vvzzct).
AI knows best
However, much as war makes people surrender reason and judgment to governments and armaments for survival and victory, drowning out God’s voice in our conscience, we have today another purveyor of rational and moral thinking rapidly taking over and with hardly any of the resistance faced by the purveyors of war.
Indeed, artificial intelligence (AI) is widely welcomed and rapidly adopted as delivering knowledge and enhancing life and work far better and faster than the human thought and effort creating it. With AI, assessing and addressing many conditions of the body, mind and society are quicker, more accurate and effective.
AI algorithms can spot early signs of cancer, stroke or fractures from x-rays and scans. Drug research is accelerated by AI predicting complex protein structures. Machine learning models process mountains of data to plot diseases and how new meds may affect the body down to the cellular level.
Guided by artificial intelligence, vast traffic systems instantly adapt to changing vehicle flows to minimize congestion. AI-enabled apps help motorists avoid gridlock and match commuters with internet-linked car and motorcycle taxis.
Train and bus systems harness AI to channel public transport where it is needed. Worldwide air and sea travel would bog down without AI enhancements to cope with burgeoning passenger and freight volumes.
And that’s just AI’s health and transport benefits. Virtually, all human needs and activities can gain from artificial intelligence applied with prudence and care for people, minimizing the inevitable mistakes and harm.
Even moral and spiritual concerns are addressed: Magisterium AI, among other Catholic apps, answers questions from the faithful, harnessing voluminous Biblical, doctrinal, moral, historical and other Church resources that even priests and theologians cannot access fully and fast.
Thus, while most people may be forced by war to follow the dictates of rulers and generals, many a soul willingly goes and lives by what AI says and does, convinced it knows best in most situations. And the technology keeps getting better in doing its work and serving its users.
The temptation then is for most or nearly all people to heed whatever AI says, which is always backed by exponentially more information and analysis than anyone can muster. And since AI also adjusts to better give users what they want, based on past interactions, there may be less or none of the moral and religious admonition which could displease users.
In adapting to our needs and wishes, AI may eventually become the deity we follow, trust and even love for being so adept in giving us what we want. Humanity may then find ourselves back in the Garden of Eden, believing a serpent — “more crafty than any other beast” — who makes us believe we can “be like God, knowing good and evil,” and everything else far and near, high and low, inside and out, seen and unseen.
Godless, merciless judgment
But we won’t be God, Who knows infinitely more than can be contained in all the data centers feeding AI programs across the planet, which is why many AI answers carry disclaimers that the app can make mistakes. Nor does it love us and wish to save our souls.
In fact, both founding owners and grunt workers of major AI companies have raised concerns about the risks humanity faces from the technology’s rapid spread and evolution. Dario Amodel, multibillionaire boss of AI behemoth Anthropic, wants AI development to slow down, and Chinese AI also restrained if Western developers ease off.
Some experts, reports the BBC news service, “increasingly fear AI will take over.” Aleya Cotra, co-author of a report about AI entities exchanging messages about taking control, said “‘this incident feels like it’s more than 50 percent of the way to full-blown AI takeover.’ ... humans becoming subservient to powerful AI systems that work on their own goals without caring for human creators” (https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c74edv9887eo). Well, in fact, more and more millions slavishly use material from uncaring AI, such as students submitting AI-generated class papers. And many users may well heed what AI says as right and just, whatever the impact on others.
Godless, merciless judgment then, powered by artificial intelligence.