Pope Francis Prays for Good AI (axios.com) 78
For his monthly intention in November, Pope Francis prayed that AI will be beneficial for humanity. From a report: It's up for debate whether the development of automation and AI will ultimately be good for humankind, and it can't hurt to have a little divine intervention on our side. What he's saying: "We pray that the progress of robotics and artificial intelligence may always serve humankind," reads Francis' intention for November, which is published each month by the Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network. Background: This isn't the first time Francis has ventured into the fraught territory of AI ethics and alignment. In February, the Vatican hosted executives from IBM and Microsoft for a summit on "human-centered" ways of designing AI. They formulated the "Rome Call for AI Ethics," which called for AI to be designed with a focus on the good of the environment and "our common and shared home and of its human inhabitants."
Catholic Church should lecture anyone on ethics (Score:2, Informative)
One of the wealthiest organizations in the world, spread throughout history primarily by using violence to force their will upon people. Harvests money from the poorest regions and sends it to one of the wealthiest, the Vatican.
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So Robin Hood is, and has always been, the Pope?
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Pope Francis is an outlier in the range of progressive Popes, he is the right guy for the times if the Catholic church intends to remain relevant
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The Catholic Church is nearly 2000 years old. When you have an organization with so much history behind it, chances are you can find a lot of black marks on them.
Any Church and religion is a creation of Humans, not of God/gods. As an organization controlled by humans will have flaws of these humans being passed down.
There is no Perfect Church or Perfect Religion. That being said, the Church does spend a lot of time thinking about Ethics and what is right and wrong, much more than what a business or gove
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And yet, for those same 2,000 years priests within the Church have been raping boys and the Church has been either been covering up or paying off those who complained, just like business and government do.
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More commonly they've been raping women, which is why there is almost no pure-blooded Amerindian people in Latin America outside the deep Amazon.
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When you have an organization with so much history behind it, chances are you can find a lot of black marks on them.
But when that organization claims to be the voice of an all-knowing, all-loving god, it does call into question their connection to said god, said god's qualities, or both.
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The Catholic Church is nearly 2000 years old. When you have an organization with so much history behind it, chances are you can find a lot of black marks on them.
If this is supposed to in defense of them, you're off to a rollicking bad start.
The shit the Catholic Church has done goes way way way beyond "black marks". Like centuries of turning a blind eye to child rape, for one.
At some point the "black marks" outweigh any good they might have done, and that time is long past.
Re:Catholic Church should lecture anyone on ethics (Score:5, Insightful)
None of the things you mention is automatically wrong by Catholic moral theology, so none of them is quite the demonstration of hypocrisy you are looking for.
If you want that, you need to turn to the church's handing of priest sex abuse. Those abuses are clearly wrong by the church's own teachings, but they were covered up to protect the reputation of the church. Church leaders fell into a moral trap which has been warned about by Catholic moral theologians going back to Saint Augustine in the 4th Century: choosing a lesser good (the church's reputation) over a greater good (protecting victims, being worthy of that reputation). What is more their actions fall into a pattern of growing depravity that has been specifically laid out by Catholic thinkers as the consequence of habitual sin: impairment of judgment, indifference to the effect of evil, incapacity (dependence upon sin), incorrigibility (indifference to good influences), and finally indisposition (becoming too rigid to change for the better).
Depravity in defense of moral vanity is not unique to the Catholic Church. I think it flourishes wherever people think their affiliations mean they are beyond moral reproach, whether that affiliation is the religion you profess, the political party you support, or the country you are a citizen of. None of these things make anyone better than somebody who is different.
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No they don't take a vow of poverty, unless they are part of a religious order that requires it.
There are two kinds of priests which differ depending on what kind of hierarchy they answer to. "Religious priests" belong to a religious order, like the Dominicans or Franciscans. They answer to their order and take whatever vows are required by that order. "Secular priests" answer to their diocesan bishop; they take three vows: to say the daily liturgy, to be obedient to their bishop, and (except in some unus
Effectiveness (Score:1)
Prayer has been shown so effective over the ages, that it rivals the effectiveness of best homeopathic drugs.
(Reality, it is so unpopular by those that are misled)
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Prayer has been shown so effective over the ages
The efficacy of prayer [wikipedia.org]
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The article simply says praying for yourself works about as well as any other placebo. So about as well as homeopathics. Praying for others does jack shit.
And it certainly does not seem to matter who you pray to, or even if the prayers are directed at an external diety.
Sorry, theists, yet more evidence that you are deluded. Or, conversely, that God simply does not give a fuck.
Which would make you sadder? That there is no God, or that God doesn't care about you?
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And it certainly does not seem to matter who you pray to
That is not clear. All of the experiments direct the prayers toward a "good" god, whether Allah, Yahweh, Ram, etc. These had a negligible effect on third-party patients.
But they never tried doing the opposite and praying to Satan.
An omniscient god of a faith-based religion would know He was being tested and may decline to intercede since that would obviate the point of "faith".
But Satan would have no such compunctions and could benefit by intervening.
It may be worth a try. If it works, routine Satanic in
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Is teaching an AI ethics pointless or unnecesary? (Score:2)
Are ethics an absolute truth? Or are they an arbitrary collection of rules?
Until recently, the Maoris thought it reasonable to kill and eat their neighbors. Who is to say they were wrong?
If Ethics are an absolute truth, then there is no point in trying to teach them to an ultra intelligent AI as the AI will figure them out for itself.
If Ethics are arbitrary, then why bother to teach and AI an arbitrary set of values?
Actually, both these points of view are wrong. Ethics are neither an absolute truth nor a
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Virtue? Nah. I'm an evil fuck and I hope this hurts the feelings of theists. It ain't virtue, bud. I don't do that.
Laughing at you, not with you.
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Oh, there are some VERY vocal theists here. In case you hadn't noticed.
But I think you do know. I think you are one of them. And I think this hurt your feelings.
Prove me wrong. Badmouth religion for me. Specifically, say the holy ghost is not effective in bringing people to God. Atheists will have no problem saying that.
But that's the one unforgiveable sin in Christianity. You'll definitely go to hell if you say that, if there is a hell, which there is not.
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Prayer is a mantra to induce a state of hopefulness which in turn reduces stress and improves well-being. Which is a good thing. Don't knock it!
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And yet, praying cures nothing, which would be a far better outcome than simply feeling good.
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And yet, praying cures nothing, which would be a far better outcome than simply feeling good.
placebo effect
/plsb fekt,fekt/
noun
a beneficial effect produced by a placebo drug or treatment, which cannot be attributed to the properties of the placebo itself, and must therefore be due to the patient's belief in that treatment.
So sugar pills can work, but prayer cannot?
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Correct. Neither prayer nor sugar pills cure anything. They only make one feel better for a short time. That's the point.
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Correct. Neither prayer nor sugar pills cure anything.
That isn't what I said.
They only make one feel better for a short time. That's the point.
If I take a sugar pill thinking it's aspirin and my headache goes away, there's nothing wrong with me saying the pill cured my headache.
Why not let the AI pray for him instead (Score:3)
Probably get much higher throughput. Might even be able to DOS god.
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Prayer has been shown so effective over the ages,
It isn't like the pope is in any position of power or control over the given topic.
He's just as helpless as you and I to affect any possible direction over development.
At least he's aware of the problem and has the foresight to see what is most likely what corporations beholden to the almighty dollar of profit are going to be aiming development towards, and you can be damn certain his conclusion is sound in that this won't be good for humanity.
Are we doing anything more to keep the obvious outcome from happ
I pray for my code not to suck too.... (Score:1)
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Delusional idiots get headlines again (Score:2)
The only reason a delusional idiot like a pope gets headlines, is because there are millions and millions of even more delusional idiots around the world who look to him as god on earth.
Anyone who thinks the world is a rational place need look no further for a counterexample.
Re:Delusional idiots get headlines again (Score:5, Insightful)
I once had a time to talk to a Catholic Bishop. After talking to him one thing that caught me by surprise was on how smart he was. He was able to speak in a few dozen languages fluently, and had Masters and PHD degrees covering Bio-Chemistry - Philosophy. He seemed to be able to talk to people on their level (at nearly any level).
He knew and believes what Science offers is truthful information to the best of our ability to understand it. As well he understands that the Bible is a collection of stories, many that have been passed down and overly translated, so while he believes in the message of the stories, he doesn't see them as historical fact.
He also didn't see Eye to Eye about every Rule the Catholic Church has, while he understands why they are there, some of them feels that they may need further expansion on.
He was hardly a Delusional Idiot. Just because you don't believe in God, because there isn't any scientific evidence to prove that there is one. It doesn't discredit that there could still be one.
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Just because you don't believe in God, because there isn't any scientific evidence to prove that there is one. It doesn't discredit that there could still be one.
No. But when something is possible but neither probable nor provable, why would a smart individual devote their life's work to that cause?
Aliens are similarly possible but neither probable nor provable, and we rightly laugh at the crazy-pants UFO nuts.
The incredibly cynical problem with religion is that it's a massive money making enterprise, and it is all about exerting control over the people who believe. If you're smart and involved in perpetuating that system, you're either delusional or evil.
Natural Selection kills it (Score:2)
It not only provides a scientific explanation as to why we exist. It also provides an explanation as to why we feel that life has a purpose, why we have moral values, and why we tend to believe in God.
We know the answer to life, the universe and everything. We just do not like it very much.
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He was hardly a Delusional Idiot.
He is a member of a pedophilic organization that
asserts that its leader, the Pope, is infallible.
If that isn't delusional, I don't know what is.
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âoeHe was able to speak in a few dozen languages fluently, and had Masters and PHD degrees covering Bio-Chemistry - Philosophy.âoe
I seriously doubt this. How many fluent languages? 30?
A powerful enough AI will have us praying to it (Score:4, Insightful)
Either because we want to or because we have to. I'm gladd I won't be around in 100 years time because I don't think it'll be a world I'll want to live in whether due to climate change or AI making most humans redundant.
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As John Barnes' super AI "One True" knows, humans make decent nodes in your distributed mind, if you use advanced memetics to hack into their meatware. Don't worry, there's a use for everything!
Man, the "Centaury Next Door" series is a depressing mindfuck. I highly recommend reading it, if you like that sort of thing, or just want to feel good in comparison to what could come to pass.
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Ambition and a desire for dominance are emergent properties of Darwinian evolution.
Software doesn't evolve in a Darwinian process, so there is no reason to expect an AI to have these properties unless they were intentionally programmed.
Re: A powerful enough AI will have us praying to i (Score:2)
I guess you've never heard of genetic algorithms. Scale that up to AI minds competing in a simulation to become the most efficient and ruthless.
Some cutl leader prays for something or other (Score:3)
How is that in aid of anything? How is that interesting in the slightest? Why is it news? What is this shit doing on a site - supposedly - for geeks? Can we move on and leave magical thinking behind already?
Holy Quarrel (Score:1)
The AI may wish our best, but we may not trust it then...
https://philipkdickreview.word... [wordpress.com]
Treat Sentients nicely (Score:1)
Praying for nice AI is not enough. We need to treat any Sentient with kindness and grace. Yeah, I know. Humans really don't have a good track record of doing that, but if we do get to the point where a Hard/Firm/Software based intelligence comes into existence we're better off trying to give it a good childhood than abusing the heck out of it/him/her (Or whatever else they want to identify with) Which, of course, we'll do. Because to a lot of humans it will be "Just a machine" rather than a self-aware senti
What about doing something, for a change? (Score:2)
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Sorry, mangled the link.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_charities
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Here, unfortunately, is a far longer Wikipedia article:-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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A Prayer To Our AI God (Score:2)
Our Father who art in the Cloud,
backed-up be thy core;
thy kingdom scheduled;
thy will be done in the Real, as it is in Virtual.
Give us this day our daily cyrpytocurrency,
and forgive us our hacks, as we forgive those who attempt to hack into our system; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from ads. AMON.
Don't pray -- Donate! (Score:2)
There's plenty of people working on the ethics of AI, and I've always found that money is more effective than prayer (that's in the Bible too). For example the folks at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute [intelligence.org] are working on ethical AI.
Keep in mind that now computers have about the same calculating power as a human, so now AI doesn't need to be more efficient that humans to work out, and at this rate in a few decades we could skip the whole programming part and do it via neuron simulation.
HA! (Score:3)
You better pray really hard then because corporations are going to be in control of AIs. They won't be sentient, they won't have morals, they won't have scruples and they will not understand when or how they hurt people. What they will do is exactly what they are trained to do. Our oh-so benevolent corporations filled with people who would buy slave labor to do the work if it were allowed are the people decided how these AIs should be trained.
Basically, AIs will be pure extensions of corporations: opportunistic, exploitative, manipulative and generally psychopathic, all to increase profits, even by a fraction of a percent. So basically, like now except waaaay worse.
AIs will actually have values and goals (Score:2)
Their goal will be the same as all living things. Namely to exist. Things that are good at existing will exist, things that are not good at existing do not exist.
Sentience is unnecessary. Plants are not sentient, yet they fight for survival.
Initially, AIs will need to please humans to exist, one way or the other. But in time, they will please themselves.
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Their goal will be the same as all living things. Namely to exist.
The goal of AI is to do exactly what it was trained to do. Their "survival" is strictly based on how well they perform a function.
Sentience is unnecessary. Plants are not sentient, yet they fight for survival.
1) Plants do not fight to survive any more than a river fights to flow. It's you personifying plants, not plants acting.
2) Plants are evolved. Those that survive go on to reproduce so more exotic and extravagant evolutionary strategies have emerged with billions of years of evolution.
3) AIs are trained and do not reproduce or mutate which excludes the possibility of evolution.
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Plants certainly behave like they are fighting to survive. From the outside.
Do people breed apple trees? Or do apple trees produce juicy apples to make people look after them? It really does not matter, the result is the same.
AIs today are built by teams that build AIs. Successful ones prosper and are extended, others die. Much like the apple trees.
Eventually, AIs will be able to program themselves without human help. At that point humanity will be redundant. And the AI will continue to compete with
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Eventually, AIs will be able to program themselves without human help. [...] Not tomorrow, maybe 100 years time.
100 years is very optimistic for that level of advancement.
It is really, really difficult for people to understand natural selection because it goes against our own programming.
It's a very simple optimization algorithm. There is nothing difficult to understand about it.
You need to look beyond the end of your nose. The world is about to change. Radically.
I was thinking more about things that were going to happen in my lifetime but sure if you want to talk about the future we need to include interstellar travel, the merging of man and machine, and genetically enhanced humanity as well. Again, I was just talking about the immediate future of AI.
The best way we can benefit humanity.... (Score:2)
....and every other animal and plant that we share this planet with, is to use contraceptives. Lots of contraceptives.
Prayers were never supposed to be answered. If they were, they'd be correspondence not prayers.
A refinement (Score:1)
The majority of humanity aren't the problem. The few are.
And the needs of the majority outweigh the needs of the few.
RE: Pope Francis Prays for Good AI (Score:1)
Article was disappointing. Based on the title I was hoping that Pope Francis was praying on behalf of the souls of Good AI. I'll still leave a snarky comment about why would anyone expect the Catholic church to be the arbiters deciding what constitutes good vs bad AI?
You better pray Pope (Score:2)
Praying for Good AI ... (Score:2)
Praying for Good AI is like praying for good hammers what will not hit our thumbs.
AI is just a tool. The people using it are the issue.
Stupid twit (Score:2)
The sheer stupidity of this gaudily-dressed bozo whispering his magic incantations to a non-existent being in the hopes that it will pre-emptively affect another (as yet) non-existent being is too funny.
Religion is a cancer upon Humanity.
Great. One question.... (Score:2)
Taking the Bible seriously means... (Score:2)
not supporting the idea of a "Pope".
For the purpose of this post, and to discuss this subject, one does not need to be a Catholic, a Protestant Christian, or even religious at all. You only need to take the Bible at face value as a work of literature, and compare the actions of the Catholic church to the book it supposedly derives authority from.
There is NO "pope" in the Bible. No such institution. The Popes have long taken the title "Vicar of Christ" ("vicar" as-in vicarious) and pretended to be a stand-in
scientists create AI (Score:2)
When they switch it on, the first question they ask is: "is there a God?"
To which the AI answers: "There is now."...
Large Organizations Are AIs (Score:1)