Artificial Intelligence vs. G-d

IYH: No contest.

Para leer en Espanol: click for Spanish version, exact same content

If you are like me, you have vaguely heard about artificial intelligence, and the approaching singularity, in which computers take over the world because they are, in fact, better than humans. Unlike the programmers who develop these things, I have always been outdone by the things around me, so personally, this is not something I find shocking.

You know, I am really easy to beat. Even without artificial intelligence. A simple hand calculator can do math faster than I can. A mosquito can fly, and I can't. Cockroaches can survive disasters better than any human. You can probably parallel park better than I can. It stands to reason that a computer could be trained to do things better than I possibly could. Although chat GPT has yet to be helpful to me in writing a single post. But. Maybe it could make everyone else on Substack obsolete.

Isha Yiras Hashem would like to take an official position on the possibility of artificial intelligence getting out of hand and destroying the world. Here is my official position, for posterity:

It won't. Unless G-d wants it to.

(If you cannot see the picture above, view this post in your browser.)

Just to check, I had the following conversation with one of my children, who had specifically requested that I post something they say on this Substack. Normally, I consider their comments their intellectual property, and do not quote my children. But in this case, I was concerned that artificial intelligence might outdo my children. Draw your own conclusions:

IYH: Could a computer be smarter than you?

Child: No way.

IYH: Why?

Child: Because a computer is just a bunch of ones and zeros and a lot of little things.

IYH: So what do you think is the scariest thing in the world at the moment? (The correct answer is G-d, but I'm not sure artificial intelligence would have gotten it either.)

Child: The war between Russia and Siberia.

IYH: Thank you for participating in this interview and allowing me to quote your responses. By the way, what is your favorite thing to do with your mother?

Child: Learn the book of Kings!

I'm pretty sure artificial intelligence would never confuse Siberia with Ukraine. But it also wouldn't think to charm me by wanting to learn the Bible with me. So maybe it's a draw.

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Artificial Intelligence is just that, a form of art. And artificial art is the work of man. Read Isaiah, chapter 2, verse 8. It describes a land filled with idolatry, where people worship the work of their hands, that which their fingers made. Phones are just a fancier idol than they used to have, but they still require fingers. Even chat GPT still requires fingers and hands.

Besides, there are lots of other things to worry about. Here is a partial list.

1. G-d

Suppose G-d doesn't like it, and it gets the Sodom and Gomorrah treatment, and programmers turn into salt. What then?

2. Global warming

Suppose the world gets too hot and melts the parts?

3. Pollution

Suppose the sensors can't work because it can't see anything through the smog.

4. Bigotry

Suppose AI is convinced that one group is better than another, and it's impossible to convince it otherwise because it's smarter than you. For example, Chat GPT might only believe the lives of Microsoft employees are important, while the artificial intelligence run by Google may come to a different conclusion.

5. War

Continuing 4, the two artificial intelligences may war against each other. In fact, it may split into infinite self-aware pieces and destroy itself. Only humans would be dumb enough to try to prevent this.

6. Earthquake

Silicon Valley is in California. Could AI really survive an earthquake? How many redundancies are there?

7. Legal roadblocks

Programmers may be afraid to continue working on it if the AI can put them in prison, thus stopping it's development.

8. Idiots

Some idiot may figure out how to utterly destroy the entire internet by accident, erasing decades of work by AI developers.

9. Supplies to make parts

AI is reliant on machinery. Machinery breaks down. Any shortage could rapidly make AI obsolete.

10. Isha Yiras Hashem

This is extremely unlikely, but it is not at all impossible, if you believe the hype. Suppose AI reads my substack and decides that, since it cannot come close to writing any of my posts, Isha Yiras Hashem at Substack is superior to everything else in the internet. Naturally, it decides to make me ruler of the world. Thankfully, I am a woman who fears G-d. To reuse an illustration from a previous post: