Article on Church and AI

[Calm]

Given past discussions, I thought some may find this interesting…

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/church-jesus-christ-artificial-intelligence

[MustardSeed]

34 minutes ago, Calm said:

Given past discussions, I thought some may find this interesting…

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/church-jesus-christ-artificial-intelligence

My husband is totally into AI right now. I don’t know enough about it to know how AI might be used by the church?

[Nofear]

I find the position of the Church as stated by the article very good. While it is sometimes difficult to move quickly because of the massiveness of the organization, in general I have found the Church to be rather tech positive and tech forward. Thanks for posting this, Calm!

[mfbukowski]

I do not recommend baptizing your computers.

[Smiley McGee]

10 hours ago, mfbukowski said:

I do not recommend baptizing your computers.

The computers will be doing the baptizing…for the dead after they’ve killed us all 🤖☠️

[Calm]

Here’s the actual broadcast if anyone wants to go into more detail…

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/broadcasts/watch/principles-for-church-use-of-ai/2024/03?lang=eng

[LoudmouthMormon]

I used ChatGPT to help me write a sacrament talk last year.  The topic was repentance and the sacrament.  The prompt I used was:

Write a poem about how a mormon can tell if they are worthy to partake of the sacrament. Specifically mention common sins including: being convicted of serious crime, abortion, murder, sexual misconduct, polygamy, surgical transition, felony, law of chastity, donated your eggs, fertility treatments, in vitro fertilization, victim of abuse, inadvertent exposure to pornography, prejudiced, same sex attraction, single parent, unwed and pregnant, surrogate mother, chosen cremation, HIV or AIDS, ambiguous genetalia, medical MJ, organ donation, lack of vaccination, shopping on Sunday, word of wisdom struggles, a smoker, a drinker, an addict, a slave, a gambler, illegal immigrant.

(Basically, the list of issues came from the Handbook topic titles in the Policy section.)

It spit out 7 stanzas.  The result was pretty heart-warming, comforting, emotionally moving, and spiritual.  I took about half of it, made some minor edits, changes, and additions, and stuck it at the end of my talk.   Holy crap I've never had so many people approach me after a talk to praise or thank.  Two people requested copies of the poem.  Folks' reaction to being told that ChatGPT wrote about 80% of it, varied from vague anxiety, to rapt wonder, to one worried look of almost fear.

 

 

I've also used ChatGPT to argue religion online with folks.  The argument was about whether Frank Herbert's Dune books have deeply embedded Christian themes central to the work.  I honestly didn't care, but the guy seemed to think so strongly the answer was yes, I just decided to argue.  The prompt was: "Write an 8 or 9 paragraph essay about Frank Herbert's Dune books. The central theme should be that people who see allegories to christianity or Christ are wrong, and how the books are mainly about how humans use religion, politics, morals, ethics, and spirituality to influence events."    I told him "I don't really care that much, but I do like arguing with you, so I told ChatGPT to come up with this."   He replied with his own version of what ChatGPT came up with in response.  I had to admit he and his AI prompt ended up with the better argument in the end.  So I went full-out sore loser: "Write five haikus that poke lighthearted fun of my friend [username]. He has some sort of medical degree. He thinks ChatGPT is cool. He has weird ideas about Christ imagery in Frank Herbert's Dune. He joined the forum in 2009, and has 2700 posts. His avatar is [described avatar]."

Other fun AI/LDS intersections, mostly done by me as a way of feeling out ChatGPT's capabilities:

Please write a fictional letter. In which the 1st presidency of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints issues a letter to be read in sacrament meeting. This letter announces the "callout", where all faithful saints must immediately sell their possessions and gather in the Rocky Mountains to await the millennium."

"write a chapter from the lost manuscript to the book of mormon"

 

They aren't all winners.  Years ago, I encountered an obscure tidbit of LDS history: Titled "Song by David Patten through the Gift of Tongues and translated by Sidney Rigdon on 27 February 1833".   I wanted to know what ChatGPT would do with it.

"The following is a song written in another language, and poorly translated into English. It does not rhyme, and the meter is off. Please re-write it, so it rhymes and follows a standard 8 beat."

Then, "Rewrite this poem from the viewpoint of an inner city black kid, trying to explain things to his mentally disabled younger brother."

Then, "Now rewrite it as a poem from the perspective of the mentally disabled younger brother. He has limited vocabulary, speaks with that lower-class dialect people used to call "ebonics"."

Then, "There are way too many fancy, "big" words in that poem. Please try again, and attempt to convey the principles of this poem through simple uncomplicated street language."

The results of these last exercises weren't stellar, but better than anything I could have come up with.  I'm still kind of fascinated by AI.

 

 

Edited March 15, 2024 by LoudmouthMormon

[The Nehor]

Looking forward to the rise of the supercomputer Kolob.

More looking forward to (and dreading) what happens when AI destroys the job market to the point full employment will likely never be possible again under the economic model we practice.

[LoudmouthMormon]

1 hour ago, The Nehor said:

Looking forward to the rise of the supercomputer Kolob.

It already exists, but hasn't yet risen.

https://ldsbot.com/

[The Nehor]

6 hours ago, LoudmouthMormon said:

It already exists, but hasn't yet risen.

https://ldsbot.com/

The Metamorphisis of Prime Kolob is imminent.

[Kenngo1969]

AI is being used, somewhat, in Family History: "Is this your relative?" kind of thing.  Given how humans have screwed up Family History, I'm not sure how I feel about adding AI into the mix.  I've seen my grandfather's first name, Rollan, misspelled as Rowlan, but I'm not sure whether a human idiot or an artificially-"intelligent" idiot [entity] is responsible for that one.

[Kenngo1969]

"Hey, ChatGPT, tell me what it says about human sacrifice in the Holy Bible in the Book of III Corinthians."

[Nofear]

18 hours ago, Kenngo1969 said:

AI is being used, somewhat, in Family History: "Is this your relative?" kind of thing.  Given how humans have screwed up Family History, I'm not sure how I feel about adding AI into the mix.  I've seen my grandfather's first name, Rollan, misspelled as Rowlan, but I'm not sure whether a human idiot or an artificially-"intelligent" idiot [entity] is responsible for that one.

What I saw some bit ago was using it (but not called AI) in indexing. Human checked. But using the AI to double check relationships (ie no. being your own grandfather) being a sensible check. AI can do and similar that nicely.

[Ragerunner]

AI and AGI is going to change the world in profound ways. I think it has the ability to be a tool that helps bring about a Terrestrial existence for the earth and Heavenly Father’s children.

I also found this statement interesting. 

“Emergent technologies including in construction, communication, and transportation have allowed the restored gospel of Jesus Christ to reach out to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.”

Edited March 17, 2024 by Ragerunner

[Stargazer]

On 3/13/2024 at 7:58 PM, MustardSeed said:

My husband is totally into AI right now. I don’t know enough about it to know how AI might be used by the church?

I have a huge degree of suspicion when it comes to AI. 

Reason: I am a retired computer programmer (though I still write code for my own purposes). I am very much aware that software is a result of those who designed it, as expressed by those who wrote the code (both backend and frontend -- as well as middleware). I'm old enough to remember one of the earliest attempts at AI, which was called "Eliza". I shan't try to describe it, so if you're unfamiliar, check it out HERE.

The danger with software such as Eliza is that some people gave it more credibility than it may deserve. Some AI may approach the boundary of being able to pass a "Turing test." When that day comes (if it isn't here already), we may end up following a programmed path ourselves. A path programmed by those who have motives contrary to what we would have otherwise chosen.

The recent Google AI controversy is an example of why we should be very careful in trusting AI.