Happy New Year, dear readers! I hope you had a Merry
Christmas and are ready to face the new challenges and opportunities that 2024
will bring. As we cross the threshold of the new year, time and again, we
reflect on our past, present, and future, and wonder at what lies ahead for us
and our world.
Last Christmas, did you ever go through some kind of
unguarded moments and asked yourself this string of questions:
Do they know it’s Christmas? Do they have a chance to
celebrate with their loved ones, or are they too busy trying to survive? Do
they have a voice, or are they silenced by fear?
Do we know it’s Christmas? Do we care about their
plight, or are we too busy with our own lives? Do we share our blessings with
them, or do we turn a blind eye? Do we add them to our prayers, or do we brush
them aside?
As the lyrics of the song go, “Well, tonight thank
God, it’s them, instead of you.”
From the slums of Manila to the ravages of
Gaza: Do they know it’s Christmas? Do we know it’s Christmas?
Pricking our consciences, the questions above may be too
nerve-racking for us to answer and may turn out to be even more complex and
perplexing as we come to grips with the breakneck and unprecedented quantum
leap of artificial intelligence (AI) in our society today.
THE AI DEATH CALCULATOR
What about this question: What if you know the day you
will die? Yikes! I could only imagine how you’d react. Newspapers all over the world
flashed such an eerie question like the following banners:
“When will you die? Meet the ‘doom calculator,’ an
artificial intelligence algorithm” (USA Today)
“AI death calculator can predict when you’ll die… with
eerie accuracy” (News 5 Cleveland)
“AI Death Calculator: Countdown to Your Fate!” (Yahoo)
Yes, you read them right. AI can do such a scary
thing. It can predict the exact date of our death. Such is the recent AI spine-chilling
breakthrough called the AI death calculator. Hitting the headlines, it is not science
fiction any more, but real and existing technology that is now being
developed and tested. It uses an algorithm called Life2vec which
analyzes large amounts of data -- medical history, genetics, lifestyle, and
socio-economic status, among others – to calculate man’s life expectancy.
This AI death calculator breakthrough refreshes my
memory of an anecdote I heard in one Bible study group session I joined many
years ago. Our leader told us then, tongue-in-cheek, about a weird invention –
a machine that could read what’s in our minds. What’s more, it could broadcast
exactly what you’re thinking through its built-in speaker which people around could
hear like a jukebox.
Holy cow!
MIND-READING MACHINE
Here’s the brain teaser: Would you buy this
mind-reading machine? It begs this awkward question: Would you like other
people to hear your thoughts?
Let me get off the track a bit to show a sort of intermission
numbers to clear the air about the novelty of this mind-reading machine which is
much too different from the gist of the following amusing dialogues:
Boy: I know what you’re thinking.
Girl: You’re naughty.
Teacher: (says to class) I know what you’re
thinking.
Student: (murmurs) Please don’t call on me. Please
don’t call on me.
Boss: I know what you’re thinking.
Worker: (whispers) Then, why don’t you give me a
raise?
Politician: I know what you’re thinking.
Constituents: (speak softly) Yeah, right. ‘Tis your
confidential and intelligence funds.
Leader: I know what you’re thinking.
Citizens: (say in hushed tones) You bet, it’s about
your next globe-trotting trip.
Not a mind-reading per se, the above humorous dialogues
rather illustrate, in psychology, the so-called “empathic accuracy” which
relates generally to the concept of empathy.
Going back to our Bible study group, the mind-reading
machine later on turned out to be a thought-provoking and soul-searching topic
of our discussion. It titillated everyone in delving into the innermost recesses
of his or her hidden thoughts.
However, as a product, our group discussion went along
with the verdict that the mind-reading machine would flop in the market. Nobody
would want to buy it (otherwise would keep it in a locked safe) since no one wants
others to know what he or she is thinking.
FEAR FACTOR
Why? The key to the answer – fear factor -- embedded in the advent of the AI death calculator breakthrough.
Strange
to say, the AI death calculator that can predict an earthly death hit the
headlines – a “killjoy” -- on the verge of Christmas that celebrates a heavenly
birth. The synchrony reminds me of this anonymous quote: “Timing is everything.
If it’s meant to happen it will, at the right time for the right reasons.”
In the light of Christian belief, could this be the
right reason: just as the AI death calculator spotlights the “fallen” state of
our human nature, so would the mind-reading machine expose the “fallen“ state
of our human thought. (Btw, in our “fallen” state, we are deemed to sin and
distance ourselves from our Creator.) Just as we are when nobody’s watching, so
are we what we’re thinking.
That’s why we are afraid of others knowing exactly what’s in our minds.
(By the way, interestingly, the mind-reading machine is
no longer just a topic in a long-ago anecdote. The Guardian reported of
late that an AI-based decoder, which can translate brain activity into a
continuous stream of text, has been developed in a breakthrough that allows a
person’s thoughts to be read for the first time. Gosh!)
LAST JUDGMENT
In the final analysis, the AI death calculator, like
the mind-reading machine, triggers a sort of dread that supplants our natural fear
of the unknown with the hallowed fear of facing the somber truth about the
final judgment -- meeting our Creator to account for our actions that may come
down to whether we will go to Heaven or Hell.
Truth be told, writing this article, I felt I’ve bitten
off more than I can chew. The subject is too complex to fit together whilst going
into the new year commonly marked by a theme of optimism. Weighed down by my meager
knowledge, compact space, and uncanny timing, playing on the writer’s worn-out
metaphor, I’ve been moving with difficulty in landing this plane.
Thanks to Fr. Jerry Orbos who presided over the Mass on
the last Sunday of 2023. His singing the lyrics of a classic song, rounded off by
a Proverb in closing his homily, at the same time, opening the way to the New
Year 2024, is like catching sight of a landing strip to land my plane to
safety.
Que sera, sera
Whatever will be, will be
The future’s not ours to see
Que sera, sera
What will be, will be.
Thy will be done.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding
In all your ways acknowledge Him
And He will make straight your paths.”
Content put together in collaboration with Microsoft
Bing AI-powered Co-Pilot
Head photo courtesy of Freepik
Video clips courtesy of YouTube
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