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“Righteous AI” with Gretchen Huizinga

To hear the podcast (22 min) click here.

Dr. Gretchen Huizinga joins us on The Stone Chapel Podcast to talk about an area of interest to many. She has worked in the developing fields of technology and AI, artificial intelligence, for some time.

Dr. Huisinga was at the Lanier Theological Library to participate in a panel discussion as part of our lecture weekend on the subject of AI. You can find the link to watch the panel below.

Gretchen recently finished a PhD at the University of Washington. And the title of her dissertation was Righteous AI, the Christian Voice in the AI Ethics Conversation.

Her background is varied and includes being an English teacher, working in media production, and serving as a podcast host.

What is Righteous AI?

Dr. Huizinga tells us that people have written and spoken on the benefits of AI technology and the vision that it is part of the redemptive work of Christ.

Tech companies are working to establish ethical guidelines for the use of AI but the work is in its infancy. Some companies call it AI for Good, Responsible AI or Ethical AI. But the big idea is to determine how we situate AI systems that are benevolent, beneficent, robust, but still good.

Gretchen has coined the term “Righteous AI” as a way to view this type of beneficial AI through the Christian worldview and through the nature of God.

More Resources

To watch the panel discussion on AI, click this link.

Click here to read an interview with Gretchen by AI and Faith.

For a transcript of today’s podcast, click here.

Gretchen hosts a number of podcasts on technology, and you can find her website at: www.gretchenhuizinga.com.

Want more Stone Chapel Podcasts on some great topics? Just click here.

What’s more! You can get information on upcoming lectures at Lanier Theological Library by clicking here.

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AI and the Future of Humanity

Episode 166 AI and the Future of Humanity

In October 2023, John Lennox gave the 3rd annual John Warwick Montgomery Lecture in Evidential Apologetics at the Lanier Theological Library in Houston. Watch the lecture by clicking on the link to our YouTube channel below.

His topic was 2084: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity.  Today, in Houston he sits down with David Capes for an episode of The Stone Chapel Podcasts.

Who is John Lennox?

John Lennox is retired as Professor of Mathematics from Green Templeton College in Oxford.  In addition to his scientific expertise he is a skilled Christian apologist. 

He travels and lectures on college and university campuses all over the world.  Just google John and you will see he has debated some of the most significant atheists of our generation. 

In retirement he continues to research, think, speak, and write.  He and his wife Sally make their home a few miles north of Oxford, not far from Yarnton.

AI and the Future of Humanity 

Recent years have witnessed rapid advances in artificial intelligence.  Many futurists, entrepreneurs, and government officials are concerned that rampant artificial intelligence could do massive harm to lives and cultures around the planet.  Already, people are losing their jobs to artificial intelligence and there are not enough retraining options.

Moreover, the rapid advances in AI have outpaced any sort of ethical, moral, or legal reasoning on the topic. 

John Lennox tackles this tough topic and explains many unknown aspects of AI for lay people.  He does sound an alarm about its harmful potential, but he also sees it as benefiting humanity in some ways.

Resources

For a link to John’s website and a list of all his books click here or go to www.johnlennox.com.

See his recent book 2084: AI and the Future of Humanity

For a link to John’s earlier podcast on The Stone Chapel Podcasts, click here. 

To watch John recent lecture on artificial intelligence at the Lanier Theological Library click here.

Click here for a transcript of this podcast.

Want more Stone Chapel Podcasts on some great topics? Just click here.

What’s more, you can get information on upcoming lectures at Lanier Theological Library by clicking here.

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Artificial Intelligence with John Lennox

Prof John Lennox

John Lennox, retired Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford, joins David Capes to talk about his book, 2084: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity. 

Dr. Lennox was born in northern Ireland to remarkable parents who were Christians. They  allowed him to read and search widely for himself.

In a climate of violence his parents treated everyone—Catholic and Protestant—with dignity. 

Lennox is an outstanding Bible teacher and scientist.  He has written dozens of books that have been translated into many different languages.  To learn more about John, see his webpage: www.johnlennox.org.

The title of John’s book, 2084, has a not-so-cryptic nod to George Orwell’s book 1984.  Many of Orwell’s “predictions” have come true: universal surveillance, use of technology to suppress the population, etc.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is all around us and is raising questions in thoughtful minds.  In particular: what implications does it have for the future of humanity? 

There are two kinds of AI: narrow AI which is a system that functions to do one thing that, in the past, humans could do.  And because it is crunching a ton of data, it can do that one thing often better than humans do. 

But there are those who are interested in creating  an advanced AI that can do everything that humans can do and do it better. 

Whether that is achievable or not, we must wait and see. But it begs the question: what is a human being? 

Lennox is convinced of the biblical worldview that holds that humans bear the image of God in a unique way that cannot be shared with a machine. 

So, there are ethical problems in thinking about the limits of AI.  As with a lot of things, the technological advances are ahead of our ability to think ethically about it. 

John is already updating his book.  Because technology is moving so quickly, he is trying to keep his book up to date.  Look for a new edition in two to three years.

To hear the podcast (20 minutes) click here.