Dear Editor,

Recently, the European Union member states had a conference among themselves to pave the way forward in respect of ethics and personal rights issues surrounding machine learning, popularly referred to as artificial intelligence (AI). However, this gesture was minuscule compared to how troubled we should be about AI.

Leaders of powerful, wealthy nations might be covertly courting this technology beyond AI’s positioning in regards to privacy. Consider these three historical events — one is in “the beginning”, one is in “the last days”, and one was somewhere in-between.

The in-between moment was when US President George W Bush, in 2003, looked squarely in the live television cameras and declared that “God told him” to invade the Saddam Hussein-run nation of Iraq, and so he did. Who was this God he was referring to? Only Bush himself, knows that god, and perhaps a few privileged others.

After Adam and Eve had eaten of the “forbidden tree”, also known as the Tree of Knowledge, there was concern that Adam and Eve could become as gods having “the knowledge”, the only thing left to do to complete the achievement was to gain immortality from the eating of the adjacent “Tree of Life”. The tellers and interpreters of the times don’t seem to appreciate how critical and consequential the pursuit and the attainment of knowledge will be, as it was in the beginning, in the Garden of Eden. Much of what seems to concern the world, as portrayed by governments, interest groups, and the media, such as climate change, disease, wars, civil rights, world economy, food insecurity, etc, are just mere distractions; knowledge has always been what matters, and so it will be in the end of days.

The “last days” prophecies of Apostle John in the Book of Revelations speaks of the evil “dragon”, who is Satan, his hypothetical general, “the beast” and its image, and its lieutenant, “the false prophet”. To place AI into this perspective, one has to be enlightened, or imaginative if you will. Think of a magical crystal ball, the wizardry of which can make all things known, and hence, like a genie, make all things possible. Think of how appealing this will be to those who can afford it. Firstly the rich, the famous, and the powerful will be trying to outbid each other to get a bite of it, and desiring to use their influence to convince, or ‘share’ it with their servants, fans and citizens, to follow suit. All we will have to do is to ascribe the honour, glory and power, which is due to God, to ‘it’ instead.

The infrastructure is being laid, the social experiments and trials are being run, and the knowledge is being harnessed and processed. However, in spite of the power which knowledge offers its holder, wisdom has, and forever shall be the more consummate virtue, whilst knowledge will always be found wanting.

With this boom in AI, may we know the difference between that which is representative of knowledge, and that of wisdom, and ‘choose’ more wisely than Adam and Eve did when it’s time.

Andre O Sheppy

Norwood, St James

astrangely@outlook.com