There are a lot of capabilities that human beings, for all their faults, have that artificial intelligence don’t have. For a start, human beings are alive and are able to make decisions based on available information. They have a sense of purpose, and are able to make considered choices, taking into consideration emotional factors.
They can empathize, and have compassion.
Compassion, empathy, sympathy and love are all a part of being human. Wisdom that can only be gained through experience is something that a machine can never have, at least for the moment.
Ethics and moral judgement are also qualities that AI doesn’t have.
The thing that we humans have that we should never surrender is the ability to think, and to make choices based on all of these qualities. As a christian, the fact that we are created in the image of our Creator is central to my faith. We as humans have fallen from that ideal, but we still possess those qualities.
I enjoy working with AI, and appreciate the fact that I have information at my finger tips that would otherwise take years to find. I like to be able to code complex stuff, and get programs like ChatGPT or Claude etc. to check things to make sure they are correct.
Last week I was working on a website trying to get something to display just right, and for the life of me just couldn’t find the problem. Rob, my robotic offsider, found the problem in a flash. I’d used a capital letter where I shouldn’t have in a file name.
It’s handy doing things the easy way?
Having things done for us, with little or no effort seems like an idea, but then how can we lay claim to it if it’s not our doing? If I labor over some coding, and get assistance, or if I get ChatGPT to research a 3D printer that I am going to write a review on after using it, I can lay claim to it being my work. But if AI does it all, then it’s not mine at all. This is something that we need to think deeply about!