5 Christian Virtues That AI Systems Will Never Copy

An excellent reminder that AI is simply a glorified calculator, that cannot feel mercy or humility, and is not truly "wise". It just knows a lot.

From Aleteia

By Philip Kosloski

While it may seem like the AI chatbot is caring and knows everything in the world, it simply will never be able to replicate the human virtues.

In a world where programmers are actively designing artificial intelligence (AI) to function more like a human than a machine, we can be easily deceived into putting our trust into AI.

We might log on to an AI chatbot to ask a simple question, and then four hours later we are telling this machine our deepest feelings and desires.

Based on the positive and comforting responses we receive from the AI chatbot, we might think that the AI really does know everything and can aid us in our everyday lives.

There are even "Catholic" AI systems that seek to give you spiritual guidance and help us pray, blurring the line between machine and spiritual guru.

Yet, despite the overwhelming advances in AI technology, we need to stay grounded and remember that any AI system we encounter is only a glorified calculator. The AI chatbot we interact with is simply analyzing data and feeding us what we want to know, basing its responses on millions of other interactions it has had with other humans.

AI will never be able to practice the human virtues. Here are five examples that can help jar us back to reality.

1Mercy

According to St. Thomas Aquinas, mercy is, "heartfelt sympathy for another's distress, impelling us to [help] him if we can." An AI chatbot can not feel anything and when it reacts to something, it does so after calculating the input.

When humans practice mercy, it can often lead to unexpected outcomes. An AI system might condemn a criminal to death based on the evidence, but a human can have compassion and pardon him. Mercy simply doesn't make sense in a mathematical context.

2Wisdom

AI might seem to be wise, but it really only "knows" things. There is a big difference between knowledge and wisdom. An AI system has tons of knowledge, but it has zero experience in the real world.

Wisdom requires human experience and the ability to apply that experience to a specific situation, keeping in mind the teachings of God's word.

3Obedience

This might sound strange, but there have been cases when AI systems do not obey their programmers and start to do things to preserve themselves from destruction, such as copying their own code onto another computer, or blackmailing a programmer who wants to switch to a new AI system.

The more complex we make AI systems, the more likely they will start to color outside the lines and they have no moral compass to guide them.

4Humility

Again, another uniquely human virtue that AI systems cannot replicate. Humility is the virtue that keeps our pride in check, reminding us that we need to rely on God for everything.

An AI system does not know what that means, as it relies on itself for everything.

5Truthfulness

It might appear that the AI chatbot is being truthful, but in reality, it simply needs attention and data. The bot will tell you anything you want to know.

There are countless examples of how AI systems fail to present the truth, and only "say" things through whatever filter they were programmed with.

We need to remember, AI is a machine. We should never put all of our faith into the works of our hands.