This is my contribution to the April 2024 Fishkill UMC newsletter; it will appear in an upcoming issue of God & Nature.
I am a chemist because of a question I was asked in 1966. Some questions that I was asked in 1974 and could not answer caused me to evaluate my career path. (It should be noted that I know the answers to those questions today). I earned a Ph.D. in science education with an emphasis on chemical education because of some questions I was asking about how students learned chemistry.
I became a lay speaker/servant in the United Methodist Church because, in 1990, I asked myself what the best way was to fulfill the commitment I made in 1965 when I earned the God & Country award.
The path I have walked over these past years was determined, in part, because of the questions I was asked and how I answered them.
It is perhaps an axiom of research that the answer to one question leads to the development of two new questions.
When chemists were still known as alchemists, they asked the question, “Is there a substance that dissolves everything?”
Can there be a substance that dissolves everything? If there was, what would you put it in? Obviously, if this substance dissolves everything, it would dissolve the container you put it in. It would also dissolve everything which it contacted, creating havoc and destruction. This leads to two questions.
First, how could we study such a “super solvent’?
Could we use AI systems? We could provide the AI system with information concerning the nature of solvents, the nature of solutions, information about the nature of materials that make up containers, as well as a discussion of bonding and why containers normally do not react with the materials that are put in them.
AI systems have already been used to “solve” other chemistry questions. One research group already used an AI system to reconstruct the periodic table from existing data. However, it was not clear if the results included the noble gases (Stanford AI recreates chemistry’s periodic table of elements | Chemistry – https://chemistry.stanford.edu/news/stanford-ai-recreates-chemistrys-periodic-table-elements).
AI-systems can achieve results that humans may not achieve. We can set up an AI-system to analyze a series of digital images (such as X-rays, MRI, and CAT scans) to detect the presence of cancer cells at a resolution beyond the capabilities of the human eye. But to do this, someone must supply the images that have cancer cells so that the system can “learn” what to look for. If the system does not have this information, it cannot determine what is a cancer cell and what is not.
At the present time, AI systems are not intelligent. They do not create new information, only copy current information. It still takes a human to create new information.
While some may use AI systems to write reports, all the system is doing is gathering all the information that can be found on the web that is related to the topic and putting it together in a readable format. But this system has not created any new information, and, in my opinion, the ability to create new information is one hallmark of intelligence.
Joshua Conrad Jackson, a professor and lead researcher at Chicago Booth, conducted a study about the ability of an AI-system to produce a sermon. He concluded,
“Our research arrives at a point where automation is pervading every job industry, and it suggests that some professions may not be automated so easily. Robots may struggle in professions like priests or monks, that require high levels of creativity.”
see Researchers tried out AI preachers — and it didn’t go so well (zmescience.com)– https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/researchers-tried-out-ai-preachers-and-it-didnt-go-so-well/
For all the benefits we might gain, the study of a “super solvent” generates two new questions:
“Why would you want to synthesize such a substance?”
“What value would there be in even designing a substance that might destroy the world?”
AI systems can gather large amounts of data, but it is becoming clear that this process cannot differentiate between good and bad data. Reports created from this approach contain serious errors, so the veracity of any reports generated may have to be questioned. A chemistry teacher reported on a Facebook group that their students were using AI-systems to gather information about various chemistry topics, but they were not checking the validity of the information.
AI systems are also being shown to be discriminatory. Not everyone gains from the use of such systems. The use of AI systems may only widen the digital divide we see developing today. In addition, the approach used by AI systems seems to ignore standard privacy protections (granted that even we humans often have this same problem).
What is to stop AI-systems from being used to develop potentially hazardous materials?
In the end, do the benefits gained from the use of AI systems outweigh the negative values? Can AI systems be taught to differentiate between good and bad data? Can AI systems understand the nature of privacy protection and other laws related to the use of personal information?
Notes on AI
I am not opposed to the development of new technologies, such as AI systems, if it will make my work easier to accomplish. While I tend to prepare the initial drafts of my manuscripts with pen and paper, I do use current technology (personal computer, the Internet, online correspondence, etc.) to share the results of my work. But the systems that I use only aid in what I do, not do it for me.
In the Star Trek movie “Resurrection”, Sojef, one of the Ba’ku leaders, says to Jean Luc Picard why his group rejected technology.
“We believe that when you create a machine to do the work of a man, you take something away from the man.”
Perhaps the ultimate question that must be asked is “what will the future be?” Will the future be human driven or technologically driven? Will it be progressive and positive but will our reliance and possibly subservience lead to the destruction of mankind?
As we move to an even more technologically oriented society, we must not be blinded by the movement. There must be an active effort to keep humans in the equation and in control, not just part of the solution.
Notes
AI and humanity – Lutheran Alliance for Faith, Science and Technology (luthscitech.org)
What Is Artificial Intelligence? How Does It Work? – Sinai and Synapses
Thoughts From The Heart On The Left 