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Joe Allen addresses Garnet & Gold Forum attendees.

Author examines AI as ‘a global experiment’ at Garnet & Gold Forum

Joe Allen

Praising Erskine for its efforts to preserve its heritage “alongside the development of minds prepared for the future, for a very different world,” speaker Joe Allen, author of The Dark Aeon: Transhumanism and the War Against Humanity, talked about Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the Fourth Annual Garnet & Gold Forum, conducted Oct. 17 in the Bowie Arts Center on the Erskine College campus.

Allen, who sees universities as places to pursue truth, said AI is being presented “as the highest authority of what is good, true, and even beautiful.” Some AI proponents believe that universities and professors will become obsolete, with AI taking over as teacher.

AI is the “fastest growing technological adoption in history,” representing a way to “change everything.” It differs from previous technological advances, such as the development of simple machines. A shovel, for example, compounded of two simple machines, a lever and a wedge, “isn’t watching you or telling you how to dig your own grave.”

The speaker outlined three areas of serious concern with the adoption of AI, citing psychological, economic, and religious risks.

The surveillance capabilities of AI can lead to the social and psychological dangers of “customized manipulation,” as we pour ourselves into technology, revealing ourselves to the ever-listening ear of AI.

Economic risks include AI takeover of such white-collar jobs as code writing and the use of humanoid robots in blue-collar tasks. “Profit over humans is a temptation as old as civilization,” Allen said. “We have to put humans first.”

As for religious risks, Allen said some AI creators speak about their goals in quasi-religious terms and see themselves as building a god—with AI moving from tool to teacher to companion to creature to new life form.

Calling the adoption of AI “a global experiment,” Allen said, “This is very profound—It has to be wrestled with deeply.”

At this year’s forum, Erskine President Dr. Steve Adamson introduced the speaker, and Alan Runyan, chair of the Erskine Board of Trustees, offered an opening prayer. Following the speaker’s remarks, Adamson took the stage with him and asked a few questions.

Joe Allen, left, with Erskine President Dr. Steve Adamson

Adamson invited Garnet & Gold Forum attendees to support Erskine through giving and prayer and said, “Erskine is more than buildings or programs—it is a living community.” In a nod to the speaker’s remarks, Adamson asserted that “Truth is taught and also lived” at Erskine. The event concluded with a book signing.

During his campus visit, Allen also addressed students at two events, a meeting with the Honors Institute and a general lecture. He told students, “What we need to do is cultivate better and better human beings,” warning them against becoming “dependent on a machine to tell you what is true” and assuring them that “God will have the last word.”

The Garnet & Gold Forum, hosted by Erskine College, is an annual event exploring Christian thinking in a secular society.  

 

 

 

 

 

Erskine and Due West Skyline

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