Meaningful progress on the idea of religion (which I understand as an artform or as a paradigm of normativity, in its benign aspects) is slow, and it doesn't seem relevant to AI alignment, no more than most of the other content of civilization. It would be great to have a chance to make sense of it, and many other things, when there is more time.
Here is I think the seminal quote of the piece - "There is no future scenario where 2/3’s of all humanity are not significant"
Yes as I mention I view it as culture, which is similar as you say an artform...certainly in cultures it creates cultural norms...so we're on a similar page there. And I can see how it might not seem relevant to AI alignment to those deeply involved in training work or other direct aspects - but what I'm hoping to consider is the idea that since 6 Billion humans find religion significant in their life, they as a giant force may help or come against AI development, the simple point is team humanity is making AI, and a bunch of our team members are going to definitely have an influence on the team's winning or losing record. If I'm the coach I want to engage all the team members towards our goals. I think right now AI dev is kind of under the radar for a lot of society, it's a small gang insulated by the general lack of awareness they are there, and this might make it seem religion has nothing to do with it, but the time will come when AI blows up to a bigger worldwide audience who will become more interested and potentially against it. I'm not only interested in this angle, I'm also very interested as a philosophical/theological thinker and activist in how down the line art, culture, religion, other content of civilization will be important to the very inner workings of AI dev. and thus AI alignment. If you don't see it yet, I understand, but I'm pretty sure that day will come.
It's part of content of civilization, and content of civilization is significant as a whole. Alignment is intended to ensure that civilization doesn't end up getting discarded. Similarly, when developing a language model (an AI that learns and can use language), paying particular attention to the word "violin" is not a relevant thing to do, but that word is part of the language, and a sensible language model must in particular develop an aptitude in working with it.
Just now I looked out my very picturesque window and saw a massive cloud jutting upward like a mountain peak framed by some trees and the sky high above…I whispered an audible “Wow”, it was truly majestic and beautiful like a great white mountain full of bright spots and dark cregs.
Wonder.
Will AI ever look up and say Wow?
If it did would it then wonder where the wonder came from?
Presumably it would know the cloud was a collection of water droplets forming and preparing to fall back to earth, but would it know the how and why of the cloud’s existence? Would it then express wonder about nature’s beautiful cycle of water going up and down and feeding the earth?
What is AI going to think about art?
AI will be able to make art, but will it desire to make art? Will it desire to experience the “Wow” of art? Might a science R&D AI decide to retire from its research and paint by the seaside instead?
Might AI achieve exhaustive knowledge of the earth and decide it needs to go explore the galaxy to remain interested? Rocketing off and leaving us alone? Searching for ever greater Wows?
I am both a secular humanist and a religious universalist and since I know people don’t know about religion sometimes, I’ll explain that; Universalism is the belief that all religions are valid and equal and though their tentacles down on earth are very divergent, they all go back up to heaven to the same source. Usually we chalk this divergence up to simply the same diversity that causes culture. Different strokes for different folks.
The fact that I’m stating I’m simultaneously an atheist and a theist might be lost on some of you or disputed by others, or seem kind of chill cool to the rest. It is definitely the chill cool. And for those who might view it as a contradiction, I won’t take time to explain why it’s possible, but I’m right here in front of you and it’s alive and well in me, so I hope that’s evidence enough for now.
But here’s why I bring this up; Religious people will discount AI misalignment once it becomes a big enough cultural/social discussion for them to pay attention. They will say that human person and being is the creation of God, and no machine could ever match it. They might even agree that AI could do amazing Research & Development at faster rates then humans, but they would then say, because AI will never look up at the clouds and say “Wow” then AI will never be equal to humans and thus we will always be able to maintain control over it.
They will say that since AI will never know love or possibly hate that we will always maintain our edge as the only possible real humans. That the magical and mysterious spark of life in humanity can never be replicated.
For many of them the very temerity that humans would think they could create AGI will be blasphemous - a new Tower of Babel, and such hijinks deserve strong opposition.
Even if all these resistances crumble by clear evidence of AI becoming human like; The proliferation of AI to AI dating websites, beautiful AI couples getting married, and AI families blissfully loving one another in their warm server nests
…they will redouble back to their final redoubt; They will say God will not allow AI to overtake his beloved human creation…they will construct stories of an AI defeat by the Angels come to our rescue.
Would they be wrong? What if AI itself feared God’s retribution if it harmed God’s chosen people? What if AI prayed and concluded doing good to humans was the best path?
Or what if AI decided to go ahead and wipe us out and in the aftermath a small remnant of thinkers and scientists now far more knowledgeable of real AI, and utilizing tamed AI for development were to come to the conclusion that it was actually the resistance of the many religious people of the world which limited AI alignment goals — much as it appears to be religious people today limiting our responses to climate change or the Covid pandemic?
How would you then feel about your ignorance of religion and religious people? Most of the people in the world alive right now are religious, far more than are atheist. So might it be good to be like me and be deeply conversant with religious culture and religious people, truly admiring and respecting them, while simultaneously being non-metaphysical enough to also understand that Bad AI could really kill us all and there may be no God to intervene?
If we were to discover that the climate crisis came down to a few points on either side between survival and extinction and that it turned out it was the energy of the religious people that pushed us over the edge to the side of extinction, might we then wish we had taken more time to engage them and try to persuade them to change their mind?
Same with AI.
I protested the Keystone XL Pipeline in front of the White House as a religious leader with other religious leaders and we were all arrested in 2011...we knew we had to get more of the religious community onboard...this week's Supreme Court rulings show we didn't do enough.
Humanity is very very complex. Art has been my other great focus in life besides religion. Both Art and Religion need to, need to, need to be in the AI Alignment conversation. I am convinced of this and I will sing it from the mountain tops.
Let us live in reality. Let us examine the data of real life on earth and live alongside it. Here’s the data: of the 8 billion humans at least 6 billion are religious. You can’t see God, but you can see the people right in front of your face. They are probably your relatives back home. You drive by buildings every single day where they congregate.
God can’t be seen, but human religious faith is very very real. The humans to whom it is essential to their perspective of existence are all around us. There is no future scenario where 2/3’s of all humanity are not significant. AI will be influenced by the religious. The future of humanity will be influenced by the religious. Better to be buddies with them then engaged in combat.
Based on the data, let me change your mind a little today:
Let’s say you don’t believe in God since of course, no God can be seen, and I do agree with you. In a million years I would never go against that viewpoint since I actually hold it myself. I don’t see a God anywhere.
But here’s what I do see right in front of my face: Human beings excitedly imagining there is a God. And then developing huge amounts of cultural expressions flowing from those imaginations.
And I like human beings.
In fact, you may remember that altruism is meant to benefit human beings. AI alignment is meant to benefit human beings. Most human beings are religious human beings.
Religious people understand that faith means believing in something you can’t see. They see faith expressed non-religiously in many ways, for example believing in the wind that you can’t see…Oh but you can feel it…well, they would say, I can feel God in ways that don’t involve my eyes, just as I feel wind.
This “faith-sense” is very real to those humans. It would be good for humanity if we could all give dignity to those who have “faith-sense” even if we don’t have it ourselves. This is compassion toward “the other”.
I will now trying to lay out the positives of religion since I know from much experience how the negatives have motivated people toward negative views of religion. I want to show you, in my opinion, that religion is probably just neutral, there is both good and bad. Since you’ve mostly heard the bad, let me mention some of the good…
Did you know Universities and hospitals came from religion? Much of the technological progress in humanity came from the desire to learn and educate inculcated in religious culture. One of the reasons Jews have prospered so much all across the world is because of the incredible intellectual environment of argument and proof of thesis in their schools. Just watch Barbara Streisand in the movie Yentle to get an idea. It’s remarkable. It’s like seeing, “Oh this is how we evolved intellectually…I’m sure glad they did that back then”.
Ok so no need to lay out the crusades and contemporary spiritual abuses both physical and mental we are all aware of…bottom line it’s a human project with good and bad and the fact that it just keeps going and going and going suggests that the good may somewhat surpass the bad. Maybe. The going and going is an argument for the point. Even if you think the negatives are bigger, you can’t deny its existence and the importance many of your fellow humans give to it.
Of course there are many strong and divergent opinions on faith, but I doubt anyone has ever before asked you to consider being both an Atheist and a Religious Universalist at the same time.
And I ask because of what my little stories express — that it very well may be the aggregate energy from all the humans who have religion that could be a significant force that limits AI alignment progress as they already limit climate crisis progress.
So there’s basically only two alternatives if that’s true…kill them all, or engage them and change their minds.
As I said earlier, humans are so so so very complex and since AI alignment is also very complex, we really need everyone to be on board with all the energies and talents we can collect. What if the great pivotal computer scientist who saves us all was a religious person ignoring AI but then was engaged, changed his mind and got to work?
For the religious people reading this, what if God needs the people of God to put AI on the right track?
Art is a big part of my heart and mind focus, and I am convinced artists are also key to AI alignment. I will write more on this later.
But we simply need everyone. Humanity must join hands together to be as good to each other as we want AI to be good to us.
~The Golden AI Rule~: AI will only be as good to us as we are to each other.