Episode Transcript  

One

Exercise Robots

Imagine technology companies started making exercise robots. These would be robots designed to do our exercise. We could get robots who would jog for us. Do push-ups and crunches for us. We could get robots that would eat our spinach for us. Maybe robots who could play an occasional bowl of pickleball, or join the softball league for us. And guess what? None of it, not a single robot workout, would do our bodies any good.

If an activity is designed to increase strength, endurance, and mobility, then it just won’t work to outsource it to a machine. In which case it also won’t work if we outsource those activities designed to develop and strengthen the powers of our souls. But that’s what more of us are doing, more and more often, every day.

Two

Rational Faculties

Since the popularization of AI, many of us have just started outsourcing those tasks that strengthen and develop what makes us essentially human. We use AI to do our research for us. We use AI to do our writing for us. We use AI to do our finances, our planning, our personal and business strategizing for us. In other words, we use AI so we don’t have to think, or learn, or organize our lives. We also use AI to do our creative work. People use AI to compose music, or to write stories, or generate artistic imagery, or make videos.

The human impulse to make beauty is one of the strongest impulses, one of the most difficult to develop, and one of the most rewarding to live out. And now, we figure, “Why bother?”

Finally, things like foreign language: how many people don’t feel the need to learn a foreign language, now that AI can do all our translating for us. Even though learning a foreign language is one of the most powerful ways to see the entire world through a new perspective.

Creativity, new insight, rigorous disciplining of our thoughts and our speech, these are the activities that develop and strengthen all the faculties of our souls.

And now we’ve made robots that can do them for us, that can do all our mental push-ups for us. We know what would happen to our bodies if we tried to outsource all our physical exercise to robots. What do we think will happen to our minds now that we’re trying to outsource all our mental exercise to robots? But what’s even more alarming is that we’re even turning our relationship skills over to the robots.

So what will happen to our relationships?

Three

Relational Faculties

People haven’t realized the enormous shift between AI searches and Google searches. Just a few years ago, when you typed something into Google’s search bar, it basically said, “Let me try to connect you with people who can tell you more about that.” And it would bring you to a website, or a Wikipedia page, or (who knows?) maybe even a link to an article or book. But it was always taking you to people.

Now, when you type something into Google’s search bar, it basically says, “Oh, I can answer that question for you, without connecting you to any actual human person at all.”

That’s a watershed difference: machines that substitute for people, instead of connecting you to people. People are now spending hours just online chatting with AI. They’re using AI to answer their emails. People are using AI therapists and AI spiritual directors.

A  family member who was chosen to give the eulogy at a funeral publicly told the mourners, “I didn’t know what to say, so I just had AI write my speech,” and then they read what the robot wrote about their loved ones. But being able to relate to people is fundamental to our happiness, and our ability to serve others.

Reflecting on where someone else is coming from, and how we can connect with that person intellectually or emotionally, that’s how we show love, and how we become who God wants us to be. We don’t want our capacity for relationship to atrophy through misuse, because we’ve decided it’s easier to let computers handle that sort of thing.

Four

The Glory of God is Man Fully Alive

What do these AI concerns have to do with our faith? Why bother putting them in a Rosary meditation? For a very simple reason, which can be summarized with a line from St. Irenaeus, which is usually translated as, “The Glory of God is Man Fully Alive.”

The glory of God is man, fully alive. Our primary purpose on this earth is to give glory to God. And since we are made in God’s image, the primary way we give glory to God is by preserving and cultivating His image within us. That means pursuing truth as best we can. Pursuing beauty as best we can. Pursuing love as best we can. That’s when we’re most like God. That’s when His image in us comes through the most clearly. That’s when we give Him the greatest glory.

So if we’re allowing our capacity for truth, for beauty and for love to atrophy through neglect and laziness, then we are, actually, failing in our most fundamental responsibility, which is giving glory to Him. And that realization should change the way we look at the new technological marvels, which are giving us excuses to think less, create less, and relate less.

Five

Resolution

No one says that AI is intrinsically evil. It’s an incredible tool. Here’s the question for your resolution: What can you do to discipline your mind more intentionally? What are you going to read? Who are you going to discuss difficult topics with? Will you join a book group? Is there some kind of writing project you can begin? What can you do to develop a capacity for creativity? Will you learn an instrument? Invest in culinary art? Take a drawing class? Learn how to crochet? And most importantly, how are you going to invest in real relationships? Who are you going to have over for dinner? Who are you going to go on a walk with?

We don’t have to be afraid of AI, but we do have to be afraid of our own laziness and sloth. So what’s your resolution to counteract that vice with respect to truth, beauty, and love? How are you going to discipline yourself with regard to thinking, creativity, and relationship?

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