Section headings: Embodiment — Relationality — Relationship with the truth — Stewardship of the world.
All of these topics (intentionally: §30) relate to weak points of the current "AI boom" in LLMs. Human-type intelligence — what we might better call "sentience" or "humanity" — critically depends on the human being's embodiment in the physical world and his relation to that world, including the recognition of other beings like oneself. Another point is a sense of responsibility toward the well-being of the physical world; that recognition of a sense of duty (or any non-material "higher truth" traditionally received by intuition or intellect rather than by reasoning) is what the writer turns out to mean by "Relationship with the truth." (LLMs obviously have no relationship even with mundane truth — historical accuracy, a sense of physical plausibility — but what the Vatican writers mean is the human mind's relationship to higher truths than mere physical data.)
§26: True humanity exercises "the full scope of one’s being: spiritual, cognitive, embodied, and relational." Current popular notions of "AI" deal only with the second of these, with the occasional experimental gesture toward the third.
§28–29: "Human intelligence possesses an essential contemplative dimension, an unselfish openness to the True, the Good, and the Beautiful, beyond any utilitarian purpose." Paul Claudel (1956): "Intelligence is nothing without delight." Even Turing (1950) agrees: "[Some claim that no machine will ever] be kind, resourceful, beautiful, friendly [...] enjoy strawberries and cream [...] The inability to enjoy strawberries and cream may have struck the reader as frivolous. Possibly a machine might be made to enjoy this delicious dish, but any attempt to make one do so would be idiotic. What is important about this disability is that it contributes to some of the other disabilities." Where Turing disagrees is that he thinks that "possibly" some machine, in some perhaps-distant future, might truly experience enjoyment or delight. (Note: I don't know what Turing meant by "idiotic." Is he saying that a machine might someday experience enjoyment, but only a fool would think he could ever engineer such a machine — enjoyment would have to arise "emergently," so to speak?)
Turing (1950) was responding to Jefferson (1949)'s oration "The Mind of Mechanical Man,"[1] which I personally find much more coherent and more pleasant to read. (Turing's essay makes a more important contribution to the field, i.e., the Imitation Game; but I think Jefferson was more closely correct and exhibits better persuasive skill.) Jefferson veers slightly from his main thrusts to include the following two remarks. I think the first sentence remains apropos to the current age (also cf. §60, 88, 94), and the second obviously relates to the Vatican's interests as well:
> Since no thinking man can be unaware of his fellows and of the political scene he will find that the concept of thinking like machines lends itself to certain political dogmas inimical to man's happiness. Furthermore, it erodes religious beliefs that have been mainstays of social conduct and have brought happiness and serenity of mind to many.
§39: "Between a machine and a human being, only the latter is truly a moral agent — a subject of moral responsibility who exercises freedom in his or her decisions and accepts their consequences." Or as IBM (1979) put it: "A computer can never be held accountable; therefore a computer must never make a management decision." Or as Nietzsche (1887) put it: "To breed an animal with the prerogative to promise – is that not precisely the paradoxical task which nature has set herself with regard to humankind?"[2] §43–45 expand on this guidance in more concrete terms.
§112: Bernanos (1944) warns, "The danger is not in the multiplication of machines, but in the ever-increasing number of men accustomed from their childhood to desire only what machines can give." Or as Juvenal (circa AD 100) put it: "The mob curtails its desires, and reveals its anxiety for two things only: bread and circuses."[3]
All of these topics (intentionally: §30) relate to weak points of the current "AI boom" in LLMs. Human-type intelligence — what we might better call "sentience" or "humanity" — critically depends on the human being's embodiment in the physical world and his relation to that world, including the recognition of other beings like oneself. Another point is a sense of responsibility toward the well-being of the physical world; that recognition of a sense of duty (or any non-material "higher truth" traditionally received by intuition or intellect rather than by reasoning) is what the writer turns out to mean by "Relationship with the truth." (LLMs obviously have no relationship even with mundane truth — historical accuracy, a sense of physical plausibility — but what the Vatican writers mean is the human mind's relationship to higher truths than mere physical data.)
§26: True humanity exercises "the full scope of one’s being: spiritual, cognitive, embodied, and relational." Current popular notions of "AI" deal only with the second of these, with the occasional experimental gesture toward the third.
§28–29: "Human intelligence possesses an essential contemplative dimension, an unselfish openness to the True, the Good, and the Beautiful, beyond any utilitarian purpose." Paul Claudel (1956): "Intelligence is nothing without delight." Even Turing (1950) agrees: "[Some claim that no machine will ever] be kind, resourceful, beautiful, friendly [...] enjoy strawberries and cream [...] The inability to enjoy strawberries and cream may have struck the reader as frivolous. Possibly a machine might be made to enjoy this delicious dish, but any attempt to make one do so would be idiotic. What is important about this disability is that it contributes to some of the other disabilities." Where Turing disagrees is that he thinks that "possibly" some machine, in some perhaps-distant future, might truly experience enjoyment or delight. (Note: I don't know what Turing meant by "idiotic." Is he saying that a machine might someday experience enjoyment, but only a fool would think he could ever engineer such a machine — enjoyment would have to arise "emergently," so to speak?)
Turing (1950) was responding to Jefferson (1949)'s oration "The Mind of Mechanical Man,"[1] which I personally find much more coherent and more pleasant to read. (Turing's essay makes a more important contribution to the field, i.e., the Imitation Game; but I think Jefferson was more closely correct and exhibits better persuasive skill.) Jefferson veers slightly from his main thrusts to include the following two remarks. I think the first sentence remains apropos to the current age (also cf. §60, 88, 94), and the second obviously relates to the Vatican's interests as well:
> Since no thinking man can be unaware of his fellows and of the political scene he will find that the concept of thinking like machines lends itself to certain political dogmas inimical to man's happiness. Furthermore, it erodes religious beliefs that have been mainstays of social conduct and have brought happiness and serenity of mind to many.
§39: "Between a machine and a human being, only the latter is truly a moral agent — a subject of moral responsibility who exercises freedom in his or her decisions and accepts their consequences." Or as IBM (1979) put it: "A computer can never be held accountable; therefore a computer must never make a management decision." Or as Nietzsche (1887) put it: "To breed an animal with the prerogative to promise – is that not precisely the paradoxical task which nature has set herself with regard to humankind?"[2] §43–45 expand on this guidance in more concrete terms.
§112: Bernanos (1944) warns, "The danger is not in the multiplication of machines, but in the ever-increasing number of men accustomed from their childhood to desire only what machines can give." Or as Juvenal (circa AD 100) put it: "The mob curtails its desires, and reveals its anxiety for two things only: bread and circuses."[3]
[1] - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2050428/
[2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Genealogy_of_Morality
[3] - https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/JuvenalSatir...