Artificial Intelligence

Organizations measure almost everything: revenues, costs, productivity, customer satisfaction and employee engagement. Hospitals measure clinical outcomes; universities measure academic performance; public institutions measure expenditure and efficiency.

These indicators matter. No organization survives for long without producing results. But are results sufficient to define success?

A company can increase its profits while creating anxiety among the people who work there. A hospital can achieve excellent clinical outcomes while leaving patients feeling unseen. A university can prepare students to pass examinations without helping them discover their talents. A public institution can digitalize a service while making it harder for citizens to understand.

1. Introduction

In this extensive article we try to answer questions such as “who is the human person”; “what does the concept of human dignity rest on”; “what is artificial intelligence”; “whether the person can be reduced to an algorithm”; or whether “artificial intelligence can account for the transcendental character of the human spirit, for its state of transcendental openness to the absolute, given that it is the Absolute itself that produces it”. These questions, and others that will arise along the way, are the subject of this work.

AI, Original Sin, Justification—three traditional terms that we should scrutinize in order to overcome the risk of becoming human beings enslaved: to ourselves, to history, and to technologies—technologies that grant us the knowledge that empowers us, but not the wisdom to live as free human beings, that is, with intelligences that are: volitional to seek the truth, intentional to do good, and spiritual to transcend by creating beauty.

I asked AI what the five most important contributions it provides to the human mind are, and the five most significant risks the human mind faces with the use of AI. These were its answers. (The contributions are written in regular font and the risks in italics, to facilitate a clear comparison.)
1- Expanding our capacity to process information. Management of mass disinformation.
2- Enhancing medical diagnostics. Violation of privacy and encouragement of brain drain.
3- Real-time language translation and communication. Bias in algorithm handling and discrimination based on variables.
4- (Intentional) modeling of scientific discoveries. Cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
5- Personalized education tailored to each person’s potential skills. Impact on employment, instability, and a lack of loyalty between employees and companies.