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Masters or Slaves?: AI And The Future Of Humanity
Artificial Intelligence (AI) pervades much of our lives. We use facial recognition to open our phones, and the state uses it to track us – so what’s the problem? Decisions are made using machine learning on our private and personal data, from shopping habits to medical history –have we lost control? We order our digital world in conversation with chatbots – how convenient, but is it changing our relationships with people? The prospect of a self-driving vehicle lies just around the corner – should we care that it might run over a child to save the passenger’s life?
Jeremy Peckham shows us how we have become seduced by progress, embracing AI applications for their convenience, yet unwittingly diminishing our ability to be God’s image-bearers and losing moral responsibility. Rooted in the biblical truth that humanity is created in God’s image, Masters or Slaves? explores six ways in which AI has an impact today. We are challenged where, and how, to set boundaries, both privately and as a society, in order not to fall into addiction, slavery and idolatry.
Jeremy Peckham shows us how we have become seduced by progress, embracing AI applications for their convenience, yet unwittingly diminishing our ability to be God’s image-bearers and losing moral responsibility. Rooted in the biblical truth that humanity is created in God’s image, Masters or Slaves? explores six ways in which AI has an impact today. We are challenged where, and how, to set boundaries, both privately and as a society, in order not to fall into addiction, slavery and idolatry.
240 pages, Paperback
Published January 21, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 24, 2021
I bought this book because I am a little bit obsessed about technology and its implications for society and the future.
The book started off with what seemed like a fictional dystopian-esque story which I thought was actually really well done but it was only a snippet as the actual book was non-fiction. I kind of wish more of the fictional story was told as I found that, at times, it was a little more intriguing than the actual book.
The book speaks heavily from a Christian worldview perspective. While I myself am a Christian, and many of the viewpoints I did agree with the author, towards the end I felt like he was saying much of the same, relied A LOT on scripture, and felt like the book would probably have been a lot shorter if he took all the redundant parts out.
The book talks about the slippery slope and dangers of AI as humans rely more and more on technology to guide their lives and their habits. While some of these applications seem harmless (facial recognition software to unlock your phone) what happens when that same software is employed by states and governments? How will they use this software with the public and to what end?
It also talks about how us, being created in God's image, can begin to lose our humanity the more and more we allow technology to chip away at our basic human interactions. A virtual assistant that answers our questions? Seems harmless enough. But how does it affect us overtime as we begin to have less and less human to human conversations?
Another scenario raises the ethical questions that can arise in the instance of self-driving cars. Proponents of this new technology state that not only do these automated cars give us more freedom and convenience in our lives, but they can potentially also be life-saving as they are not nearly as prone to make mistakes as humans do while driving, therefore, causing accidents and possibly death on the road. But what if there were a scenario if the car had to choose between running over a young person vs. an old person with a cane? This is a question of moral ethics and whether we should prescribe this kind of decision to a machine is something must think about and consider.
Overall, I felt like it was a pretty good book and I would recommend.
The book started off with what seemed like a fictional dystopian-esque story which I thought was actually really well done but it was only a snippet as the actual book was non-fiction. I kind of wish more of the fictional story was told as I found that, at times, it was a little more intriguing than the actual book.
The book speaks heavily from a Christian worldview perspective. While I myself am a Christian, and many of the viewpoints I did agree with the author, towards the end I felt like he was saying much of the same, relied A LOT on scripture, and felt like the book would probably have been a lot shorter if he took all the redundant parts out.
The book talks about the slippery slope and dangers of AI as humans rely more and more on technology to guide their lives and their habits. While some of these applications seem harmless (facial recognition software to unlock your phone) what happens when that same software is employed by states and governments? How will they use this software with the public and to what end?
It also talks about how us, being created in God's image, can begin to lose our humanity the more and more we allow technology to chip away at our basic human interactions. A virtual assistant that answers our questions? Seems harmless enough. But how does it affect us overtime as we begin to have less and less human to human conversations?
Another scenario raises the ethical questions that can arise in the instance of self-driving cars. Proponents of this new technology state that not only do these automated cars give us more freedom and convenience in our lives, but they can potentially also be life-saving as they are not nearly as prone to make mistakes as humans do while driving, therefore, causing accidents and possibly death on the road. But what if there were a scenario if the car had to choose between running over a young person vs. an old person with a cane? This is a question of moral ethics and whether we should prescribe this kind of decision to a machine is something must think about and consider.
Overall, I felt like it was a pretty good book and I would recommend.
February 9, 2023
Timely and thought-provoking
December 19, 2022
Interesting and challenging book asking us to think about and take action on the increasing use of AI in daily life. The author asserts that technology is not neutral and that there are good and bad uses of AI and that we should allow some uses but not others. For example is it ethical to take work from large numbers of people? Or, is it ethical to delegate life and death decisions to a self driving car - should the driver or pedestrian by prioritised in a collision? Have a read.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews