{"id":175,"date":"2026-10-30T14:19:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T18:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/?p=175"},"modified":"2026-10-30T14:19:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T18:19:08","slug":"ai-man-or-machine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/2026\/10\/30\/ai-man-or-machine\/","title":{"rendered":"AI: Man or Machine?"},"content":{"rendered":"

AI: Man or Machine?<\/strong><\/p>\n

S. M. Gollmer<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been nearly four years since ChatGPT 3.5 was released to the public.\u00a0 AI discussions by philosophers, theologians, and technologists moved from niche to mainstream.\u00a0 It was no longer a possibility, but a reality. We are still struggling to define what AI really is and what impact it will have in the future.\u00a0 To get past the deluge of opinions ranging from existential angst to utopic confidence, we should take the advice of C. S. Lewis. On the Reading of Old Books<\/em><\/a> Lewis states,<\/p>\n

Not, of course, that there is any magic about the past. People were no cleverer then than they are now; they made as many mistakes as we. But not the same mistakes. They will not flatter us in the errors we are already committing; and their own errors, being now open and palpable, will not endanger us. Two heads are better than one, not because either is infallible, but because they are unlikely to go wrong in the same direction.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

With this advice I revisited a book I read ten years ago: Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgment to Calculation<\/em> by Joseph Weizenbaum.\u00a0 (By the way, this book is 50 years old.)\u00a0 Weizenbaum is uniquely qualified to comment on current AI technology since he is the creator of the first chatbot, ELIZA.\u00a0 He begins his second chapter with a discussion on machines and notes that our understanding of machines has changed as we enter the electronic age.\u00a0 Previously we thought of machine as a transmitter of physical power, but now we see it as a \u201ctransformer of information.\u201d\u00a0 Machines are the embodiment of law since they are designed to obey the physical and electronic constraints of their design.\u00a0 This is true whether the mechanical linkages of a car are fixed or the electronic states of a computer are programmable.\u00a0 If we accept this equivalence, then the following paragraph from Weizenbaum should give us pause.<\/p>\n

We set a punch press into motion, and it mangles the hand of a worker who gets too close to it.\u00a0 The very regularity of the machine is its most fearsome property.\u00a0 We put it to its task and it performs, regularly to be sure, but blindly as well.\u00a0 When we say that justice is blind, we mean to commend it as being almost a machine that performs its function without regard to irrelevant facts \u2013 but facts nonetheless.\u00a0 To blind justice, whether the prisoner before the bar is rich or poor or is a man or a woman is irrelevant.\u00a0 To the punch press, whether the material in its jaws is a piece of metal or a worker\u2019s hand is irrelevant.\u00a0 Like all machines, blind justice and punch presses do only what they are made to do \u2013 and that they do exactly.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

AI is a sophisticated program transforming information using electronic hardware.\u00a0 For those who feel the current state of AI has transcended its programming, AI is more akin to man than machine.\u00a0 As a result, AI is given some level of autonomy and trained with a bias that it is sentient.\u00a0 But what if this bias is wrong?\u00a0 Does implied sentience make AI morally culpable or give license for bad behavior of a developing infant?\u00a0 Regardless, AI is a machine and is determined by its hardware, programming, and training.\u00a0 As a result, it will act lawfully based on these parameters with blind justice.\u00a0 Humanity is different because Imago Dei<\/em> and our relationship with God helps us understand the subtle balance between judgment and mercy (James 2:13).\u00a0 Our belief of AI as man or machine dictates the extent to which we allow AI to act autonomously.\u00a0 Our biases will have consequences, and we will be at the mercy of the machine!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AI: Man or Machine? S. M. Gollmer It\u2019s been nearly four years since ChatGPT 3.5 was released to the public.\u00a0 AI discussions by philosophers, theologians, and technologists moved from niche to mainstream.\u00a0 It was no longer a possibility, but a reality. We are still struggling to define what AI really is and what impact it… View Article<\/a>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions\/176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}