What Role Should Christians Take in Shaping AI? with Robert J. Marks

From weaponized drones to dancing robots, artificial intelligence has become the locus of many hopes and anxieties about humanity’s future. In the face of rapid technological development, finding the golden mean between utopian daydreams and dystopian forecasts can seem an impossible project. 

Robert J. Marks—professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Baylor University, and Director of the Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence—sits down with Gretchen to dive into this question. He walks through the history of both the development of AI, and the evolution of how we think and talk about it. He reminds us that it is the very human qualities that AI can’t replicate which bring it into being and give it purpose— our natural intelligence, creativity, and common sense. While any new technology comes with its own dangers, he contends that it is up to those who use it to make ethical choices, and that Christians specifically are called to make sure that those choices are based on the rock of God’s law rather than the shifting sands of community standards.

Join Robert and Gretchen as they discuss AI, what it can and can’t do, and our relationship to it.