Digital Public Square

This week Dr. John Lennox, a world renown author and Oxford professor, joins host Jason Thacker to talk about his new book, 2084: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity. They discuss artificial intelligence, the origin of the science, as well as the ethical and moral implications of technology. They also dive into the relationship between faith and science and realize that a Christian understanding and a Christian worldview is more than adequate for dealing with a lot of the moral and ethical issues surrounding emerging technologies.You can pick up a copy of Dr. Lennox’s new book on AI at 2084Book.comListen to WeeklyTech online or subscribe at most major podcasting apps such as Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Spotify.More about Dr. Lennox:John C. Lennox (PhD, DPhil, DSc) is Emeritus Professor of Mathematics in the University of Oxford, Emeritus Fellow in Mathematics and the Philosophy of Science at Green Templeton College, Oxford. He is also an Associate Fellow at the Said Business School. He is author of Can Science Explain Everything? on the interface between science, philosophy, and theology. He has lectured extensively in North America and in Eastern and Western Europe on mathematics, the philosophy of science, and the intellectual defense of Christianity, and he has publicly debated Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Peter Singer.

As stay-at-home orders went into effect throughout our nation in March, I was encouraged to see many pastors take to social media. They sent video updates to their people about the shift to online services and digital discipleship. They were using the tools they had at their disposal in order to bring calming and encouraging words to many who were scared and confused. Soon, many of us would find ourselves glued to these same devices, seeking answers to the unknowns and hoping to grasp some semblance of control. In the last few years, we have all heard about the dangerous effects of technology in our lives and how we need to balance our use of these tools, but all of that advice and discipline simply went out the door as the virus cut us off from the normal rhythms of our daily lives.Throughout March and April, most of the headlines about technology were about how we can utilize it to continue working, socializing, and staying connected. Much of the conversation originally shifted away from the negative and polarizing effects of these technologies to how they became a life raft in the midst of this storm. But the public mood is shifting once again, and we are starting to see many of the corrosive effects of technology on our lives.Read MoreThe RundownAmazon’s Audible Goes Beyond Books to Chase Spotify in Podcasts – BloombergIn recent months, Audible, the audiobook service owned by Amazon.com Inc., has been meeting with talent agencies and producers to discuss acquiring potential new podcast projects—or, in the terminology that Audible prefers, “Audible Originals.”The DHS Prepares for Attacks Fueled by 5G Conspiracy Theories – WiredThe claim that 5G can spread the coronavirus has led to dozens of cell-tower burnings in Europe. Now, the US telecom industry is on alert as well. Facial Recognition Firms Pitch Covid-19 ‘Immunity Passports’ For America And Britain – ForbesA handful of companies are bidding for business that will help the Trump and Johnson administrations on either side of the Atlantic keep tabs on travel (or attempted travel) of the infected.Netflix’s Plan to Auto-Cancel Subscriptions Is Radically Sane – WiredIf you don’t watch anything on Netflix for a year after you join, the company will send you an email asking if you want to keep your membership.

According to a 2019 report from NPR and Edison Research, about 53 million Americans own a smart speaker assistant. The consulting firm Ovum predicts that by 2021, there will be more than 7.5 billion of these digital assistants used throughout the world, which is nearly the same number of people living today.If you don’t own one of these AI empowered smart speakers, I bet that your neighbor or co-worker does. But some people are starting to question what these smart devices are doing to us.Judith Shulevitz wrote in an article for The Atlantic in the fall of 2018 that she has started to develop an actual relationship with her smart speaker. She explains, “Gifted with the once uniquely human power of speech, Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri have already become greater than the sum of their parts. They’re software, but they’re more than that, just as human consciousness is an effect of neurons and synapses but is more than that. Their speech makes us treat them as if they had a mind.” And if they have minds, then we might be able to develop relationships with them even though we know they aren’t able to know us.Read MoreThe RundownThe real reason Facebook bought Giphy for $400 million – Fast CompanyWhen Facebook confirmed that it had acquired Giphy last week for a cool $400 million, the reasons weren’t immediately apparent. Giphy has only the seeds of an advertising business, and GIFs aren’t a revolutionary advertising product.How a Chinese AI Giant Made Chatting—and Surveillance—Easy – WiredAlexa can tell you the weather. Siri knows a few jokes. In China, voice-computing company iFlytek built similar smart assistants beloved by users. But its tech is also helping the government listen in.How Do Just War Principles Apply to Drone Warfare? – Bruce AshfordRapidly developing technologies have not been accompanied by ethical reflection on the proper use of those technologies. One such technology is unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) which, in this article, will be referred to as drones.Marco Rubio tapped to serve as Senate Intelligence Committee chairman – PoliticoSen. Marco Rubio will temporarily serve as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced on Monday.Big Tech’s aid to small business comes with a catch – AxiosBig tech companies, including Facebook and Google, have made much of their efforts to help small businesses hurting from the pandemic. But the same programs that make life easier for those businesses today could end up separating them from their customers.

Last fall, my wife was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma and had just recently finished her chemotherapy treatments. Because her immune system has been severely weakened, the COVID-19 threat to her health is potentially lethal. We decided to isolate well before the stay-at-home directives from state and local governments. By now we’re all familiar with one of the key ethical dilemmas that’s arisen during the pandemic: Do we isolate from one another and risk a catastrophic economic downturn, disproportionately hurting the poor and vulnerable but protecting the elderly and the high-risk, like my wife? Or do we risk public health by keeping the economy open?Another ethical issue, however, is also emerging. It concerns the question of how best to use data and tracking technology to protect human life, while at the same time not sacrificing our personal privacy. Read MoreThe RundownTwitter Announces Blanket Work from Home Policy, Signaling Shift – Morning BrewYesterday, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey wrote in an email to employees that the company will allow almost everyone to work from home permanently. The Coming Disruption: Scott Galloway predicts a handful of elite cyborg universities will soon monopolize higher education. – New York MagazineNow, Galloway, a Silicon Valley runaway who teaches marketing at NYU Stern School of Business, believes the pandemic has greased the wheels for big tech’s entrée into higher education. Can a Smart Watch Detect Covid-19? – GizmodoIt might sound like science fiction, but there’s reason to believe wearables could be useful in detecting infections. Whether researchers can figure it out in time to make a difference against covid-19 is another story.Snapchat preps young users to vote in November – AxiosSnapchat is leaning into civic engagement ahead of the 2020 race, and it’s hoping that its defining role is educating young voters about the election, while connecting them to candidates and tools to cast ballots.Hospitals Deploy Technology to Reduce ICU Staff Exposure to Covid-19 – The Wall Street JournalHospitals are exploring the use of artificial intelligence and robotics technologies to assess patients remotely as they look to protect overworked emergency-room and intensive-care personnel from Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus.

Amid all of the cultural conversations surrounding the role of technology in our society, Facebook has been at the top of the headlines. From issues over privacy and a recently announced crypto-currency, public opinion of the platform has shifted in recent years. But Facebook has also been working behind the scenes to collect feedback and put together an external oversight board to advise and guide the company on how it deals with content moderation on its platform. When CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the creation of the board in November 2018, he stated the purpose of the board is to create a mechanism for the public to appeal content decisions through an independent body.With Facebook having over 2.38 billion active users in the first quarter of 2019, the reach and influence of this company is one of the greatest the world has ever seen. With all of this connectivity and influence, the company has entered into an age-old debate about what constitutes free speech and expression as it tries to manage its global online communication platforms. While there are varying opinions on how this board should function or if it should even exist, the fundamental questions of free speech and the role of corporations and government are paramount as we continue through our social media age. The important thing for believers to ask is: how should Christians approach issues of free speech? Read MoreThe RundownWe Are a New Board Overseeing Facebook. Here’s What We’ll Decide. – The New York TimesThe oversight board will focus on the most challenging content issues for Facebook, including in areas such as hate speech, harassment, and protecting people’s safety and privacy.Twitter tests telling users their tweet replies may be offensive – ReutersTwitter Inc will test sending users a prompt when they reply to a tweet using “offensive or hurtful language,” in an effort to clean up conversations on the social media platform, the company said in a tweet on Tuesday.Welcome Back to the Office. Your Every Move Will Be Watched. – The Wall Street JournalMany Americans heading back to the factory and the office as the coronavirus pandemic eases will soon begin to notice that their every move is being watched or recorded.An Entire City Has Been Told To Download A Controversial Contact Tracing App — Or Face Jail – BuzzFeed NewsResidents of a city in India have been issued with an ultimatum: install the government’s controversial coronavirus contact tracing app on their smartphones or be punished.Clearview AI to stop selling controversial facial recognition app to private companies – The VergeControversial facial recognition provider Clearview AI says it will no longer sell its app to private companies and non-law enforcement entities, according to a legal filing first reported on Thursday by BuzzFeed News.

As my wife and I parent our two young sons, we see a world that is increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence (AI). Our boys will not just grow up with dreams of robot maids and space toys, they will grow up alongside AI-empowered devices like our Apple HomePod and even better AI yet to come.Seemingly every day I see ads for new personalized robots powered by AI. For example, a new home robot, Vector, was released a few months ago. “Meet Vector, the good robot. The robot who hangs out and helps out,” reads the company’s website.The future is progressing so fast that it is hard to keep up as parents. We feel overwhelmed with the rate of technological innovation and often fearful of what technology will do to our kids. But our role is not to shelter our kids from the world but to disciple them as they grow in wisdom and maturity. So where do we start? How do we teach our kids about stuff that is new to us?Read MoreThe RundownGoogle Meet video conferencing is now free for anybody – The VergeGoogle is opening up its Google Meet videoconferencing service to anybody who wants to use it, instead of just offering it to enterprise and education customers via G Suite.UPS, CVS Announce Drone Delivery Service In Florida – Morning BrewCommercial drones haven’t gone mainstream due to technical challenges, scalability, and regulatory barriers. But they’re in high demand during the pandemic and can social distance in three dimensions.The Apple–Google Partnership to Fight COVID-19: Understanding the Promises and Perils of Digital Contact Tracing – The Heritage FoundationOn April 10, 2020, Apple and Google announced a partnership to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Mobile devices manufactured by the two tech giants will support digital contact tracing in response to the COVID-19 pandemicAutocrats see opportunity in disaster – The EconomistAll the world’s attention is on covid-19. Perhaps it was a coincidence that China chose this moment to tighten its control around disputed reefs in the South China Sea, arrest the most prominent democrats in Hong Kong and tear a hole in Hong Kong’s Basic Law. But perhaps not.

There isn’t much that Americans seem to agree on these days. Even as COVID-19 brought some national unity, we are beginning to see the fraying of American society once again. Political, social, economic, and religious issues have sorted us into tribes and tribes of tribes. It is difficult to keep up to date on the number of differing viewpoints and interest groups. But there is one concern that seems to bring the fraying parties and proported enemies together: the power and influence of technology on our lives.Last fall, Pew Research Center released a report that for the first time in their research, Americans now have less faith in technology companies than in churches. This is striking based on the secularization of society and many popular claims that religion only divides us. This study proves what most of us already know—technology is ubiquitous in our society. The power that these tools have over our lives is beginning to be revealed.Read MoreThe RundownAmazon Scooped Up Data From Its Own Sellers to Launch Competing Products – The Wall Street JournalAmazon.com Inc. employees have used data about independent sellers on the company’s platform to develop competing products, a practice at odds with the company’s stated policies.Zoom users top 300M during coronavirus pandemic despite security concerns – Fox BusinessThe app grew from just 10 million users to 300 million in a matter of months as people turn to video conferencing to work and connect with family and friends from home during the novel coronavirus pandemic.Instagram Is Rushing To Roll Out A Memorial Account Feature Because Of COVID-19 Deaths – Buzzfeed NewsInstagram is speeding up plans for a new account memorialization feature, adding a “Remembering” banner under a username to signal that a person has died.Mark Zuckerberg: How data can aid the fight against covid-19 – The Washington PostBetter data can help governments determine where to send resources such as ventilators and personal protective equipment — and eventually which areas are safe to start opening up again.

I am excited to announce the new WeeklyTech podcast that will release each Monday morning alongside the WeeklyTech newsletter. This new ERLC podcast is dedicated to educating and equipping you to navigate the issues surrounding technology with the hope of the gospel.Each week we will focus on one big story that we will dig into and see how Christians can think wisely about it. Then the Rundown will highlight 4-5 news stories connected to technology that you should be aware of for the week ahead.We hope this podcast will serve you well in the midst of a busy and often hectic schedule by providing insight and depth. Coming soon we will also launch special interview episodes with leaders from across culture to talk about how technology is affecting each of our lives.You can find WeeklyTech on your favorite podcasting app, such as Apple iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play.Tune in next Monday, April 27th!