Okay, Chelsea, for the mini this week, I thought you would follow up on the little bit that we've been talking about AI. Now, where did we leave off with our last conversation with AI? It was that Seance AI, right? Yes, yes, with the contacting your loved ones. And then prior to that one, we had talked about an AI which was only a conversation where if they let an AI be in charge of a video game fighter jet, it would kill its handler. Yeah, what a good memory you have.
And then, yeah, it turns out that that was literally just a conversation to people. Yes, but what might happen? This is kind of a follow up from that portion, not the Seance one, although who knows, maybe at some point in the future, they'll be connected. It'll actually be the same AI bought. Okay. This is in the Washington Post posted on July 22nd, 2023 by Shira Aviona. The title of this article is Judeo-Christian roots will ensure US military AI is used ethically, General says.
Oh, no, we all know that's a lie. No one's ever done anything bad under the name of Judeo-Christian values. A three star Air Force general said the US military's approach to artificial intelligence is more ethical than adversaries because it is a Judeo-Christian society in quotations. An assessment that drew scrutiny from experts who say people from a wide range of religious and ethical traditions can work to resolve the dilemmas AI poses.
Lieutenant General Richard G. Moore Jr. Sorry, that sounds wrong. Lieutenant General Richard G. As in the middle initial G. Moore Jr. Not G. Moore. That's my judgment. Made the comment at a Hudson Institute event Thursday while answering a question about how the Pentagon views autonomous warfare. The Department of Defense has been discussing AI ethics at its highest level, said Moore, who is in the Air Force's Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans and Programs.
Who is the Air Force's Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans and Programs? Quote, regardless of what your beliefs are, our society is a Judeo-Christian society and we have a moral compass. Not everybody does. And there are those that are willing to go for the ends, regardless of what means have to be employed. End quote. And I think you can kind of guess what they're getting at here. It will be revealed at the end of the article.
The future of AI in war depends on, quote, who plays by the rules of warfare and who does not. There are societies that have a very different foundation than ours, end quote. He said without naming specific countries. The Department of Defense has a religious liberty policy recognizing that service members have, quote, a right to observe the tenets of their religion or to observe no religion at all, end quote.
The policy broadly allows personnel to express their sincerely held beliefs so long as those actions do not have, quote, an adverse impact on military readiness, unit cohesion, good order and discipline or health and safety, end quote. Moore wrote in an email statement to The Washington Post that while AI ethics may not be the United States' sole province, its adversaries are unlikely to act on the same values.
Quote, the foundation of my comments was to explain that the Air Force is not going to allow AI to take actions nor are we going to take actions on information provided by AI unless we can ensure that the information is in accordance with our values. While this may not be unique to our society, it is not anticipated to be the position of any potential adversary, end quote. Moore's comments come as US government officials say they're working on guidelines for the use of AI in warfare.
The State Department issued a declaration on, quote, the responsible military use of artificial intelligence and autonomy, end quote, in February. The Defense Department adopted standards for the ethical use of AI in 2020. The ethical issues AI raises, including in war, are common to multiple religious and philosophical traditions. Who would have thought?
said Alex John London, a professor of ethics and computational technologies at Carnegie Mellon University, quote, there's a lot of work in the ethics space that's not tied to any religious perspective that focuses on the importance of valuing human welfare, human autonomy, having social systems that are just and fair. Concerns reflected in AI ethics are broader than any single tradition, end quote.
Moore, the general from before, not G. Moore, didn't say whom he was referring to when speaking about US adversaries, but much of the US industry has focused on, can you guess it, Chelsea? It's China, China's burgeoning AI sector. Wasn't going to say China. Technology experts told the House Armed Services Subcommittee this month that the United States risks falling behind China if it doesn't invest more quickly in military AI.
The Chinese military approach to ethics is different in its roots than that of the United States, but still mindful of ethical dilemmas, said Mark Metcalf, a lecturer at the University of Virginia and retired US Naval officer. Comparing the United States and China's ethics policies is like apples and oranges, because their history differs, Metcalf added. Ethics texts in the United States draw from thinkers like Augustine Metcalf said calling it quote, a very theistic point of view, end quote.
Chinese officials reference Marxism and Leninism and the Communist Party's guide, what the ethics is, end quote he added. That doesn't mean that China ignores ethical dilemmas when thinking about military AI, though. China's People's Liberation Army wants to use the technology without undercutting companies party control. Metcalf wrote in a paper analyzing publicly available statements on China's approach to military use of AI. Political goals appear to guide its policies, he said.
quote, once you turn over control of a weapon system to an algorithm, worst case, then the party loses control, end quote. Over it Metcalf said, don't hmm, that was a really crappy way of quoting that. And that appears to be the end of the article. What do you think Chelsea? There's a few things in there that I want. I've never thought about, we've talked about military and AI, it never even crossed my eye to think about other countries military and AI.
So that's refreshingly disturbing to think about, which then leads me to the next thought of we're moving so super fast with AI right now. Are we not? And the implications then going into military and stuff like that is crazy to think about what they're going to be doing with that AI. The one thing I got like after reading this article is it's pretty racist.
These barbarous creatures just don't have the understanding because you know, they haven't accepted Christ into their life because you know, Christ wrote extensively and talked about the ethics of AI technology. Well, exactly. That was his preaching. Yeah, just like he taught us that the atom bomb should only be dropped twice just to show your force. Exactly. I mean, it's shocking that it was coming from such a religious point of view because only people in that religion can have ethic.
Nobody else not following religion can have ethics. And they can never do anything wrong either. Exactly. Oh man, like it's just incredibly, I guess technically racist isn't the right word because they're talking about everything outside of Judeo-Christian values, but ethnocentrists for sure. Oh yeah. You can believe that you're just inherently better because of the systems you have in place. Well, isn't that part of Jesus' teachings as well? Oh yeah, yeah.
Yeah. So it made me think about lots of things in that article and that was the major one. I was getting up to that point starting with that. I forgot about China having AI. Yeah, yeah, they got it. But you know, it's Chinese, so it's just barbaric. Yeah, exactly. If you don't see anything else to add. I don't think so. I'm just glad we have warfare Jesus on our side, although I guess we'll see what happens. Most of the atrocities that have occurred, like I'm not saying China's perfect.
In fact, they are involved in many atrocities that are very horrible, but Judeo-Christian values have not stopped the West from also committing many atrocities. Oh yes. Just as bad, if not worse in a lot of the cases. Not only that, but religion itself. So there's that. Yeah. But anyhow, I guess we're going to keep our eye on AI. If you will, the I in AI stands for I in this case.
And that's a terrible joke that can leave you wincing over the next couple of days while you wait for the next episode, okay? Thank you all for listening. We'll see you on Friday. That was perfection.