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In the World–March 19, 2023

Download “In the World” for March 19, 2023 here.

THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN HUMAN AND ROBOT

Science fiction authors have long predicted the moment when artificial intelligence (AI) becomes as capable and intelligent as humans. We have not reached that point yet, but a new AI program called ChatGPT has made a huge leap in that direction. ChatGPT lets you enter questions or commands in a way similar to how you might do a Google search, and then you watch as it instantly researches, synthesizes, and types out a well-written response. Whether you want it to summarize the book of Galatians, list the top five themes of the works of Shakespeare, or write a letter to your congressman, ChatGPT can do it almost as quickly as you can type the command. College professors now have to try to determine if term papers were written by their students or by this program. Though we are more capable than AI in many respects, the time when we can easily define the boundary between something written by humans and robots is past.

THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN SAVED AND LOST

Because of a long history of hatred, invasion, intermarriage, and religious disagreement, Jewish people in the first century did not willingly interact with Samaritans. The boundary between Israel and Samaria was well known by both parties, and each stayed away from the other. But Jesus not only crossed the border and went into a Samaritan town, he also broke the barrier between Jewish rabbi and unaccompanied Samaritan woman—so that he could reach a woman who was desperately lost.

  1. What opportunities or dangers do you see in the advances being made in artificial intelligence?
  2. Who might be today’s equivalent to the Samaritan woman?
  3. What boundaries would you be willing to cross to bring the gospel to someone who needs it?

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David C Cook Editorial

Author David C Cook Editorial

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