Sci-Fi and AI

While my focus during 2022-2023 will be on John the Baptist, I will continue to tinker away at my collaborative effort on the intersection of computer programming and ethics. This is a roundup of recent news on artificial intelligence and related topics. First, here is my appearance on the Souls in Soles podcast:

Due to my sabbatical I probably won’t be able to present at Starbase Indy this year – but you should! (The link goes to the form to propose a presentation). I will appear on the new Starbase Indy Podcast in May. In the meantime check out the episodes available so far if you haven’t already.

Also of related interest:

Popular Muslim prayer apps were harvesting user data

Lecture on AI and the Apocalyptic Imagination

Review of Ken Derry and John Lyden’s excellent edited volume The Myth Awakens, the first to take a genuinely religious studies approach to Star Wars in this manner.

The Theology of Technology

I’m going to need to watch Damon Lindelof’s new series Mrs. Davis which pits a nun against a powerful AI

Some recent talks and interviews by Eric Schwitzgebel. See also his post on the relationship between work on robot rights and human rights.

Commonweal on prophetic voices addressing technological ethics

Virtue Ethics, Technology, and the Situationist Challenge

The Curse of Availability

https://nautil.us/deep-learning-is-hitting-a-wall-14467/

How Silicon Valley’s ‘Techtopia’ turned work into religion

Religion, Burnout, and the Worship of Work in Silicon Valley: Reflections on Carolyn Chen’s Work Pray Code

Meta and AI assistants of the future

Meet Me In The Metaverse

The Power of Deep Learning

The next generation of robots will be shape-shifters

The Department of Defense and the long road to autonomous vehicles

Ithaka: a project using AI technology to restore and attribute ancient inscriptions. Nature had a video on this which is really worth watching (HT 3qd):

Gizmodo had articles on a robot cheetah, robot dogs (including their use guarding the ruins of Pompeii!), the AI drone “Ghost Bat,” a self-playing piano, Elon Musk’s ideas about singularity brain chips, and upgrades to E-Ink.

Scientific American reported on a new approach to computing that does not generate as much heat.

Can technology shape our dreams?

Robot surgeons are on this list of real technologies that “sound like sci-fi”

The first private mission to the International Space Station

Updating our message to aliens