Arts & Entertainment Mountain
God is not a spoiler of fun by a series of “thou shall nots,” but He knows what evil can do to deceive and kill people’s spirits. What we glance at or gaze at can grab our attention and cause us to think about things that are not of God. What we think about we can act on, and actions have unintended consequences.
The Arts & Entertainment Section explores how the Internet, virtual reality, and AI are being used to draw people away from art as God intended and point them to evil and less than God intended. Be sure you control your ear and eye "gates" and nourish your soul with what you hear, watch, and say. Remember, a thought itself can be harmful, even if you don't act upon it!
The events in this Mountain and their consequences are contrasted with God's Plumbline of Truth.
We have underlined added links to supplemental information below.
AI Issues
AI has significantly improved the internet experience for users through chatbots, virtual assistants, and recommendation algorithms. AI tailors content, provides personalized responses, and streamlines interactions, all of which have made online platforms more efficient and user-friendly. And AI-powered search engines help users find relevant information quickly, while Natural language processing (NLP) allows for more accurate search results.
All of this is good, but AI can also create content, including news articles, summaries, and even poetry, which raises questions about authenticity and human creativity. And AI algorithms analyze user behavior to personalize social media feeds, advertisements, and recommendations, which can lead to echo chambers, reinforcing existing beliefs and isolating users from diverse perspectives.
Ethically, as AI evolves, ethical dilemmas arise. Deepfake technology can manipulate videos, potentially impacting trust in online content. These developments challenge the understanding of truth and authenticity.
Virtual Reality
Artificial intelligence (AI) has profoundly transformed virtual reality (VR), enhancing immersive encounters in several ways. AI algorithms create more lifelike virtual worlds and at the same time, they are programmed to adapt to a user's behavior.
This makes the interaction between man and machine more personal and engaging, but it also is a driver of addictive tendencies. AI interprets hand movements and gestures, making programs seem more personal. Meta Quest 2, a leading player in the VR industry, has had a dramatic impact on the VR world. The slip on headset takes the user off to a virtual reality. No need to think about being bored, school assignments, or even plans for the future. And all of the time it is being worn, the user's preferences, movements and more are being analyzed. Big Tech will know users well! And they will tailor future products to be even more of a hook.
Natural Language Processing
Natural Language Processing: AI-powered voice recognition enables seamless communication within VR. It streamlines the interaction between man and machine. MonkeyLearn is a no-code NLP, which means that NLP is becoming accessible to nearly everyone. One NLP positive use is for analyzing large amounts of data in mere minutes. It also is being used to enhance customer service requests, by sorting the urgency and more. NLP also enables deeper analysis of business insights. It is pitched to help alleviate employees of tedious tasks and allow them to focus on higher priorities, but you can bet that some employees will be let go as automation takes over.
The real downsides to NLP are built-in biases that would continue unnoticed. An example from Amazon happened in the company's automated screening system to select job applicants. The system used historically successful applications and looked for and learned patterns. As a result, the Amazon system discriminated against women. Some NLP models also struggle with context and meaning, which may lead to errors in communication. Some models struggle with humor or rarely used words or phrases. Most significantly, the use of NLP brings up concerns over who owns the data collected, privacy rights, intellectual property ownership, and more.
AI Content Problems
AI generated content is fast but not always reliable. It can mimic writing styles (e.g. "write a paragraph as Abe Lincoln would."), but it is still a machine and will likely miss any emotional depth that a human would bring. In addition, a human still needs to check for content errors. Any biased content could potentially lead to negative reader or customer experiences. On the employee side, some people worry about being replaced by AI but wise employees figure out how to use it to advance their careers (at least for now). Last, but not least, are legal issues. AI has no idea whether the material it uses for content is copyright protected or not. This is a major issue at the present time.
Youth Issues
As AI analyzes user behavior patterns, predicting preferences and optimizing VR experiences, the tendency for children, teens and even adults to become hooked on games and other interactive AI programs, will grow. It is lamented in many homes in the US today, that kids spend too much time on the computer playing games. This produces neural pathways that crave more time. These games are easy babysitters, but at what cost?
Young people do not have enough in-depth background in most areas to be able to discern if the answers that AI returns are reliable. In the US today, there is an information war being waged as to who defines mis or disinformation. And what one person calls fake news, may be credible to another. Obviously, some information is simply wrong (e.g. "There one million people on planet earth today"), but information such as Jesus' resurrection may be discounted by AI.
Young users have large amounts of personal information collected by AI to be used for ads, and by sexual predators for example. These kids likely don't perceive these dangers. In addition, the art work and illustrations that AI creates offers these kids an unrealistic body image model. Suicide and drug addition are not rare occurrences in the tween and teen age groups.
As the kids grow in their understanding and use of AI, they likely know more (in some areas) than teachers. It is imperative that teachers know and model safe and proper use of AI, or a generation could be lost.
More Issues
It is important to be able to trust that the AI a person uses is reliable and trustworthy, but the user does not get to see its decision making process, so it is difficult to make a rational decision. In addition, there are privacy breach issues as AI stores large amounts of personal data. To date, AI technology has not proven itself to humans. AI enhanced cars, for example, are not trusted by most people as being safe. Images of these vehicles are usually shown on a test track, but few would be willing to have an AI driven ambulance whisk them off to a hospital. And the concern about human replacement for jobs still looms large, as is the issue of human replacement in general.
Summary
Addressing the varying and multifaceted issues of AI will necessitate collaboration among users, policymakers, researchers, and industry stakeholders. The goal is reliable and responsible AI systems. But there remains a lag time between the developers of AI and the end users. This is true for the building AI systems as well as for the understanding of AI in general. AI, at this point in time, may appear to be "human like" but it is still a machine. In the future, as AI continues to self learn, other much more complicated issues will need to be faced.