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Thinking about God increases acceptance of AI in decision-making

pnas.org

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Re: Thinking about God increases acceptance of AI in decision-making

#3

Post by mbork_pl »

Looks like the article is behind a paywall, so I only read the abstract, but it looks that there is a significant flaw in this study. There are really many really various religions out there, and the results _might_ depend heavily on the choice of religion. As a thought experiment, consider a fictional example religion where A.I. is treated as a god, compared to the religions of the Dune universe (where A.I. is a taboo).

Re: Thinking about God increases acceptance of AI in decision-making

#4

Post by mjburgess »

This matches my prejudices. Namely that 'thinking about god' is similar to the Eliza effect, ie., a kind of projection of consciousness onto the world.

Animals solve 'the problem of other minds' by assuming that everything is like them, ie., conscious. And then walking back from this presumption upon evidence to the contrary.

This kinda mild 'default schizophrenia' is something I've always been allergic to. (I imagine my defaults are lower than most, which no doubt runs the risk of under-valuing the actually conscious).

Nevertheless, it's one of the things that makes me most concerned about the hype around AI: I see nothing more in it than a nascent secular religion. Born "from the ground up", as all religions are, by immediate experience 'of the divine'. Ie., of that impulse to analogise the world to one's own mind.

Re: Thinking about God increases acceptance of AI in decision-making

#6

Post by keiferski »

Entirely separate from the truth value or consequences of religious belief:

I think this paper makes sense. If you think of the God concept as a kind of externalized decision-making system that enables “cognitive work” that is beyond human capabilities - or the perception of human capabilities- then acceptance of AI is a similar phenomenon.

On a similar note, I haven’t done the research myself, but I have a solid feeling that the contemplation of an infinite, eternal, etc. God-concept (as opposed to more localized polytheistic concepts) can be tied to developments in mathematics throughout history.

Re: Thinking about God increases acceptance of AI in decision-making

#8

Post by orhmeh09 »

mbork_pl wrote: post #3

Looks like the article is behind a paywall, so I only read the abstract, but it looks that there is a significant flaw in this study. There are really many really various religions out there, and the results _might_ depend heavily on the choice of religion. As a thought experiment, consider a fictional example religion where A.I. is treated as a god, compared to the religions of the Dune universe (where A.I. is a tab…

You don't need to read the article, just search online a little. It probably took you longer to write that post for me to find this: https://osf.io/fdh4m

They assess belief in god in different ways. Details are found within the 8 preregistered study PDF documents.

Re: Thinking about God increases acceptance of AI in decision-making

#9

Post by debok »

mbork_pl wrote: post #3

Looks like the article is behind a paywall, so I only read the abstract, but it looks that there is a significant flaw in this study. There are really many really various religions out there, and the results _might_ depend heavily on the choice of religion. As a thought experiment, consider a fictional example religion where A.I. is treated as a god, compared to the religions of the Dune universe (where A.I. is a tab…

I also only read the abstract.

The argument seems to be: Belief in God implies a belief in the fallibility of humans, which leads to a reduced reliance on humans and therefore increased willingness to accept AI recommendations.

Most of the logic in that argument checks out. I just don't understand the last step in the logic. How do decreased reliance on humans lead to increased willingness to accept AI?

I'm a religious person myself, and my argument would be to not trust AI all that much. It is a creation by fallible human beings trained on fallible human data.

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