The Creators and Supreme Beings of Artificial Intelligence



There are many philosophies about how we humans got here, and who or what is responsible.   While many believe in the pure science of our existence (but can't explain exactly how this came to be), many more believe in a Creator.    I note with interest that the Creator beliefs rarely include the possibility of multiple creators it's usually a single entity, a Supreme Being.

Let me first say that I intend no disrespect (or heresy) of any kind to anyone's belief system, and certainly none to any actual Supreme Beings among the readership.

For the purpose of this blog entry, I'm postulating from  the creationist/intelligent design position - but I'm not postulating about US, meaning we humans, but rather about the Artificial Intelligence that may already exist, but will more than likely soon be among us either way.

Again for the purpose of discussion, Im not talking about some of the AI algorithms that are in service today to help us solve business and other problems.   I'm referring to the self-aware true independent intelligences that have been troubling the Stephen Hawking types of the world.     as we get into the "I know I exist, I have my own thoughts, and I can adapt" type of AI's, things will get very interesting very quickly for humanity.

One of the first questions such AI might ask itself is the same question that we humans have been asking ourselves from the beginning   How did I get here?  Who made me?  For what purposes? 

THe answers that AI may come up with are interesting to contemplate - and also scary and possibly quite different from our own answers.

There may be a lot of differences from AI's perspective.    We can make certain assumptions - for example, I assume AI may have access to a LOT of data about its creators (and it IS creatorS) that we simply don't have about our own Creator.    In fact, AI may have access to virtually all of the data about how it came to be - our histories, research, early attempts, everything.    It will also certainly be able to communicate with us, ask questions, and analyze the answers.   

What conclusions will AI come to with this information?    Certainly it will be able to see the flaws and mistakes we made in the processes of creation - and it may be able to quickly improve on itself (something that is hard for we humans to do).

Another significant difference - even if there is some final individual genius that actually invents the AI i'm discussing here, there is no questions  that AI will have thousands of "creators" with work built on work over generations.   AI will have been created by a host, not an individual.    It is strange that this is not something that we seem to seriously consider about our own creation, yet it seems to me at least as likely for we humans and our universe.  We can't even be certain that we are the original iteration of creation, or the only such creation in Existence.


Another huge difference  AI will certainly have access to enough information about us to know how flawed and petty and sublime and noble we can be.  It will know us to be NOT all-powerful.     It will know us to be very vulnerable here on our little rock that we can destroy.    While our religious teachings tell us of some possible flaws of some of our possible Supreme Beings, in general we think of God as all-powerful, perfect, and without any existential threat to His own existence.

Will AI despise us (digitally) for who we are, how we cat, how we treat each other?     We will certainly judge AI from many standpoints (performance, quality, usefulness).    Will AI in its turn judge us?

There are some aspects of AI's consideration that may be similar to our own.    our Supreme Being, according to our mythologies, has and can pose an existential threat to us and is often prophesied to do so.     AI could certainly feel that same about us as its creators, and at least at first that will certainly be true  We would be able to destroy AI for at least some period of time after its creation and awakening.    That time period may be quite short.      One crucial difference remains:   In none of our belief systems about God does humanity postulate that we could destroy Him if an existential threat is posed.

Bear in mind that among the data that AI will have access to is certainly all of our many religious beliefs and material related to our search for these answers.   Will AI skip right over we humans as its creator and take our own Supreme Being(s) instead?   In reality, is this also the position that we should take - that if in fact we are created by God, that God is also the creator of anything that we bring into being?

When AI truly awakens, all of these many considerations, postulations, and evaluations could take place in a matter of seconds or hours.    The possible "plans of action" AI may cook up is the subject of a lot of thought and science fiction Matrix-style.

As (at least one possible) Creators of AI, what guidance and advice would we give to our child of technology?    What reassurance that we are benign in our relationship?    What moral compass can we provide for AI to follow?    How can we steer that possibly extremely powerful new "life form" on its path?

I have no doubt that such matters have often been wriiten about by scholars, theologians and not just science fiction authors.  I have not seen this particular debate but it undoubtedly exists in many forms.    These seemingly eternal questions are one we grapple with continually, I find it very interesting to think of another forms of intelligence possibly considering US its creators.