The Round-Up (#5)
Featuring on podcasts, mind-blowing AI news and some pretty significant predictions. Merry Christmas!
Hi, everyone! Welcome to the Round-Up, fortnightly post where I’ll send you the best of what I’ve been reading and hopefully save you a bunch of time in the process.
A Christian Perspective on OpenAI, ChatGPT, and Societal Impacts
A few weeks ago, I had the chance to connect with
and Joel Jacob on their podcast What Would Jesus Tech alongside the Gospel Coalition’s Austin Gravely.I’m a big fan of chatting about artificial intelligence with anyone who will listen, but I particularly love talking about it with people who share an interest in the subject! You can watch the video below or check out the audio podcast on most standard platforms.
Food for Thought:
I don’t know much about Cathie Wood, but this was an interesting presentation about the possible exponential economic growth we may experience in light of AI. As churches, this is something to keep an eye on. Honestly, I’m not sure I’m completely convinced, but it makes for a fascinating watch nonetheless.
📰 The AI Article of the Week:
😲 AI made from living human brain cells performs speech recognition.
The headline says it all.
What. On. Earth.
Honourable mention: AI and EEG Transform Silent Thoughts to Text. 💭
The frontiers of AI and neuroscience are exciting, mind-blowing, concerning, and downright terrifying all at once. I know I prattle on about how quickly things in the AI space are developing, but AI from human brain cells?! Transforming silent thoughts to text?
It’s all happening.
Other worthwhile reads on AI
— Technologies like artificial intelligence are changing our understanding of war. 🪖
— AI as good as doctors at checking X-rays - Warwick University ⛑️
— Inventive ways people are using AI 👽
— AI-generated news anchors show off superhuman abilites 🦹
— Data poisoning: how artists are sabotaging AI to take revenge on image generators. ☠️
📕 Book Club
As it’s the end of 2023, I thought I’d list the top ten books I’ve read this year:
Human Compatible by Stuart Russell
The Contemplative Pastor by Eugene Peterson
The Case Against the Sexual Revolution by Louise Perry
From God to Us by Norman L. Geisler and William E. Nix
Effective Biblical Counselling by Larry Crabb
Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Biblical Theology in the Life of the Church by Michael Lawrence
Leading with Story by Richard W Sessoms
Hold On to Your Kids by Gordon Neufeld
It’s been a strange year for reading. Most of what I read was related to my MDiv (which I am glad to have finished), and I felt I didn’t encounter the same number of “game-changer” books as I usually do throughout the year.
I love using GoodReads to document my reading progress. If you want to see what I’ve been reading in 2023 or connect with me on the site, click the link above!
What are some of your favourite books of the year? Let me know!
Thanks so much for being a part of the Church and AI community. I’m really excited that these fairly niche articles have been viewed just shy of 2,000 times in the last month. That might seem like a small number to some, but to me, that’s staggering and significantly down to you.
I’ll be signing off until the new year, but there are some interesting things in the pipeline for 2024! Praying you have a wonderful Christmas as we celebrate the birth of our Saviour!
Blessings,
Dave Betts
Church and AI