Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Coulson Center, I'm John Stone Street. In a recent essay published at First Thing, Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri warned of the consequences of the growing presence and increasing power of artificial intelligence. According to Hawley, AI presents a moral crisis. Thus we should ensure that its destiny rests in our hands, not the other way around.
Quote, a tool of such power can serve liberty or license. It can serve our moral covenant, the freedom that lifts the worker, shelters the child, disperses opportunity to the many, or it can serve license, the freedom of the belly and the passions, the freedom of the strong to take what they can and bend the weak to their will. Holly argued that we're faced with decisions about AI that will shape the kind of society we will become. Either we will remain dedicated to the idea that all are created equal, or we will become a society in which those who control this new technology will be, quote unquote, more equal than others. As he put it, quote, in deciding how to govern this technology, we're not merely writing policy.
We're renewing or surrendering the moral basis of our life together. The covenant does not keep itself. Every generation must swear it again. Ours will swear it or break it over artificial intelligence, end quote.
Well, unlike many of the warnings that have been issued by those wary of AI, Hawley also offered a series of proposals to protect those outside the quote-unquote faculty lounge and boardroom. First, he pointed to the importance of labor. New developments should aid workers, not replace them. And the issue of work is not really about just lost wages.
So replacing earnings with a universal basic income, as some have suggested, is not the solution. As Holly put it, quote, decades of research show that meaningful work ranks alongside faith and family as one of the pillars of a happy life. We do not reach the new heights of flourishing by putting Americans on a stipend, but by honoring their labor. ⁇ A second proposal or direction from Hawley involved mitigating the demands that data centers place on local power and water. Corporate profits do not justify overwhelming a community's resources.
There has to be basic ground rules that are established, that are implemented, and that are enforced. And finally, Hawley said, children have to be protected in a way that so far they have not been. After failing miserably to protect our children online and from social media addictions, we have to do better with AI. As Hawley put it, quote, documents leaked from Meta last year showed that the company's own internal guidelines had explicitly authored sensual conversations. between its AI and minor children.
Meta approved this in writing behind closed doors. They approved it to maintain engagement, to keep their user base, to drive revenue. Look, AI is here, so hiding from it's not an option. But we owe it to ourselves and especially to our children to think through the implications and to proactively regulate ourselves, our families, our corporations, and our communities. These are the pressing concerns that are the topic of the next Great Lakes Symposium entitled Staying Human in an Age of AI.
If you live within reach of Bay Harbor, Michigan, you can join us in person or sign up for the free live stream. Learn from research fellow on AI and Faith Gretchen Hoosinga. Apologist and author Abdu Murray, and the one and only Dr. John Lennox. Join us Thursday, August the 6th at 7 p.m.
as we discuss questions like, what does it mean to be human in an age of AI? Are we replaceable? Do the promises of AI outweigh the perils? And what basic habits do we need to establish in our use? Learn more at greatlakesymposium.org.
That's greatlakesymposium.org. Today's Breakpoint was co-authored with Dr. Timothy Padgett. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, leave us a review wherever you download podcasts. And for more resources or to share this commentary with others, go to breakpoint.org.
