Jason Thacker's Blog, page 20
March 3, 2020
Why we need a statement of principles for artificial intelligence
In early 2018, Google was under intense pressure from its own employees to drop a contract with the U.S. Department of Defense. Google was working with the DoD on an artificial intelligence (AI) systems called Project Maven, which uses AI to process video data captured by drones for use in identifying potential targets for future engagement. Employees at Googleprotestedtheir involvement in this program and how it might be used by the military in combat situations. Employees claimed that they...
March 1, 2020
My new book on artificial intelligence
I am excited to announce that The Age of AI: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity is available to purchase tomorrow at most major book retailers!
Technology is behind nearly everything that we do. Driving these technological marvels is artificial intelligence. Often when I talk about AI, I hear one of two reactions. Most people are either fearful of AI or apathetic to its influence in our society.
Famed computer scientist and futurist, Ray Kurzweil says in his book How to Create...
February 26, 2020
What Google knows about being human
with Josh Wester
In our digital age, one thing that seems to mark the conclusion of every year is the abundance of “best of” lists making the rounds on the internet. These lists chronicle everything from the best books of the year, to the best movies, songs, cars, employers and evenviral videos. As more-than-casual observers of culture, we find these lists fascinating and insightful because of the picture they offer us of the world we live in. And from these lists, we can discern not only the...
February 23, 2020
Artificial Intelligence Could Change the Human Body as We Know It
In the fall of 2018, Elon Musk made headlines once again. This time it wasn’t about his commercial rocket company, SpaceX, or his popular electric car company, Tesla. During an interview with Axios, a popular news service, Musk, referencing Darwin’s theory of evolution, declared that humanity must merge with AI in order to avoid becoming like the monkeys, which humans surpassed in complexity and might.
Musk’s plan for humanity includes adding a chip into our heads to upgrade our mental...
February 18, 2020
Toxic Culture and Human Dignity: Speaking Sanity into Christian Citizenship
A version of this article first appeared in the Evangelical Press Association’s spring issue of Liaison
From the debates over abortion and religious liberty to presidential elections and international conflicts, every day seems to bring about new battle lines and harden consciences. It is easier than ever to treat the “other” side of a debate or ballot box as our enemy. Twenty-four hour
cable news networks are often more partisan than balanced, and social media has exacerbated this problem...
February 16, 2020
How the dreams of robot pastors reveal a deficiency in the church
My wife and I love our local church. But since my wife began her chemotherapy treatments for Hodgkin’s lymphoma late last fall, we haven’t been able to join on Sunday mornings for worship. Instead, we have the blessing of watching the Sunday sermon on our television while our toddlers run free in the playroom. This is not the ideal option for us, but we would rather have this than nothing.
While many people debate the use of technology in the life of a local church (and for good reason), no...
February 9, 2020
What a Google commercial teaches us about the purpose of technology
Search bars are a technological marvel. Through them, we can search the limits of the world. We can see the seven wonders or learn of breaking news as it is happening. We can find more information in seconds than most people in human history had access to in their lifetimes. But search bars also expose some of our most personal and intimate moments, as you search for how to overcome infertility or even cancer. During the Super Bowl, Google ran one of themost powerful ads about the use of...
February 5, 2020
How deepfakes erode trust
One of the most powerful and frightening developments in technology as of late is the deepfake. From government leadersgraspinghow to handle these fake videos to corporations like Facebook seeking to minimize their distribution online through content moderation, deepfakes are beginning to take hold in our society, and not for good. Well-known leaders likeHouse Speaker Nancy PelosiandFacebook CEO Mark Zuckerberghave already fallen prey to these...
February 2, 2020
Explainer: 5G Networks, China, and Huawei
It seems that everything about our lives is tied in some way to the internet and technology. Without these tools, our economy would be stifled, our national security would be weakened, and our communication with families and friends would be hampered. The internet drives so much of our lives.
Gone are the days of 14.4 and 28.8 kbit/s dial up internet of my youth. Our modern technologies have increasingly become dependent on mobile networks with blazing speeds. As our communities become more...
January 29, 2020
How deepnudes reveal the pornifcation of technology
What if there was some type of technology that would allow you to undress any person you desired? Snap a picture, and then see them naked. For four days in June 2019, there was an app for that. DeepNude, created by a developer from Estonia, sought todigitally “undress”images of women using a form of artificial intelligence (AI) to recreate the body without clothes, similar to the concept used to createdeepfake videos. While the app did not show the actual nude body of the victim, it created a...
