What MLK Can Teach Us About Morality In An AI Era
(ANALYSIS) Artificial Intelligence seems ubiquitous. Is it also omniscient? Is it our new deus ex machina, ready to rescue us, aid us, control us? Every time I turn on the computer, it wants to help me think and write. I resist.
I gather that AI is really helpful in fields such as law and medicine, organizing and providing access to hordes of information. Professional journalists, such as those who edit FaVS News, also find it useful.
Why am I among others wary of it? Maybe it’s the word “artificial” which may mean the opposite of “real.” Early novelists delighted in creating the illusion of reality through artificial means such as inventing historical documents they claimed were the sources of their fictions. Does AI give us the illusion of real intelligence? Is there such a thing as real, non-artificial, intelligence?
READ: Revisiting Martin Luther King's 'Where Do We Go from Here?’ After Half A Century
“Intelligence” is a loaded word, as I discovered when discussing with the Latah County Human Rights Task Force Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assertion that “Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education.”
I proposed that we use this assertion as a prompt in our annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Art and Essay contest, which this year focuses on the values and goals of education. “We can’t use the word ‘intelligence,’” argued a couple of Task Force members who were public school teachers. “It is too fraught,” they contended.
They explained that intelligence is identified by and with IQ (intelligence quotient), a supposedly innate trait. To judge kids by their intelligence was unfair; thus to have them consider it was troublesome.
I certainly know about IQ — I had been told when I was 12 or 13 that mine was fairly low. I certainly don’t equate it with intelligence, however, which I contend includes an ability to learn about all sorts of things in the world, and an interest in doing so; skilled educators can nurture this ability and interest in their students. Apparently King would have agreed with me. How else could the development of intelligence be a goal of true education?
Developing moral intelligence
There are other kinds of real intelligence as well. Creative intelligence, for example–the ability to draw, to dance, to sing, to play a musical instrument. … All can be taught, but our educational system currently neglects these for financial and perhaps ideological reasons. We want the products of our schools to be good consumers. AI can give good guidance. We also want these products to be able to find jobs — until AI takes these over.
When King said that character should be a goal of education, he presumably meant that moral intelligence should be developed. Everyone (except the psychopath) has a sense of morality … that’s what Jefferson meant when he declared that all men are created equal.
But how to develop moral intelligence is much debated. Some would have our schools hang copies of the Ten Commandments on the classroom walls. Others would emphasize courage and empathy. What better way to promote this latter important quality of a moral character than through the now forbidden promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion?
Can AI guide spiritual growth?
Spiritual intelligence may open up different realities. In traditional societies, religions cultivate this intelligence. Indigenous children learn about the spiritual dimension of their world and themselves as they participate in their cultures. Some other religions today promote spiritual intelligence, but some seem to squash it, so that individuals feel they need to seek it on their own. And in modern America, the majority seem to feel no need for it.
It’s no surprise that AI offers its own perspective on spirituality. To its credit, the AI summary offered on “AI and Spirituality” raises some questions, such as whether machines can possess or facilitate spiritual experiences. The possible positive roles AI may play include guiding meditation and affording access to many spiritual teachings.
I doubt, though, that AI can foster the real intelligence — mental, creative, moral, and spiritual — evinced by Martin Luther King, Jr. in his life-giving, life-sacrificing commitment to human and civil rights for all.
This piece was originally published by FaVS News.
Walter Hesford, born and educated in New England, gradually made his way West. For many years he was a professor of English at the University of Idaho, save for stints teaching in China and France. At Idaho, he taught American Literature, World Literature and the Bible as Literature. He currently coordinates an interfaith discussion group and is a member of the Latah County Human Rights Task Force and Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Moscow. He and his wife Elinor enjoy visiting with family and friends and hunting for wild flowers.