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Artificial intelligence, AI, has been an ongoing topic for some time now. Large corporations are investing billions. Members of various professions complain that their work could be replaced by AI. AI systems are trained using content that cannot be used for AI training due to copyright or data protection laws. AI may be a new and perhaps transient topic, but intelligence itself is and will always be an essential topic. Aspects of the various debates around AI essentially touch on the topic of intelligence itself. More than twenty years ago, on July 27, 2002, the Welt ran the headline: “Intelligence is what you measure with IQ tests”. An excerpt: “”Intelligence is what you measure with the help of intelligence tests” is the modest but unassailable definition of intelligence researcher Professor Elsbeth Stern at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. Over the years, however, this construct has proven to be extremely useful and viable. “There is no other personality trait that is as stable and unchanging as the intelligence quotient,” explains the psychologist. And her colleague Professor Jürgen Guthke from the University of Leipzig emphasizes that intelligence tests “still allow the most reliable predictions” of the many tested methods for predicting later professional success. ... However, the first intelligence tests were used around 100 years ago to identify schoolchildren with learning difficulties at an early stage. The French physician and lawyer Alfred Binet developed them in 1904 at the Sorbonne in Paris on behalf of the Ministry of Education. His test quickly spread to other European countries.” Mass, space etc. are fairly clearly defined. Grams, meters, seconds etc. can be measured fairly precisely. But intelligence is not particularly clearly defined, and the so-called “intelligence quotient” cannot be measured very precisely. So-called “intelligence tests” contain logic games, i.e. small excerpts from small areas of human thought. People with a supposedly high IQ can certainly fail at what are actually quite simple mental tasks and behave very unintelligently in everyday life. People with poor results in so-called intelligence tests can certainly make intelligent judgments and act intelligently. After all, intelligence tests can emphasize the most important element of human thinking: the recognition of truth. In order to be able to reason logically, the fact, the reality, the reality must be recognized in its essential elements. In a given set of numbers, words, images, bodies, you have to recognize some kind of pattern, some kind of structure. You have to filter out similarities and differences, you have to be able to imagine and reproduce shapes precisely. You have to be able to recognize and assess special features, you have to be able to distinguish between the essential and the non-essential. And you have to be able to do all of this in a test situation under time pressure. As questionable as intelligence tests and intelligence quotients may be, it is necessary for people to correctly recognize reality, and it is necessary for people to draw the right conclusions and logical inferences from reality. What is particularly important, less important or unimportant in a given set of things? Which characteristics of a given set of things are essential or unessential? The correct perception of reality, the correct assessment and classification of circumstances, leads to an eye for the essential. The intelligent person gets to the real issue and does not get lost in side issues, let alone in a world of deception. The intelligent person wants to recognize reality, wants to know the truth and enforce it, wants to do what comes first. He arranges and fulfills tasks according to their significance, according to their importance. What must time and money be spent on, what must time and money not be spent on, what must time and money be spent on and when.
The Christian view of man corresponds exactly to this principle of intelligence. Throughout the Holy Scriptures, the consistent statement is that man is called to the knowledge of God and to the service of God. God is the truth. Jesus Christ is the truth. His divine nature must be inferred from the miracles of Jesus, from the fulfillment of the prophecies about Jesus. The existence of God can and must be inferred from created things. Intelligence expresses itself essentially in the knowledge of God and worship of God. Anyone who refuses to recognize and worship God is a fool. He who does not want the truth is evil. The devil is the father of lies.
In this sense, every human being is obliged to be and act intelligently. It is human nature to seek and spread the truth; it is contrary to human nature to ignore and suppress the truth. It is human nature to keep one's life in order. Justice demands that we give to each his due. It is important to recognize and realize the right measure, the right order. Life is a test. Life is a test of intelligence. Once again: logic games from so-called intelligence tests only concern small sections of small areas of human thinking. However, such logic games can have a certain benefit. They can help to improve concentration, train observation skills and judgment. In order to pass the test of life, intelligence training in various disciplines is definitely important. The characteristic of human nature to seek and spread the truth is realized in the confrontation with the environment. If you want to excel in one area, be it programming, chess, mathematics or physics, you have to study it. Not everyone has to be a genius in one area. No one can be a genius in every area. Everyone needs to be clear about how much time and money they should spend on what and when. Everyone has to use their talents in the right way. No one must bury their talent, everyone must work with their talents for the glory of God. Everyone must educate themselves. Everyone must seek the truth and live in the truth. Everyone must train their intelligence. Everyone must live according to the Christian image of man. Everyone must act according to the image of God. The whole of life must be intelligently ordered according to Christian principles.
If AI training is done by disregarding copyright and data protection, this in itself is bad. It is also problematic if AI is intended to create deception, if AI perfects the pretense of false facts. AI replaces human performance with copies, AI replaces reality with illusion. Moral questions are raised here. But the slacker who thoughtlessly cheats his way through life, who wants nothing to do with the knowledge of God and worship, with work and education, is probably delighted by the idea that AI is doing his work for him and that saving human labor will also reduce the cost of living and increase prosperity. Instead of harnessing the possibilities and limits of technology for the knowledge of God and worship, AI is being misused to dehumanize. Then the dance around artificial intelligence is a disorder. The created things are overvalued, the Creator is denied due honor. The fools, the fools rejoice in such lies and deceit. Real intelligence seeks and realizes the true, the just, the divine order. Amen.
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