Father and Joe E436: Smarter Than Us? AI Fear, Safeguards, and What’s Real

“If the computer gets smarter than me… is that a problem?” Joe Rockey and Father Boniface Hicks tackle the fear narrative around AI by comparing it to other powerful tools (cars, planes) that required strong safeguards—not panic. They explore why AI lacks moral intuition, how optimization without ethics can harm, and why deepfakes and spoofing demand new habits of verification. The conversation lands in the three lenses: honesty about our fears (self), charity through wiser trust and presence (others), under a living relationship with God that anchors what’s real.

Key Ideas

• Power needs guardrails: like aviation checklists and redundancies, AI calls for safety, oversight, and clear human control.
• Limits of machines: AI optimizes; it doesn’t intuit, repent, or take responsibility—persons do.
• Edge cases matter: “no-win” moments (e.g., deer vs. car) reveal why human moral criteria must shape algorithms.
• Deception risk: voice/video/text imitation raises the bar for validation; adopt healthy skepticism and confirm identity more often.
• Back to reality: prioritize embodied relationships and parish life; let the Church help form attention, virtue, and trust.

Links & References
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Father and Joe, Joe Rockey, Father Boniface Hicks, artificial intelligence, AI fear, safety and safeguards, aviation analogy, self-driving cars, edge cases, moral intuition, ethics, deepfakes, identity verification, phishing, deception, truth, discernment, prudence, attention, presence, relationships, parish life, Church, spiritual formation, responsibility, human dignity, technology as tool, relationship with God, relationship with self, relationship with others, Benedictine spirituality, Catholic podcast, practical spirituality