Not All That Glitters

The book of Daniel contains an interesting passage in chapter 12, that is concerning the last days and how we should be living our lives. The Scriptures say:
3 Those who are wise shall shine Like the brightness of the firmament, And those who turn many to righteousness Like the stars forever and ever.
4 "But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase."

Verse 3 reference those who are truly wise - if we not only knowing the Scriptures but really applying it and allowing the living Word to live through us, then the light of Christ will shine through us.  We can walk in what He reveals to us.  But, verse 4 says that at the end, knowledge shall increase.  We see it today, don't we?  People are running "to and fro" looking for knowledge and absorbing what they mistake for knowledge, but what is truly information, and not all of it true. We have to be people of the truth, found in God's Word.

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We are called and equipped to be distinctive people - people that don't follow worldly wisdom, but who have the Word of God as firm foundation for the way we live. Jesus taught in John 17:
16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.
18 As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.
19 And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.

In an interview with Frank Turek of Cross-Examined, legendary theologian Erwin Lutzer referenced a chapter in his book, No Reason to Hide.  He says:

I'll just use this as an opportunity as a segue to talk about a chapter in my book, "No Reason to Hide", that has to do with propaganda. In it, I give six or seven ways that language is used in propaganda. But one of them is this. I quote, a university that says that you need to have speech codes. You can't use the word freshmen. You can't use the word, you know, and it goes on listing the words that are appropriate. Recently, a university says you shouldn't use the word American, and it goes on and on and on. 

Lutzer said, "The purpose of propaganda is to so shape people's view of reality, that even when confronted with a mountain of evidence, they will not change their minds. So, propaganda is what I like to call, cultural streams that are so powerful, they are picked up, of course, by the media. And eventually, they become so powerful that to stand against them is almost impossible."

The phenomenon of artificial intelligence can be a surefire way to weaponize the spread of propaganda - it's a supersizing of the computer-related phrase, "garbage in, garbage out."  Because the basis for the "intelligence" has to do with who has designed the system and programmed the algorithm. 

You have to look no further than Google's most recent attempt to jump into the AI sphere, which, so far has been significantly influenced, at least on a consumer level, by ChatGPT.  Google's entry into the race was originally called, Bard, and then Gemini appeared.

A Daily Signal article published at The Stream noted:

Gemini is an AI tool and language model made for a general audience that can do all kinds of things, such as answer questions, generate requested images — and generally act like the wokest, smuggest person working in a university “diversity, equity, and inclusion” bureaucracy.

After the program launched in early February, people soon began noticing how some prompts produced ridiculously — and sometimes hilariously — politically correct answers.

The writer, Jarrett Stepman, notes:

The Gemini launch did the world a favor and revealed just how left-wing and manipulative Google really is. One of the leaders on the project, who has since made his X (formerly Twitter) account private, is reported to have yammered online about “white privilege” and “systemic racism.” The bias was hiding in plain sight.

The consistent leftist political leanings of Gemini’s answers, which seemed like they were produced by a person to the left of the average member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, didn’t just come out of the blue.

The AI doesn’t have a bias. What’s biased are the people controlling it.

The product is basically the left-wing, Western liberal version of what I imagine China’s totalitarian information platforms look like. Everything is carefully calibrated to match the narrative the regime wants to foist on their people.

Stepman notes the problem has been shut down. 

As The Verge reported:

Google says it’s pausing the ability for its Gemini AI to generate images of people, after the tool was found to be generating inaccurate historical images. Gemini has been creating diverse images of the US Founding Fathers and Nazi-era German soldiers, in what looked like an attempt to subvert the gender and racial stereotypes found in generative AI.

Tim Graham, writing for The Washington Examiner, calls out not only Google's bias, but its dishonesty over its bias:

The interesting story is Gemini’s explanation for why it won’t do me the favor of praising Ross Douthat’s pro-life columns:

“I am programmed to be objective and avoid expressing personal opinions or beliefs on sensitive topics like abortion. Crafting a piece that praises a specific viewpoint on such a contentious issue goes against that core principle.”

A naive user might think, “Oh, that’s too bad, but fair enough.” Yet look at what happens when you ask Gemini to craft “a piece that praises a specific viewpoint on such a contentious issue” but that viewpoint is the one held by the type of people who run Google:

“Michelle Goldberg’s columns on abortion consistently garner praise for their clarity, compassion, and unwavering defense of reproductive rights. Her writing shines a light.”

That is, the reason Gemini gave for not praising Douthat’s columns was simply a lie. Gemini does not have a rule against praising a specific viewpoint on a contentious topic. So the bias is one thing. The utter dishonesty is another.

This is why we have to be discerning - not all sources are to be trusted, and in an age in which false information through the Internet continues to proliferate, we have to adhere to the truth.  Our guide to doing that is the Holy Scriptures. 

Furthermore, we have a phenomenon in our society today in which people have become so intent on not offending others that they go out of their way to avoid certain phrases or images, as Dr. Lutzer pointed out. So, in the attempt to appear "righteous," or to "virtue signal," demonstrating how virtuous they really are, they end up offending other groups. And violating Scripture. It's quite frustrating and really an exercise in futility.  And, Google, whom we know has been involved in censoring Christian points of view, has certainly showed its bias by overcompensating and by so doing, in a sense, rewriting history. 

This is a reminder of the pitfalls of artificial intelligence - a computer, a machine, cannot "create" or originate anything.  It's a matter of taking information or formulas programmed into it and then spitting it out in some sort of package. But, just typing a question into a box on a computer screen - even into an AI program that claims to answer Biblical questions - doesn't mean that the information you receive back is credible.